3-089-009 - LTL/Heritage Images

Fossilised corpses found in the Garden of the Fugitives, Pompeii, Campania, Italy, 2008. The Roman city of Pompeii was buried under 4 to 6 metres (13 to 20 feet) of volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. It is thought that the giant cloud of ash and gases released by the volcano took about 15 minutes to kill approximately 2,000 inhabitants. They could not escape, and were asphyxiated by the gases and ash, their bodies covered in volcanic debris to leave a mark of their physical presence millennia later.