The Eruption of Vesuvius and the Death of Pompeii

Vesuvius throws an ash column thirty kilometres up, then buries Pompeii and Herculaneum under metres of debris. Pliny the Younger, watching from across the bay, left the only eyewitness account. Excavation revealed cart ruts, shops, frescoes, election graffiti and the voids left by bodies, later filled with plaster.