About three-quarters of Pompeii's 165 acres have been excavated, and some 1,150 bodies have been discovered out of about 2,000 thought to have died in the city when it was destroyed. This means that the vast majority of the city of 20,000 fled at the first signs of the volcanic activity.

When visiting Pompeii in 2026, you can view approximately 100 to 150 plaster casts of victims, though they are distributed across various locations. It is a common misconception that there are thousands of "bodies" on display; while over 1,000 sets of human remains have been found, only a fraction were suitable for the casting process developed by Giuseppe Fiorelli in 1863. The most haunting and concentrated display is in the Garden of the Fugitives, where 13 casts of adults and children are positioned exactly where they fell while trying to escape the ash. Other significant sites include the Forum Granaries, which serves as an open-storage museum housing dozens of casts alongside ancient artifacts, and the Piazza Anfiteatro, where a smaller collection is displayed in glass cases. In 2026, new technology has allowed archaeologists to create even more detailed 3D-scanned reconstructions, some of which are displayed in the on-site Antiquarium. These "bodies" are not the actual remains but plaster molds created by pouring liquid into the hollow cavities left by decomposed flesh in the hardened volcanic ash, perfectly preserving the victims' final, desperate gestures and even the folds of their clothing.