Pompeii had seen catastrophe before. Devastated by a massive earthquake in 62 AD, the almost 20,000 residents were in the process of rebuilding their city. Earth tremors had been occurring in the area lately, increasing in frequency in the month of August, 79 AD. Suddenly, around lunchtime on August 24th, Vesuvius erupted with a blast of ash and stone. Over the next nineteen hours, the volcanic debris climbed higher and higher, the constant rain of ash building up so much that its weight caused roofs to collapse and kill many who had taken shelter in the buildings. Others, who had taken shelter in buildings that now groaned under mounds of ash and volcanic stone, found the ground floor windows and doors blocked by the fallen ash and escaped by climbing out of upper storey windows.

Around sunset, the eruption entered a different phase, and the fall of ash and pumice let up. As earthquakes rumbled with new intensity, the Pompeiians struggled through the streets, making their way toward one of the city gates in an attempt to escape into the open countryside outside of the city walls. They carried lamps to light their way in the moonless night, gasping as they tried to breathe in the ash-laden air. Those who managed to escape to the countryside outside the walls went toward the south, away from Vesuvius. But there was no escape— at dawn, they were killed when the third surge cloud overtook them as it erupted from the volcano. Two more surges around seven-thirty killed anyone left in the city. The sixth and final surge rolled across Pompeii at eight o’clock in the morning, tearing down walls, blanketing the lifeless city, and dragging bodies of the victims in its wake.

Herculaneum
Suburbs