Mt. Vesuvius and the lost city of Pompeii

On top of Mt. Vesuvius, overlooking Pompeii




Steam vents inside Mt. Vesuvius's crater



In Pompeii Scavi, Mt. Vesuvius in the background


We recently visited the Italian city of Pompeii.
It was really cool because we were able to see old ruins that were perfectly preserved by lava and ash from Mt. Vesuvius.
Mt. Vesuvius exploded in 79 a.d. and is considered one of the most devastating events in ancient times.
The day this volcano exploded was just like any normal day for the men, women, and children of Pompeii. They went along there normal buismess, doing laundry, building, walking, or learning when a large earthquake hit Pompeii. They kept carrying on like nothing had happened. Little did they know that soon, many of them would die.
Within a couple of hours a large booming sound exploded from the volcano as a cloud of smoke rushed up from it.
Some people in Pompeii fled the city (by boat) because they were scared and nervous, but some thought that this event was cool and entertaining so they stayed in the town and watched this happen.
The people who hadn't fled the city were either back to their jobs or watching the volcano, when it began raining rocks. Not just little pebbles, but large softball-sized stones. These stones weren't blown out of the volcano, they were formed by hot ash that was hovering above the city. The ash had began to cool in the sky and turned into clumps that pounded down onto Pompeii.
But this wasn't the worst of their troubles.
The rocks killed and injured people, also it got so heavy on the roofs of houses and shops that it broke roofs down and crushed the victims hiding beneath them.
By now everyone left in Pompeii was under shelter or in their houses when a toxic gas from the inside of the volcano began to drift though the town and leak in and, unfortunately, kill the remaining people.
As you think that is the worst this problem could get, it's not.
With any volcano, there has to be lava.
As the lava speeded down the side of the mountain at over 110 km per hour, everyone in Pompeii had no chance.
Several years later, some farmers re-found the city of Pompeii one day as they were digging a well.
They uncovered so much of the city and found people's preserved remains from everywhere there.
In 1944 the volcano struck again, thankfully people in Pompeii had a better warning and idea of what was going on.
Today the wonderful city of Pompeii thrives. Hundreds, maybe thousands of people visit the ruins of Pompeii every day and the area surrounding Mt Vesuvius has a population of almost 3 million. Mt. Vesuvius is an attraction of its own as millions of people climb up to the volcano's summit every year to have a view over the beautiful cities of Pompeii, Herculeum, and Naples.

Marin




Apollo in Pompeii

Location:Pompeii, Italy