When Mt Vesuvius destroyed Pompeii
Pompeii was an ancient Roman metropolis in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the neighbouring area, was buried under 13 to 20 ft (that’s 4 to 6 metres) of volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.
By the 1st century AD, Pompeii was one of several towns near the base of the volcano, Mount Vesuvius. The area had a large population of approximately between 12,000 and 15,000, which had grown prosperous from the region’s famed agricultural fertility.
Largely preserved under the ash, the excavated city offers a unique snapshot of Roman life, frozen at the moment it was buried and providing an extraordinarily detailed insight into the everyday life of its inhabitants. It was a wealthy town, enjoying many fine public buildings and luxurious private houses with lavish decorations, furnishings and works of art which were the main attractions for the early excavators.
Organic remains, including wooden objects and human bodies, were entombed in the ash and decayed leaving voids that archaeologists found could be used as moulds to make plaster casts of unique and often gruesome figures in their final moments…
