PompeiiThe buried city

The small town of Pompei just a few kilometres from Naples, rises up from the foot of Vesuvius.

It is widely believed that the 20,000 inhabitants of this Roman town held Mount Vesuvius in veneration and regarded their fertile volcanic soil as a gift from the gods. Life was peaceful until the morning of 24 August 79 AD, when many townspeople lost their lives as Mount Vesuvius erupted. Pompeii was completely razed to the ground as indeed were many of its neighbouring towns. Nature's warnings signaling the imminent catastrophe went unheeded: seventeen years earlier, a major earthquake had devastated the surrounding area, decimating dwellings, temples and statues and killing many people in its path.