What was Pompeii like before the eruption?

By the time the Vesuvius eruption sputtered to an end the next day, Pompeii was buried under millions of tons of volcanic ash. About 2,000 people were dead. Some people drifted back to town in search of lost relatives or belongings, but there was not much left to find. read more

For an even more realistic look at Pompeii before and during the destruction, the exhibit includes two videos: one depicting daily life in the ancient city and the other that condenses the fire, smoke and ash of eruption day into a poignant four-minute loop. read more

Its most famous eruption took place in the year 79 A.D., when 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. read more

We don't know how many people escaped Pompeii before the eruption. We don't know the population of Pompeii, so any estimation of the deaths or the escapees is pure guess work, not solid fact. We don't know how many people escaped Pompeii before the eruption. read more