Vesuvius began its fateful eruption with a deafening bang. The volcano sent huge plumes of ash, rock, and H๏τ gas into the atmosphere. The plumes of gas sH๏τ up to 33 kilometers from the crater.

The most luxurious city of ancient Rome

More than 2,000 years ago, on the Mediterranean coast, Pompeii was a bustling city during the height of the Roman Empire. Pompeii had a population of about 20,000 and was famous for its olive oil and grape products.

Less than 10km from the city, is the majestic volcano Vesuvius. Eruptions have created layers of soil from ash and lava. According to scientists, the soil in the Bay of Naples area deposited by the volcano Vesuvius is rich in nutrients such as Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potᴀssium, which are good for plants. Pompeii thus also benefited from the volcano Vesuvius.

The city of Pompeii was rich thanks to the Salno River, fertile land, fertile fields, and vineyards that covered the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. At that time, people in this coastal area considered Pompeii a center for exchange and transit of goods. By the 2nd century BC, Pompeii had become an important trading market in the coastal region.

According to history, 10 major tribes together built the city of Pompeii. After a while, this place became a destination for the nobles and merchants to find pleasure and enjoyment. “Enjoy life, tomorrow is unpredictable”. That was the saying of most people in Pompeii.

This city is famous for its taverns and wine houses. The city is full of all kinds of unsightly frescoes, and groups of homoSєxuals and incestuous relationships can be seen everywhere. Pompeii has a population of 20,000 but there are 25 brothels, which is a crime of the whole society. In 1819, King Francis of Naples, while visiting the frescoes in Pompeii with his wife, felt so ashamed that he immediately ordered the exhibition to be closed.

The most important factor that created the wealth of the Pompeians when trading with the outside world was not the goods, but the poor slaves. They had to do very hard labor, entertain in the arena and be torn apart by wild animals in front of the excitement of thousands of people shouting in the stands. The rich even used slaves that had just been killed to feed eels because they thought that the eel meat would taste fresher that way.

In the early 1st century, a major earthquake damaged Pompeii and the surrounding cities, and the mᴀssive earthquake awakened Mount Vesuvius. On August 24, 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted violently, and in just one night, Pompeii and two surrounding cities were wiped off the face of the earth. Within 2km of the volcano, there was a world of lava, mud, and rocks. So many people, so many achievements, and cities were destroyed.

Ancient painting depicting slaves being taken to the arena with wild, ferocious animals found in the ashes of Pompeii.

Where Heaven Turns into Hell

The once prosperous and wealthy city of Pompeii on the calm shores of the Gulf of Naples was suddenly reduced to a pile of ashes in a layer of lava nearly 20 meters thick. The eruption of Mount Vesuvius created a cloud of rock, ash and volcanic gas up to 33 kilometers high along with a huge amount of lava covering the city of Pompeii and surrounding cities.

At that time, toxic gas with high temperature began to approach the city and quickly spread everywhere. Worse, lava flows also began to move very quickly. According to estimates, the volcano Vesuvius was erupting up to 1.5 million tons of lava per second. The lava flows from the mountainside reached speeds of up to 724 km/h and had temperatures of up to nearly 1,000 degrees Celsius.

The main reason why many people in Pompeii were unaware of the danger was because Vesuvius had not erupted for 1,800 years. They had no idea that the nearby volcano Vesuvius, which was thought to be “ᴅᴇᴀᴅ,” was still silently growing in rage, and would one day unleash a terrible blow on Pompeii.

In just one night, at least 2,000 Pompeii residents disappeared when Mount Vesuvius erupted. According to many theories, one of them is that the people in the city had committed too many crimes, so the gods wanted to use the red-H๏τ lava to awaken and teach the people here a lesson.

After that horrific disaster, which was likened to the “Prelude to the Apocalypse,” the ruins of Pompeii were forgotten until it was discovered by archaeologists in 1738.

Following the excavations, archaeologists discovered hollow blocks where thousands of corpses had been burned to ashes by the heat of the lava. When plaster was poured into them, they realized that the people of Pompeii had died in all sorts of positions. They were all the same, dying in a natural position, without any signs of pain.

The intense heat caused the body to shut down almost immediately, leaving no time to react or show any signs of pain. Archaeologists have recovered more than 1,000 bodies of victims buried in the lava flow. Most of the bodies were found completely covered in plaster, with their curled up postures and terrified expressions still visible.

Pier Paolo Petrone, a paleontologist at the Federico II University Hospital in Naples, Italy, has studied the victims of the Vesuvius eruption for decades. Some of his research has bolstered evidence that ash and gases were not the primary cause of death for the city’s residents, as other studies have concluded. Instead, Petrone argues, it was the extreme heat that killed most of the city’s residents, causing them to die quickly and perhaps without feeling any pain.

Research also shows that temperatures affect the human body differently in Pompeii than elsewhere. Located six miles from the volcano, Pompeii was initially hit by falling debris, causing many houses to collapse and crush those inside. The city was then enveloped in pyroclastic gases, which are believed to have contributed to the high death toll.

Perhaps this is not the final conclusion of scientists about the disaster in Pompeii. But in the end, the back and forth debate is just a study of surface phenomena without finding the deep cause behind it. Was the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii a natural phenomenon that happened randomly? Archaeologists found in the ruins of Pompeii the last words of the victims before they died, scribbled on the wall: “This citadel of crimes deserves death”, “Crime leads to destruction”.

To date, the city of Pompeii was recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1997 and has become a famous tourist destination in Italy, attracting about 3 million visitors each year.