Pompeii may have begun with a little Oscan town planted in what became its south-western corner, near the Water-Gate and the Forum, within the area of Regions II and IV.

Here is a little network of streets, about 300 by 400 yds.

across (25 acres), which harmonizes ill with the streets in the rest of the town, which lies close to the river-haven on the Sarno, which includes the Forum and Basilica--probably the oldest public sites, though not the oldest surviving structures, in Pompeii--and which is large enough to have formed the greater part or even the whole of a prehistoric city.

The earliest building as yet excavated at Pompeii, the Doric Temple, with its precinct now known as the Forum Triangulare, stood on the edge of this area looking out from its high cliff over the plain of the Sarno.
Originally this Temple may have stood just within the first town-wall, or perhaps just without it, sheltered by the precipice which it crowns.

This area has all the appearance of an 'Altstadt'.