Pompeii Buried in Ash
Mt. Vesuvius erupts leaving the city of Pompeii covered
The City of Pompeii
On August 24 in 79 A.D., the citizens had no idea that this would be their last day living in the town of Pompeii. The 20,000 inhabits of this town were unaware of what was coming.The volcano that had been dormant for 800 years was finally waking up. At one o'clock, the bakeries were baking bread and mount Vesuvius woke up with a massive explosion. Within a half-hour the gargantuan cloud of smoke had risen over 10 miles high and the winds blew it to the southwest, toward Pompeii. Many people took shelter in their homes but as the ash rose they decided to escape. By five-thirty, there was two feet of ash and stones on streets and roofs. So much pumice had built up on roofs that some buildings began to collapse. At about one o'clock on August 25, only twelve hours after the earlier explosion, Mt. Vesuvius shifted to its second- and even deadlier- phase. The second eruption covered the city for a total of twelve feet of ash, and killed everyone still alive; inside or outside of a building. The city was covered in ash leaving no trace of life in the place that was once Pompeii.
Mount Vesuvius erupts
The city of Pompeii
A map of where the smoke from the eruption went
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Pompeii needs people to help clean the ash off of the city. Call 1-800-333-HELP
Housing in Pompeii
If you were wealthy then you could afford to have a townhouse and a country villa. The designs were all similar and were uncluttered. However, only a few people could afford those luxuries.Most people lived in rural poverty or in crowded city tenements. These tenements were unsanitary and a constant fire hazard. The houses had locks shaped complicatedly so that they couldn't be copied. Life in early cities was different and depended if you were wealthy or poor.