kotjus_sova

Vesuvius, near Naples in Italy, is the most famous of all volcanoes. Smoke and gases can often be seen above it, but sometimes it explodes violently. In the year 79 A.D. there was a particularly bad eruption. A large town not far off, Pompeii, was buried under the ash, and many people were killed. A Roman 1.B. who watched the eruption from a distance of 18 miles described it in detail, 2.F. so that we know just what took place. Falling ashes darkened the sky, and he felt as if he were in a closed room without light. When Pompeii was dug out, or excavated, many centuries later, it was found to be buried under 30 feet of ash. This ash had kept the air away from the ruins, and the whole town had been preserved, 3.A. so that it can still be visited. Remains of food were found on tables, in the streets advertisements were still to be seen on the walls, and paintings inside the rooms have shown 4.G. how the people themselves lived and behaved. The luckless people of Pompeii had been taken by surprise; yet though the disaster was so great, the fact 5.C. that we have been able to excavate Pompeii and study it has given us a great deal of knowledge about life of a Roman town. Since then Vesuvius has erupted many times, but nowadays people are too wise 6.D. to build large towns too close to the volcano; we can never tell just when another great outbreak will take place. The last big eruption of Vesuvius took place in 1944.