Pompeii 79AD

                     

Disaster: Volcano's eruption destroys Pompeii
Date: Aug 24-25, 79
Deaths: Over 2,000
Residents: 20,000
Eruption lasted: Around 20 hrs
Interesting facts: Figures of humans in their final moments along with the city walls and streets are still there today.


Photo from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompeii

Check out this cool video of Pompeii
http://www.history.com/topics/pompeii/videos#pompeii-deconstructed

In the year of 79AD Vesuvius, an angry volcano, near the Bay of Naples Italy erupted. Huge amounts of ash and pumice were sent up 10 miles into the atmosphere before raining down on the city of Pompeii. People ran for their lives, but 70miles per hour toxic clouds caught up to them. Due to the clouds of ash being over 1,000 degrees, victims were instantly killed.

The city of Pompeii was covered in 14 to 17 feet of ash, preserving the people, buildings and even bread. As centuries went by Pompeii was forgotten. In the year of 1748 the buried city was re-discovered. Due to ash being easy to brush off archaeologists have uncovered and learned a great deal about life 2,000 years. Findings of 2,000 bodies in certain positions of people's last moments has brought Pompeii global attention.

Another city was also destroyed by Vesuvius, Herculaneum. Unlike Pompeii, Herculaneum was covered in hot mud making it difficult for archaeologists to dig up the city. It wasn't until 1982 that the first body was found in Herculaneum. The bodies show burn marks leading experts to believe that these people suffered horrible deaths.

A lot of the info we have about Vesuvius's eruption is in great thanks to Pliny the Younger. Younger (who was 17 at the time) witnessed the eruption nearby and wrote two letters about the horrifying scene. He said "people covered their heads with pillows, the only defense against a shower stones." Younger also wrote "a dark and horrible cloud charged with combustible... [people] prayed to die."

To this day Pompeii has not been completely uncovered. Experts are still digging and discovering other items of life 2,000 years ago. Herculaneum, however, has even less uncovered. As the digging goes on new truth about that terrifying event will surface. As for now people around the world are still fascinated by this buried city even 250 years after being discovered.The site of Pompeii is one of the most popular tourist sites of Italy.


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