In autumn of 79 CE Mount Vesuvius, dormant for centuries on the Bay of Naples, erupted with extraordinary violence. The letter Pliny the Younger sent to Tacitus is the earliest detailed eyewitness account we have: a colossal 'umbrella pine' of cloud rising over the bay, day turned to night by ash, panicked flight, and the death of his uncle Pliny the Elder while attempting a rescue.

The two cities were destroyed in different ways: Pompeii was buried under metres of ash and pyroclastic surge; Herculaneum was overcome by faster, hotter pyroclastic flows. Together the disaster killed thousands. Yet paradoxically, the cities beneath the ash were preserved in extraordinary detail.

Excavations begun in 1748 have since opened a continuous archive of Roman daily life: houses, fresco panels, bakeries with loaves still on the counter, election graffiti, mosaics, public baths, and the Alexander Mosaic of the House of the Faun. Pompeii played a central role in the birth of modern archaeology, and a great deal of what we know about ordinary Roman life comes from this site. Vesuvius remains one of the most closely watched active volcanoes in the world — more than 600,000 people live on its slopes today.