--- title: "Tower III 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/tower-iii-city-walls" date: "2026-09-15T08:47:24+00:00" language: "en-GB" --- # Tower III and the City Walls **Tower III** forms part of the defensive system of Pompeii’s city walls and stands in the south-eastern sector of the city, east of **Nocera Gate** and south of the Large Palaestra. The structure occupied a projecting position in the fortifications from which the southern stretch of the walls and the ground outside the city could be monitored. The tower belonged to the system of **twelve defensive towers** distributed around Pompeii’s wall circuit. Their addition is associated with the major strengthening of the fortifications in the early **1st century BC**, during a period of growing instability that culminated in the siege of Pompeii by the Roman army of Lucius Cornelius Sulla in 89 BC. Archaeological research has documented substantial alterations to the defences during this phase, and even traces left by carts used to transport war machines along the walls. Like the other towers of this phase, **Tower III** originally had several levels. Archaeological reconstructions indicate a **three-storey** structure, supported by barrel vaults and linked by internal staircases at the rear. Side openings provided access to the wall walk, while a small postern opening outside the fortifications was normally present on the lowest level. The surviving remains mainly reveal the lower part of the tower and portions of its enclosing walls. The tower was directly connected to the defensive curtain wall, forming a single system that allowed the defenders to move along the walls and survey the ground immediately outside the city from above. The traces of **ancient repairs** visible in the masonry are particularly interesting. Work in **opus vittatum mixtum** appears in the surviving corners of the main chamber, while the western wall also has an area repaired with brickwork. These building techniques belong to a later phase than the original structure and attest to the work carried out on the tower over the course of its history. Amedeo Maiuri believed that **Towers III, IV and V** had been severely damaged by the great earthquake that struck Pompeii in AD 62 and that their upper levels had never been rebuilt. More recent studies have refined this interpretation: some of the opus vittatum mixtum masonry in Tower III appears to belong to repairs carried out **after the earthquake**, demonstrating that at least some repair work was undertaken. A small patch of **plaster** surviving on the repaired masonry also indicates that the work involved renewing the surfaces as well as stabilising the structure. It is therefore possible that, between the earthquake and the eruption of AD 79, efforts were being made to restore at least part of a tower that had by then lost much of its original military role. Following the Roman conquest and the foundation of Sulla’s colony in **80 BC**, Pompeii’s defensive system gradually lost its strategic importance. The walls continued to mark the city’s physical boundary, but some sectors were altered, repaired or put to new uses, while urban development began to encroach upon the ancient fortifications at several points. The position of Tower III reveals particularly clearly the relationship between the walls and the suburban landscape. Immediately outside lay the funerary area associated with the **Necropolis of Nocera Gate**, while to the east the circuit continued towards the next towers and the Amphitheatre area. Excavations and studies undertaken in the 20th century documented this stretch of the fortifications in detail. In **1939**, measured drawings of Tower III and the curtain wall south of the Palaestra were published. This documentation remains important for reconstructing the appearance of the structures before certain modern interventions. **Tower III and the city walls** therefore provide significant evidence of the long development of Pompeii’s fortifications. The structure preserves elements of the major defensive system built before Sulla’s siege, as well as traces of the repairs and alterations carried out when the walls had already lost their original military function. ![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 titlePlacemark70800000000000 = "Tower III and the City Walls"; var latlng70800000000000 = L.latLng(40.74995, 14.49439); map\_bounds\_com\_content\_article\_708\_0\_8\_map.extend(latlng70800000000000); var contentString70800000000000 = ""; contentString70800000000000 = '' + '### '+ 'Tower III 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/tower-iii-city-walls "Article")'+ ' '+ ' '+ ' '+ ' '; var marker70800000000000 = L.marker(latlng70800000000000, {icon: L.icon({ iconUrl: icoIcon + "pompei-marker-cerchio-blu-bordo-bianco-18.png", iconSize: \[18, 18\], iconAnchor: \[9,18\]}) , draggable: false, title:"Tower III and the City Walls" }); 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