The Palaestra is a large square area located southwest of the Amphitheatre and was built in the time of Augustus Caesar. Here, people of Pompei came for athletic games and sport with the Palaestra acting as a gymnasium and a place to instruct the young men in the Augustan principles. The centre had a great swimming pool with a depth sloping from 3 feet to 8 feet and which had two rows of trees to offer shade from the sun. Part of the roots of these trees can still be seen. The Palaestra was excavated between 1936 and 1951.
