Ancient Mysteries
Pompeii, Italy, 79 AD. Around 1 PM on a serene late summer day, the ancient Roman city under the shadow of Mount Vesuvius was abruptly shaken by a colossal volcanic eruption. Within minutes, superheated gas and lava engulfed the city and its surroundings, burying thousands of people alive and turning their home into their tomb. Nearly 2,000 years after the eruption, Pompeii remains a city frozen in time. This catastrophic event was a pyroclastic eruption, where clouds of ash and debris, hundreds of degrees hot, cascaded down the mountain, flash-frying everything in their path. Miraculously, the intense heat carbonized and preserved rather than destroyed various forms of information. Today, well-preserved architecture, wood, organic materials, foodstuffs, human remains, and animal remains, buried beneath the volcanic debris, offer archaeologists and tourists a breathtaking glimpse into the doomed ancient city.
