Mount Vesuvius
Today
two million people live in the immediate vicinity of
Mount Vesuvius.
This mountain has erupted more than 50
times since the eruption in 79 A.D., when it buried
Pompeii and its sister city, Herculaneum.
After Pompeii
was buried and lost to history, the volcano continued to
erupt every 100 years until about 1037 A.D., when it
entered a 600-year period of quiescence.
In 1631, the volcano killed an additional 4000
unsuspecting inhabitants.
It was during the restoration after this eruption
that workers discovered the ruins of Pompeii, buried and forgotten for
nearly 1600 years.
It would take another 300 years for the excavations to
reveal the story of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
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