Pompeii was a thriving Roman town built near the volcano Vesuvius, not far from the modern day Italian town of Naples.

One day, in AD 79, Vesuvius erupted, and swamped Pompeii with lava and hot ash. There was no time for the people to run away, as the whole town was buried in the flow from the volcano.

It remained buried under metres of ash and lava for 1,600 years, before being discovered. Pompeii has since been excavated, and remains of people, animals, buildings and streets have been found. Every year many tourists flock to Pompeii to see what remains. It is as if an ancient Roman city has been frozen in time, just as people were going about their daily lives, and as such it affords an extraordinary insight into the routine goings-on of a Roman city.

Pompeii is now one of the major tourist attractions that Italy has to offer, and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 If you ever make a trip to Italy, one of the most fascinating sights to see is Pompeii. For here is a city, almost 2,000 years old, that you will be able to see and study in greater detail, and better preserved, than almost any other ancient city. Why is this so?
On August 24th, in the year A.D. 79, there was a great eruption of Mount Vesuvius, a volcano in southern Italy. The lava, stones, and ashes thrown up by the volcano completely buried two nearby towns.

The town of Herculaneum, about two miles away, was deeply covered by a stream of mud which flowed down the slope of the mountain. Pompeii, farther along the coast, was buried by the rain of ashes and pebbles of light pumice stone. These fell over Pompeii in a dry state, and the mass which covered the city was from 5 to 6 meters thick.When water came down on top of this, the material became like clay or plaster of Paris; As a result, objects that were caught in it made moulds of the material, and the two towns were remarkably preserved underneath!

Survivors of this disaster returned to the towns, and by digging down and tunnelling were able to remove most of the valuable objects, including slabs of marble that were on the large buildings.In the middle ages, this place and everything about it was forgotten. In 1594, an underground aqueduct was started here, and the ruins were rediscovered. But it took until 1763 before any real excavating was done, and it has been carried on ever since. But a substantial part of Pompeii is still buried!