Frozen in volcanic silence for nearly two millennia, the Forum of Pompeii stares back at the camera in this extraordinary albumen-print carte de visite — one of the earliest photographic records of the excavated city, captured circa 1865. The Temple of Jupiter's Corinthian columns rise dramatically against a bleached Italian sky, while two figures in dark Victorian overcoats stand and sit among the ancient paving stones, providing haunting human scale to the ruins; a third figure is barely visible at the temple podium. The handwritten caption in flowing Italian script reads Pompei — Tempio Jupiter, and the blank reverse bears no publisher imprint, suggesting an early independent photographer working in the Naples region during the nascent era of tourist photography — likely one of the Sommer, Brogi, or Alinari studios that dominated the trade. The albumen print is mounted on a standard CDV card with characteristic rounded corners and shows beautiful warm sepia tones with excellent tonal range for the period.