What best describes Pompeii

Mount Vesuvius is the only active volcano on mainland Europe. It is best known because of the eruption in A. D. 79 that destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Mount Vesuvius is considered to be one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world due to the large population of the city of Naples and the surrounding towns on the slopes nearby. W hen the volcano buried the ancient Roman city of Pompeii under a thick carpet of volcanic ash. The dust "poured across the land" like a flood, one witness wrote, and shrouded the city in "a darkness ... like the black of closed and unlighted rooms." Two thousand people died, and the city was abandoned for almost as many years. When a group of explorers rediscovered the site in 1748, they were surprised to find that-underneath a thick layer of dust and debris-Pompeii was mostly intact. The buildings, artifacts and skeletons left behind in the buried city have taught us a great deal about everyday life in the ancient world.

Pompeii is a vast archaeological site in southern Italy’s Campania region, near the coast of the Bay of Naples. Once a thriving and sophisticated Roman city, Pompeii was buried under meters of ash and pumice after the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A. D. The preserved site features excavated ruins of streets and houses that visitors can freely explore.