Photo: Getty Images
Tourists in Rome will be able to visit the site where Julius Caesar was believed to have been assassinated in 44 B.C. The site is known as the Sacred Area of Largo di Torre, Argentina, and consists of four ancient Roman temples and the room where Caesar was killed.
While Shakespeare wrote that Caesar was stabbed in the back by his friend Brutus in the forum, historians said that Caeser was actually assassinated in the Curia of Pompey, which was a large meeting hall where Roman senators would occasionally meet.
After the assassination, Emperor Augustus declared the hall a "cursed place" and ordered it to be walled up. Now, all that's left is some limestone rocks and bricks scattered along the ground.
Tourists "may have a hard time imagining this because the Shakespearean drama induces you to think that the murder was in the forum," archaeologist Monica Ceci, who oversees the site, told The New York Times.
The temples were discovered during excavations in the late 1920s and were not accessible to the public. Now, thanks to the help of luxury jeweler Bulgari, the site has been renovated to allow tourists to explore it.
"It's amazing, you get such a feeling of ancient time here," Ceci said. "They've done a great job of conserving the site."