Introduction

Pompeii: The Eternal City

Among all the lost ancient civilisations, there lies a once lively city that has abruptly vanished, as if frozen in time—the ruins of Pompeii, located in what is now the Vesuvius region of Naples, Italy. This ancient city was once the radiant pearl of commerce where the essence of Mediterranean civilisation converged. From the 8th century B.C. when the Oscans sowed the seeds of civilisation here, to its alliance with Greek city-states, and later its rise as a glittering “pride” of the Roman Empire, its story came to an abrupt end, forever frozen in the year A.D.79.

In that year, Mount Vesuvius erupted, an unprecedented catastrophe that brought Pompeii to a sudden standstill. As the smoke and flames rose to the sky and the erupting volcanic detritus covered the entire city, over 20,000 inhabitants fled in panic, faced a fleeting yet agonising eternity—time itself stretched between an instant and forever.

Pliny the Elder, an encyclopedic scholar of ancient Rome, was an eyewitness to this disaster. His firsthand accounts, preserved through the ages, now serve as a crucial counterpart to the “buried evidence” unearthed by archaeologists some 1,700 years later. Together, they have unveiled the “time capsule” of Pompeii that had been frozen for a thousand years.

Stepping through the museum’s window to the world, travelling beyond the limits of time and space, we invite you to join us on a cultural journey to a foreign land. We navigate the river of history to encounter Pompeii, to touch the profound wisdom of life between agony and compassion, and to feel the reverence and love in this eternal realm.