Map of the Bay of Naples region

Pompeii was a small Roman resort city, built upon the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, a volcano which had long been dormant. But during the summer of 79 A.D., the mountain started to rumble, and on the morning of August 24 it woke in fury. A tall cloud rose like a great white pine tree, then turned dark and mottled from its freight of soil and ashes. Redhot boulders soared in the air and hailed down. Next came two "rainfalls," first of pumice-stones, then of ashes, each six to eight feet deep. The darkened air filled with sulfurous fumes and hydrochloric acid, which asphyxiated fleeing victims. By nightfall, the city was dead and buried.