The Buried City: Unearthing the Real Pompeii

The internationally bestselling behind-the-scenes tour of Pompeii

Pompeii reveals a whole world, frozen in time. It is a unique record of the catastrophe that destroyed the city on 24th August, 79 there are unmade beds, dishes left drying, bodies of victims encased in ash. Alongside the remnants of daily life, there are also captivating works of lifelike portraits, exquisite frescos and mosaics, and the sculpture of a sleeping boy curled up, just as children still do today when their blanket is too short. But this is only the beginning of what we know about Pompeii - remarkably a third of the site remains unexcavated.

In The Buried City, the director of Pompeii, Gabriel Zuchtriegel takes us on a behind-the-scenes tour of the city and reveals the new artefacts and remains that are now being unearthed in the biggest dig of the site in a generation. He reconstructs Pompeii as it would have been, revealing who lived here, what mattered to them and what happened in their final hours, while also reflecting on our role as keepers of this heritage.

The Buried City gives us a vivid sense of what Pompeii means for us today, connecting us to a past that is much closer than we think.