pompeya

LIBIA
The Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius:
When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were buried by an avalanche of boiling mud and lava. Pompeii was buried about 20-40 feet underground and Herculaneum about 60-75 feet. A young historian named Pliny the Younger witnessed the whole event from Misenum, about 20 miles away


ALEYDA

The eruption of AD 79 was veryunusual, without lava or other characteristics normally associated with volcanoes. It was a Plinian eruption – the most dangerous and feared kind of all – involving super-heated gas, magma and ash that form a giant towering column that builds up into the sky. The magma cools and falls to the earth as pumice. Vesuvius erupts in this way once in every 2,000 years.
For several days the fierytorrent, which spewed a column of ash 32km (20mi) into the sky, rained down on Pompeii, encasing the bodies of the remaining inhabitants and all of their artifacts in twenty three feet of volcanic debris. Pompeii, along with its neighbor Herculaneum, slowly passed into vague legend
The weight of pumice caused roofs and balconies to collapse and its build-up trapped people inside buildings.Pyroclastic surges, five times hotter than boiling water, destroyed everything in their path.
Some people may have escaped but would have been killed by the belching poisonous gas — everything else was mummified in the ash as it cooled. Buildings, works of art, corpses with anguished expressions and even loaves of bread in an oven were undisturbed until 1748.


ALEJANDRA
It was not until a peasantdigging a well in the eighteenth century accidentally discovered Herculaneum that people realized the legends and stories were true, and the first official excavation soon took place in 1748 - seventeen centuries after the city's burial. As a result of this extraordinary disaster that preserved so much under volcanic ash, Pompeii was the first ancient site in the world to be investigated byarchaeological methods resembling modern ones. Many of the principles of archaeology were formed at the Pompeii site due to its early discovery during Europe's science-oriented Enlightenment period; excavation has continued intermittently to this day.
The tragedy that hit the city in 79AD took the lives of its 20,000 residents, but left an almost perfectly preserved city for people to be in awe of morethan 1900 years later. And it is yielding more secrets from its past each year.


LUIS
Pompeii has been a popular tourist destination for 250 years; it was on the Grand Tour. In 2008, it was attracting almost 2.6 million visitors per year, making it one of the most popular tourist sites in Italy.[31] It is part of a larger Vesuvius National Park and was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCOin 1997. To combat problems associated with tourism, the governing body for Pompeii, the Soprintendenza Archaeological di Pompei have begun issuing new tickets that allow for tourists to also visit cities such as Herculaneum and Stabiae as well as the Villa Poppaea, to encourage visitors to see these sites and reduce pressure on Pompeii.
Pompeii is also a driving force behind the economy of thenearby town of Pompei. Many residents are employed in the tourism and hospitality business, serving as taxi or bus drivers, waiters or hotel operators. The ruins can be easily reached on foot from the Circumvesuviana train stop called Pompei Scavi, directly at the ancient site. There are also car parks nearby.
Excavations in the site have generally ceased due to the moratorium imposed by thesuperintendent of the site, Professor Pietro Giovanni Guzzo. Additionally, the site is generally less accessible to tourists, with less than a third of all buildings open in the 1960s being available for public viewing today. Nevertheless, the sections of the ancient city open to the public are extensive, and tourists can spend several days exploring the whole site.

Pompeya es también una fuerza...