Frozen in 79 AD — the Roman city that Vesuvius preserved
Pompeii is the most famous archaeological site in the world — a Roman city of 11,000 people flash-frozen under 4–6 metres of volcanic ash when Vesuvius erupted on 24 August 79 AD. Excavations since 1748 have uncovered streets, bakeries, brothels, bath houses, theatres, taverns, and the tragic plaster casts of residents caught in the pyroclastic surge. The sheer scale is remarkable: the site covers 66 hectares and only about two-thirds has been excavated. Walking the basalt-paved Via dell'Abbondanza past thermopolia (fast-food counters), street shrines, and graffitied walls is to walk through…
Pompeii was a prosperous Roman city in the Bay of Naples, a trading hub for wine, garum (fish sauce), and olive oil. On 24 August 79 AD, Vesuvius erupted catastrophically — first a rain of pumice stones, then the pyroclastic surges that killed those who had sheltered in place. Pliny the Younger, 30km away at Misenum, witnessed the eruption and wrote the first scientific account of a volcanic event. The site was rediscovered in 1748 by Spanish engineer Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre; serious excavation began under the Bourbon Kings of Naples. UNESCO inscribed it in 1997.