Porta Marina And The City Walls
(Taken From Official Guidebook)
Similar to a bastion, facing west, together with Porta Ercolano it is the most imposing of the seven gates of Pompeii. It takes its name from the fact that its road led to the sea. It has two barrel arches (round arch opening), later combined into a single, large barrel vault in opus caementicium. The ring of walls visible today,already present in the 6th cent. BC, is over three, 3,200 m long: it is generally a solid ring of wall, protected on the outside by a moat and inside by an embankment, atop which runs the patrol walkway. Twelve towers to the north, where the flat ground made Pompeii more vulnerable, also ensured its defense. Pompeii’s definitive entry into the Roman orbit (with the Sullan colonization: 80 BC) reduced the importance of the walls which were occasionally reused or destroyed to make room for houses and baths.
