Ruins of Pompeii and Vesuvius. Image: Silar / Wikimedia Commons. Source.
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Nearly two thousand years ago, Pompeii was a busy Roman city near the Bay of Naples in Italy. People lived in houses, visited shops and markets, went to public baths and watched entertainment. Above the city stood Mount Vesuvius. In AD 79, the volcano erupted violently. A huge cloud of ash, rock and gas rose into the sky. Ash began falling on Pompeii, covering streets and buildings. Some residents escaped, but others stayed or could not leave in time. Later, extremely hot clouds of gas and volcanic material rushed down the mountain. Pompeii was buried and eventually disappeared from everyday memory. Centuries passed. In the 1700s, large-scale excavations began to uncover the lost city. Archaeologists found buildings, paintings, household objects and even ancient graffiti. Empty spaces in the hardened ash showed where some victims had died. Researchers later filled some of these spaces with plaster, creating casts that preserved the shapes of bodies. Pompeii gives historians an unusual picture of ordinary Roman life because so much of the city was suddenly covered and preserved.
