Pompeii

30 June 2016. This article is about the classical Roman city. For the modern Italian city, see Pompei. For the Classical Roman leader, see Pompey. For other uses, see Pompeii (disambiguation). Pompeii Pompeii is located in Italy Pompeii Shown within Italy Location Pompei, Province of Naples, Campania, Italy Coordinates 40°45′0″N 14°29′10″ECoordinates: 40°45′0″N 14°29′10″E Type Settlement Area 64 to 67 ha (170 acres) History Founded 6th–7th century BC Abandoned 79 AD Site notes Website http://www.pompeiisites.org UNESCO World Heritage Site Official name Archaeological Areas of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Torre Annunziata Type Cultural Criteria iii, iv, v Designated 1997 (21st session) Reference no. 829 Region Europe Pompeii was an ancient Roman town-city near modern Naples, in the Campania region of Italy, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area, was mostly destroyed and buried under 4 to 6 m (13 to 20 ft) of volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Researchers believe that the town was founded in the seventh or sixth century BC by the Osci or Oscans. It came under the domination of Rome in the 4th century BC, and was conquered and became a Roman colony in 80 BC after it joined an unsuccessful rebellion against the Roman Republic. By the time of its destruction, 160 years later, its population was estimated at 11,000 people, and the city had a complex water system, an amphitheatre, gymnasium, and a port. The eruption destroyed the city, killing its inhabitants and burying it under tons of ash. Evidence for the destruction originally came from a surviving letter by Pliny the Younger, who saw the eruption from a distance and described the death of his uncle Pliny the Elder, an admiral of the Roman fleet, who tried to rescue citizens. The site was lost for about 1,500 years until its initial rediscovery in 1599 and broader rediscovery almost 150 years later by Spanish engineer Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre in 1748.[1] The objects that lay beneath the city have been preserved for centuries because of the lack of air and moisture. These artefacts provide an extraordinarily detailed insight into the life of a city during the Pax Romana. During the excavation, plaster was used to fill in the voids in the ash layers that once held human bodies. This allowed archaeologists to see the exact position the person was in when he or she died.