Pompeii

Pompeii was an ancient Roman city near modern Naples in Italy's Campania region, buried under volcanic ash and pumice when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. Settled from the seventh or sixth century BC onward and shaped in turn by Greek, Etruscan and Roman influence, the city had grown by the time of its destruction to cover some 64 to 67 hectares and house an estimated 11,000 to 20,000 people, with a forum, an amphitheatre, two theatres and multiple public bath complexes among its major public buildings. Because the eruption sealed the city rather than simply destroying it, Pompeii survived nearly 2,000 years as an unusually complete record of Roman urban life at a single moment in time. Its ruins were first encountered in 1592 when the architect Domenico Fontana struck ancient walls while building an aqueduct, though the city was not formally identified until 1763, when an inscription naming the Pompeian republic was uncovered, and systematic excavation expanded significantly during the French occupation of the early nineteenth century.