Stabiae

Stabiae was an ancient town on the Bay of Naples, originally settled by Oscan-speaking peoples and destroyed by Sulla in 89 BC during the Social War. It was rebuilt as a luxurious Roman resort, with massive seaside villas stretching 1.8 km along cliffs overlooking the bay -- the largest concentration of well-preserved elite Roman villas in the Mediterranean. Buried under 14 meters of volcanic debris during the 79 AD eruption of Vesuvius, where Pliny the Elder perished, the site was first excavated in 1749. Villa Arianna, the oldest structure, features the famous fresco of Dionysus saving Ariadne.