Pompeii temple damaged by heavy rains
The Temple of Venus and walls of a tomb and shop in the long-neglected ruins of Pompeii near Naples have been damaged, possibly due to heavy rain, officials said. Custodians found that a two-metre wall of an ancient shop in the ruined city - which had recently been restored - had collapsed under the weight of another wall that crumbled onto it. It followed the discovery yesterday that parts of an archway in the temple had fallen off and a wall in the necropolis - the biggest in the ancient Roman city - had tumbled down. The areas affected have been closed the public. Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini has called a meeting this week to assess the damage and progress made in an EU-backed project to restore the archaeological site. "The news of these collapses comes at a time in which there is an unprecedented vacuum in the management of Pompeii," said Antonio Irlando from the Cultural Heritage Observatory, a non-governmental group that follows work on ...