Pompeii
Pompei, Italy
Pompeii is the Roman town that Vesuvius buried in AD 79 and excavators have been uncovering since 1748.
687 tickets & tours
By civilisation
Roman ruins and sites to visit
The Romans grew from a city-state on the Tiber into an empire that by the 2nd century AD reached from Hadrian’s Wall to the Euphrates, and they built to familiar plans wherever they went. A visitor meets forums and basilicas, temples, baths with their underfloor heating, theatres and amphitheatres, aqueducts, roads, walls and gates, and the houses of the rich with mosaic floors and painted walls. Where volcanic ash or desert sand covered a town, whole streets survive.
Italy 36Spain 14France 9United Kingdom 5Tunisia 5Croatia 4Turkey 4Bulgaria 4Portugal 4Germany 3Egypt 3Greece 3
Greek Sites 63Egyptian Sites 15Near Eastern Sites 25Maya Sites 34Mesoamerican Sites 16Andean Sites 33Prehistoric Sites 35Asian Sites 13Other Ancient Sites 15
Colosseum
Rome, Italy
The Colosseum is the largest amphitheatre the Romans ever built, an oval of travertine about 189 metres long that held…
349 tickets & tours
Roman Forum and Palatine
Rome, Italy
The Roman Forum is the valley between the Palatine and Capitoline hills where ancient Rome held its elections, trials,…
162 tickets & tours
Herculaneum
Ercolano, Italy
Herculaneum is the seaside Roman town that the eruption of Vesuvius buried under some 20 metres of volcanic flow in AD…
138 tickets & tours
Jerash
Jerash, Jordan
Jerash, the Roman city of Gerasa, is one of the best preserved provincial towns of the Roman Empire, 48 km north of…
44 tickets & tours
Appian Way
Rome, Italy
The Appian Way is the Roman road begun in 312 BC from Rome towards southern Italy, and its first 16 km out of the city…
36 tickets & tours
Diocletian’s Palace
Split, Croatia
Diocletian's Palace is the retirement residence that the Roman emperor Diocletian built on the shore at Split…
31 tickets & tours
Volubilis
Moulay Idriss, Morocco
Volubilis is the best-preserved Roman town in Morocco, spread across a ridge below the Zerhoun hills between Meknes and…
29 tickets & tours
Aspendos
Serik, Turkey
Aspendos, 45 km east of Antalya, has the best-preserved Roman theatre in the world, built around AD 155 by the local…
21 tickets & tours
Verona Arena
Verona, Italy
The Verona Arena is a Roman amphitheatre of the early 1st century AD, built before the Colosseum and still used for…
21 tickets & tours
Ostia Antica
Rome, Italy
Ostia Antica is the ancient port of Rome at the old mouth of the Tiber, 25 km from the centre of Rome, preserved by…
19 tickets & tours
Roman Baths, Bath
Bath, United Kingdom
The Roman Baths in Bath are the remains of the temple and bathing complex that grew around a hot spring in the town of…
18 tickets & tours
Salona
Solin, Croatia
Salona is the ruined capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia, in the town of Solin 6 km from Split, and one of the…
17 tickets & tours
Baths of Caracalla
Rome, Italy
The Baths of Caracalla are the ruins of the huge public baths opened in Rome in AD 216, covering about 15 hectares…
16 tickets & tours
Dougga
Téboursouk, Tunisia
Dougga is the Roman town of Thugga on a hillside in northern Tunisia, about two hours south-west of Tunis, and UNESCO…
16 tickets & tours
Hadrian’s Villa (Villa Adriana)
Tivoli, Italy
Hadrian's Villa, below Tivoli about 30 km east of Rome, is the vast country palace that the emperor Hadrian built…
13 tickets & tours
Hadrian’s Wall
Hexham, United Kingdom
Hadrian's Wall is the Roman frontier that ran 117 km across northern England from the Tyne to the Solway Firth,…
12 tickets & tours
Circus Maximus
Rome, Italy
The Circus Maximus is the valley between the Palatine and Aventine hills in Rome where chariot races were held for more…
9 tickets & tours
Italica
Santiponce, Spain
Italica is the Roman city founded by Scipio in 206 BC on the edge of today's Santiponce, 9 km north-west of…
9 tickets & tours
Pont du Gard
Vers-Pont-du-Gard, France
The Pont du Gard is the three-tiered Roman aqueduct bridge over the river Gardon near Remoulins in southern France,…
9 tickets & tours
Villa Oplontis
Torre Annunziata, Italy
Villa Oplontis, also known as the Villa of Poppaea, is a vast Roman seaside villa in Torre Annunziata, buried by…
9 tickets & tours
Zaghouan Aqueduct
Mohamedia, Tunisia
The Zaghouan Aqueduct is the Roman water line that carried spring water from the mountains of Zaghouan to Carthage, 132…
9 tickets & tours
Bulla Regia
Jendouba, Tunisia
Bulla Regia is a Roman town in north-western Tunisia, near Jendouba, famous for houses built partly underground to…
7 tickets & tours
Caesarea
Caesarea, Israel
Caesarea National Park on Israel's coast, halfway between Tel Aviv and Haifa, preserves the port city Herod the…
6 tickets & tours
The catalogue’s 105 Roman sites span 21 countries. Italy has 36, with 13 in Rome and seven around the Bay of Naples; Spain has 14, led by Mérida, Italica and Tarragona; France has nine in Provence and the Rhône valley, at Nîmes, Arles, Orange, Lyon and Vienne. Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria add eight, Britain five, and Croatia, Turkey, Portugal and Bulgaria four each.
Pompeii comes first for everyday Roman life: arrive at opening and allow at least half a day. Herculaneum keeps upper floors and wooden doors, and in Rome the Colosseum, Forum and Palatine share one timed ticket. Further afield, Jerash has a colonnaded street some 800 metres long, Aspendos the best-preserved Roman theatre with its stage wall at full height, the Pont du Gard the tallest surviving aqueduct bridge, and the Villa Romana del Casale 3,500 square metres of mosaics in place.