6. POMPEII,
P
ITALY
ompeii was an
ancient Roman
town near mo-
dern Naples in the Italian
region of Campania.
Founded in the seventh
or sixth century BC, the
town was destroyed and
buried under up to 20
feet of ash and pumice in
the eruption of Mount
Vesuvius in 79 AD. By
the time of its destruc-
tion, Pompeii was a flou-
rishing and highly develo-
ped town with a complex
water system and many
other town facilities. The
eruption killed many of
the town´s 11,000 popu-
lation and the site was lost
for about 1,500 years un-
til it was rediscovered in
1599. The objects that lay
beneath the city have
been well preserved for
centuries because of the
lack of air and moisture.
During the excavation,
plaster was used to fill in
the voids between the ash
layers that once held hu-
man bodies. This allowed
one to see the exact
position the person was
in when he or she died.
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