Skift Take
Tourism is a mixed blessing for sites like this that rely on the revenue for conservation efforts, but also undergo heavy wear and tear from tours in addition to natural forces of deterioration.
The Italian news agency ANSA says a wall at the Pompeii archeological site has collapsed following days of heavy rain.
The collapse Friday of a two-meter (six-foot) section of wall in an area closed to tourists is the latest in a series that has raised concern about the state of the cultural treasure. In 2010, a 2,000-year-old house collapsed in the ancient Roman city that was once used by gladiators to train before combat.
The Italian government and the European Commission last spring announced a project to spend €105 million ($136 million) to secure the Pompeii site.
Some 3 million people each year visit the ancient city south of Naples that was destroyed in A.D. 79 by a volcanic eruption from Mount Vesuvius.
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Tags: history, italy, monuments
Photo credit: Some 3 million people visit Pompeii each year. Glen Scarborough / Flickr.com