26. Tragic as it Was, History is Deeply Indebted to the Vesuvius Eruption
Vesuvius’ lava flow did not reach Pompeii or Herculaneum. However, it sent heat waves of more than 550 degrees Fahrenheit into those towns. It turned them into ovens, and killed any who had not yet escaped and had not already suffocated from the fine ash. About 1500 bodies were found in Pompeii and Herculaneum when they were unearthed centuries later. They were recovered from just a small part of the area impacted by the volcano’s eruption. Extrapolating from those figures to the surrounding regions, total casualties are estimated to have been in the tens of thousands.
Pompeii and Herculaneum, whose populations at the time numbered about 20,000, were buried beneath up to 20 feet of volcanic ash and pumice. Tragic and terrifying as that was, the ash deposits did a remarkably effective job of preserving those towns nearly entire. That gave future historians an unrivaled snapshot of 1st century AD Roman architecture, city planning, urban infrastructure, and town life in general.