The physical layout of Pompeii was a lot like that of a modern day city. If you were to look at Pompeii from a bird’s eye view you would see a grid pattern. Like many of our streets today, the width of each street in Pompeii quite often varied. The streets of pompeii ranged from 8 feet to 23 feet wide, some streets only wide enough to let a donkey loaded with baskets pass through, and others, accessorized with high pavements and gutters, that could let multiple carts and people pass through all at one time.

Because of this layout, houses were divided into blocks known as insulae. Larger houses could take up entire blocks, but most insulae had a few houses. These houses usually contained elegant gardens, statues, fountains and many columns.