The Story of Pompeii

The Roman city of Pompeii was buried under volcanic ash when the volcano Mount Vesuvius erupted in the year 79 AD. Before the explosion, Pompeii was a rich town, with 20,000 residents. The houses had running water and central heating. People who had a lot of money collected works of art. Pompeii had pavements, a few public baths, and a lot of shops. There were signs of volcanic activity, but as they caused little damage, people didn’t pay much attention to them. They felt safe and didn’t expect any danger. On 24th August, they saw lots of smoke coming from Vesuvius but very few people understood what was happening. Everybody thought it was an earthquake, but they were all wrong. Because of that, they didn’t have enough time to escape from the ashes and gas.

A cloud of gas and ash fell down on the town, and killed many people in a few seconds (the temperature of the cloud was almost 500oC). A lot of people suffocated because of the ash and gas – they made it impossible for people to breathe. Pompeii was buried under the ash for centuries until it was accidentally discovered in the 18th century. It later became an open-air museum.