Vesuvius is one of the most famous volcanoes in the world and the symbol of the city of Naples. Mount Vesuvius (Latin: Vĕsŭvǒus) is located on the south-eastern side of the city of Naples in Campania. It has a truncated-conical shape, its highest point reaches 1,277 m s.l.m. and the crater has a diameter of 450 m and a depth of 300 m.

The people of Pompeii didn’t realise they lived next to a volcano
Before the devastating eruption of 79 AD, the inhabitants of Pompeii had no idea they lived beside a volcano since it hadn’t erupted in around 1,800 years. In comparison, it’s been very active since, having erupted 6 times in the 18th-century, 8 times in the 19th-century and 3 times in the 20th-century. It last erupted in 1944.

At about midday on August 24th in the year 79, Mount Vesuvius began to erupt. The first stage of eruption featured a blast that sent pumice stones thousands of feet into the air. These stones then fell like rain upon the surrounding towns, steadily burying them for roughly 5 hours. As the rocks continued to fall, they grew in size, and for the next few hours, they caused buildings and structures to collapse.

The second stage of the eruption occurred about 17 hours later when a ferocious pyroclastic flow poured from the volcano, covering Pompeii and Herculaneum in a thick layer of smoldering debris in a matter of minutes. The dust over the towns and cities began to settle after a day of relentless volcanic bombardment.

4000 x 6000 Px
300 DPI

By Samanta, 2023