One of the most dramatic evidences of what happened on that tragic day in 79 AD, with the casts of the bodies of the victims of the eruption.
During the excavations in this area (1961-62 and 1973-74) the bodies of 13 victims were found, as they were attempting to save themselves heading towards Porta Nocera. It is now possible to see them thanks to technique of casting plaster invented by archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli. Nowadays these casts are visible in the exact position in which they were found: therefore the bodies of these adults, youth and children, probably family groups, reveal themselves to us in their last gestures of life, making us experience the tragedy that was taking place under the rain of ash and lapilli .