On This Day: Mount Vesuvius Erupts (79 CE)

Pompeii and Herculaneum, preserved in volcanic ash by accident.

The eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE was recorded in detail by Pliny the Younger, who watched from across the bay and described a cloud of ash shaped like an umbrella pine. The buried cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were rediscovered in the 18th century and have been excavated over the centuries sinc