After some years of neglect, the splendid archaeological site of Herculaneum, buried along with Pompeii in the Etna eruption of 79 AD, is being given a new lease of life through the efforts of the Special Superintendent for Archaeology in Naples and Pompeii, the British School and the Packard Humanities Institute. Sponsor, American  entrepreneur David Packard, has invested 15 million in the Herculaneum Conservation Project.

The first results have been the restoration of a number of the towns streets, including  the main thoroughfare, the Decumanus Maximus, which are now once more open to the public.

Archaeologists are hoping next to reopen the aristocratic House of the Telephus Relief and to create a route connecting it to the Villa of the Papyri, believed to have belonged to Julius Caesars father-in-law and celebrated for the discovery of a library containing 1,800 papyrus scrolls.

Thanks to the project, two-thirds of the ancient site are expected to be made available to the public by the end of 2012.