Pompeii was a busy and wealthy Roman city near the volcano Vesuvius.
It was the morning of the 24th of August, 79 A.D. The city was full of people going to the market, the temple or walking in the streets.
At midday, smoke erupted from Vesuvius and covered the sky. The smoke contained poisonous gases. 2,000 people died because they could not breathe the air.
On that day in August, time stopped in Pompeii. Over hundreds of years, the streets, villas, monuments and bodies of people remained intact under the solidified lava. In the 18th century, archaeologists discovered the remains of Pompeii.
