Unearthing the Real Pompeii with Gabriel Zuchtriegel, Director General of the Archaeological Park in Pompeii

'The best book on Pompeii I've ever read' ~ STEPHEN FRY

Gabriel Zuchtriegel is Director General of the archaeological park in Pompeii and is currently overseeing the biggest dig of the site of Pompeii in a generation.

Gabriel studied classical archaeology at the Humboldt University in Berlin and received his PhD from the University of Bonn. In 2015, he became director of the Paestum archaeological park and museum, before being appointed at Pompeii in February 2021.

Gabriel joins us to talk on The Buried City: Unearthing the Real Pompeii. In this revelatory history, Gabriel shares the new secrets of Pompeii. Over the last few years, a vast stretch of the city has been excavated for the first time. Now, drawing on these astonishing discoveries, The Buried City reveals the untold human stories that are at last emerging.

This is Pompeii, as you've never seen it before.

Pompeii is a world frozen in time. There are unmade beds, dishes left drying, tools abandoned by workmen, bodies embracing with love and fear. And alongside the remnants of everyday life, there are captivating works of art: lifelike portraits, exquisite frescos and mosaics, and the extraordinary sculpture of a sleeping boy, curled up under a blanket that's too small.

The Buried City reconstructs the catastrophe that destroyed Pompeii on 24 August 79 CE, but it also offers a behind-the-scenes tour of the city as it was before: who lived here, what mattered to them, and what happened in their final hours. It offers us a vivid sense of Pompeii's continuing relevance, and proves that ancient history is much closer to us than we think.

'A brilliant account of the latest discoveries at Pompeii and a deeply personal celebration of the inherent fascination of antiquity.' ~ TOM HOLLAND, author of PAX and DOMINION

'Fantastic! Hugely informative, clever, thoughtful and playful.' ~ NATALIE HAYNES, author of DIVINE MIGHT and PANDORA'S JAR