16 An Ancient Disaster

For more than six hundred years, Pompeii was an important city in the Roman Empire. Located on the Bay of Naples in southern Italy, Pompeii was a favorite spot for wealthy Romans to build their country villas. The city was busy and prosperous, and the streets were lined with shops, houses and temples. Citizens had use of an open-air theater and public baths. But this dream city had one flaw. Pompeii sat at the foot of Mount Vesuvius.

In A.D. 79, on the morning of August 24, Vesuvius erupted violently. Fire and ash filled the sky and buried the beautiful city. When Vesuvius finally settled down, the area that lay buried under pumice nearly ten feet thick. The volcano so changed the spot where Pompeii, a pure city, once stood was now two miles from the ocean. Many people died in the great eruption, either from falling rock and collapsing buildings or from the volcano's poisonous fumes. The great city of Pompeii had disappeared.

So it was a great surprise when, in the 1700s, a peasant discovered some statues buried in his vineyard. When people began to dig further, they unearthed the houses, food, and even the bodies of some of the citizens of the once bustling Pompeii! The city had been covered so quickly that everything in it seemed to be frozen in time.

16 一场古代灾难

六百多年来，庞贝是罗马帝国的重要城市。它位于意大利南部的那不勒斯湾，是富有的罗马人建造乡村别墅的热门地点。这座城市繁忙而繁荣，街道两旁排列着商店、房屋和神庙，市民可以使用露天剧院和公共浴场。但这座梦想之城有一个缺陷：它坐落在维苏威火山脚下。

公元79年8月24日早晨，维苏威火山猛烈喷发。火焰和火山灰布满天空，掩埋了这座美丽的城市。当火山最终平息时，该区域被近十英尺厚的浮石覆盖。火山改变了地貌，曾经临海的庞贝城，现在距离海洋有两英里远。许多人在这场大喷发中丧生，有的死于落石和坍塌的建筑，有的死于火山的有毒烟雾。伟大的庞贝城消失了。

因此，18世纪时，一位农民在他的葡萄园里发现了一些掩埋的雕像，这让人非常惊讶。当人们继续挖掘时，他们出土了房屋、食物，甚至曾经繁华的庞贝城部分市民的尸体！这座城市被掩埋得太快，以至于里面的一切都像被时间冻结了一样。