On August 24th in 79 AD at approximately 1300 a cloud appeared over the Roman city of Pompeii. This was all the warning the residents had before the nearby volcano, Mount Vesuvius, erupted. Huge quantities of scalding hot ash, pumice and lava pebbles were thrown into the sky. This then cascaded down across an extensive area. Most of the 20,000 residents fled for their lives but approximately 2,000 people stayed behind and hoped to wait out the disaster in their homes. Those who stayed behind could not escape the onslaught of the volcano and were suffocated by the ash. The ash later hardened and preserved the outline of their bodies for a millennia. Pompeii was buried under approximately seventeen feet of ash and pumice. The nearby resort town of Herculaneum was destroyed by a mudslide and even the
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This venture was later abandoned but then in 1748 a farmer found traces of Pompeii beneath his vineyard. Since that time, excavations have continued around the base of Mount Vesuvius even until the present day. Archaeologists found a city frozen in a single instant of the distant past. Preserved beneath the ash and pumice were shops and taverns, a forum, streets, auditoria and houses. Several of these were richly decorated inside, with stunning frescoes and beautiful sculptures and ceramics. The reigning Roman emperor at the time of this disaster, Titus Vespasianus Augustus, won praise and admiration for the speed and humanity of his response. He organized effective emergency relief for those communities that had suffered and even used some of his own personal wealth to aid those in need. A massive fire erupted in Rome in early 80 AD followed by a devastating plague. In his efforts to quell the after effects of these disasters, Titus worked himself to death and died of exhaustion in 81 AD. On January 12, 2010 an earthquake with a 7.0 magnitude struck the small Caribbean nation of Haiti. The earthquake was the most powerful to have
This venture was later abandoned but then in 1748 a farmer found traces of Pompeii beneath his vineyard. Since that time, excavations have continued around the base of Mount Vesuvius even until the present day. Archaeologists found a city frozen in a single instant of the distant past. Preserved beneath the ash and pumice were shops and taverns, a forum, streets, auditoria and houses. Several of these were richly decorated inside, with stunning frescoes and beautiful sculptures and ceramics. The reigning Roman emperor at the time of this disaster, Titus Vespasianus Augustus, won praise and admiration for the speed and humanity of his response. He organized effective emergency relief for those communities that had suffered and even used some of his own personal wealth to aid those in need. A massive fire erupted in Rome in early 80 AD followed by a devastating plague. In his efforts to quell the after effects of these disasters, Titus worked himself to death and died of exhaustion in 81 AD. On January 12, 2010 an earthquake with a 7.0 magnitude struck the small Caribbean nation of Haiti. The earthquake was the most powerful to have