--- title: "Marina Gate, Tower XIII and the City Walls - Pompeii Online" description: "The ancient city of Pompeii: Information on visiting hours, tickets, guides, online tickets, tourist itineraries, news and much more." url: "https://www.pompeionline.net/en/buildings-and-places/suburban-area/marina-gate-tower-xiii-city-walls" date: "2026-09-15T08:48:56+00:00" language: "en-GB" --- # Marina Gate, Tower XIII and the City Walls **Marina Gate**, on the western side of Pompeii, is one of the ancient city’s most monumental entrances. Resembling a massive bastion built on the edge of the plateau, it connected the urban centre with the lower ground and the area facing the sea. This function gave rise to its modern name, Porta Marina, while its ancient name is not known with certainty. The Archaeological Park’s official maps also mark **Tower XIII** beside the gate complex. The position of the gate was determined by Pompeii’s distinctive natural topography. The city stood on an ancient volcanic plateau above the surrounding plain, and access from the west required a steep climb. The road from outside therefore ascended through the fortified complex and continued as **Via Marina**, soon reaching the Sanctuary of Venus, the Sanctuary of Apollo and the Forum. The appearance of Marina Gate today dates mainly to the period of **Sulla’s colony, around 80 BC**, when the entrance was extensively remodelled. Its defining feature is a long passage covered by a **barrel vault of Roman concrete**, set within a massive structure that gives the gate the appearance of a substantial tower. One of its most distinctive features is the presence of **two adjacent passages of different sizes**. The taller, wider main archway accommodated pack animals and vehicles using the road. The smaller passage, set further forward and following a separate route, was reserved for pedestrians. This separation allowed traffic to be managed more safely on a particularly steep road. The main passage ran through the full depth of the fortified structure and led directly to **Via Marina**. Its steep gradient makes clear how demanding the connection was between the city on the plateau and the lower ground outside. Despite this, the gate was a vital route to the western sector and the roads leading towards the coast. During 19th-century excavations at the gate, fragments of a **terracotta statue of Minerva** were found in an external niche. The presence of the goddess at a city entrance has parallels at other Pompeian gates and attests to the religious and symbolic importance assigned to places of passage between the city and the surrounding territory. Gates were therefore more than practical or defensive structures: they could also provide ritual protection for the urban space. Marina Gate formed part of the extensive system of **Pompeii’s city walls**, developed through numerous construction phases. The surviving circuit extended for more than **3,200 metres**, and its origins date back at least to the 6th century BC. Over the centuries, the fortifications were progressively altered until they took the form of a double curtain wall, reinforced on the inside by an earthwork and equipped with a wall walk. During the final phases of the Samnite city, the defences were strengthened further by the construction of **twelve quadrangular towers**, concentrated mainly in the northern and eastern sectors, where the terrain offered less natural protection. These structures belong to the phase immediately before the Social War and the siege conducted by the troops of Lucius Cornelius Sulla in 89 BC. The designation **Tower XIII**, shown on the official maps near Marina Gate, must be distinguished from this group of twelve defensive towers. The western gate complex has a distinctive form, resembling a large bastion, and the numbering on the maps does not necessarily imply the existence of a thirteenth tower belonging to the same phase and architectural type as Towers I–XII. It is therefore preferable to regard Marina Gate and Tower XIII as parts of the same monumental complex. The military importance of the walls declined rapidly after the Roman conquest and the foundation of Sulla’s colony in **80 BC**. With Pompeii firmly integrated into the Roman political system, the fortifications lost much of the function for which they had been built. Some stretches were altered, incorporated into houses or even demolished to allow urban buildings to expand. Marina Gate, however, continued to serve as an important entrance to the city. Nearby stood some of the most significant complexes in the western sector, including the **Sanctuary of Venus**, built on the edge of the plateau overlooking the landscape, and the **Suburban Baths**, outside the walls. The gate thus formed a link between the city’s monumental area and the buildings that developed beyond the fortified circuit. Systematic excavations of Marina Gate took place in the second half of the 19th century. The Park’s official guide lists the campaigns of **1862–1863**, although the first investigations in the area had begun in the immediately preceding years. Uncovering the entrance also contributed to the creation of one of the main modern routes into the excavations. Today, **Porta Marina Superiore** remains one of the main entrances to the Archaeological Park of Pompeii. Visitors passing through the gate therefore follow essentially the same monumental passage used in antiquity to reach the western part of the city. **Marina Gate, Tower XIII and the city walls** therefore form one of the most significant complexes for understanding the relationship between Pompeii and its surrounding territory. The monumental vaulted passage, the two separate routes, the successive phases of the fortifications and the commanding position on the western edge of the plateau document the transformation of a system created for defence into a major urban entrance of Roman Pompeii. ![Loading...](https://www.pompeionline.net/components/com_zhosmmap/assets/utils/loading.gif) [View this location on the Pompeii Buildings and Places map](https://www.pompeionline.net/en/buildings-and-places) '+ ' '; var titlePlacemark71700000000000 = "Marina Gate, Tower XIII and the City Walls"; var latlng71700000000000 = L.latLng(40.748509, 14.483085); map\_bounds\_com\_content\_article\_717\_0\_8\_map.extend(latlng71700000000000); var contentString71700000000000 = ""; contentString71700000000000 = '' + '### '+ 'Marina Gate, Tower XIII and the City Walls'+ ' '+ ''+ ''+ ' '+ ''+ ''+ ''+ '[![Article](https://www.pompeionline.net/components/com_zhosmmap/assets/utils/article.png)](https://www.pompeionline.net/en/buildings-and-places/suburban-area/marina-gate-tower-xiii-city-walls "Article")'+ ' '+ ' '+ ' '+ ' '; 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