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Pompeii was an fairly large city in southern Italy 2,000 years ago. Before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried nearly the entire city in 2-4 meters of ash, it was home to around 20,000 people, which was about the average size of an urban development in the ancient world.
Earlier this month, the YouTube channel Rusty’s History Zone posted the above video. Using a drone, they do a quick flyover of the ruined city, which covers about 4.5 square miles. Looking over the ruined buildings, which stretch as far as the eye can see, it becomes clear why archaeologists are still discovering pieces of the city’s history.
It is estimated that more than one-tenth of the population of Pompeii was burried in the eruption. Now, each ruined building is a monument to these fallen souls and it is very likely that valuable archaeological evidence of their lives was buried alongside them. It may take centuries before they unearth everyone’s story.
Earlier this year archaeologists uncovered the skeleton of a man who had been crushed by a large chunk of stone. In the beginning of August, another team identified the villa of a wealthy Roman family.
The quick video shows the worn cobbled streets amidst the skeletons of the city’s infrastructure. In the distance, through the haze, Mount Vesuvius lingers like ghost, forever connected to the story of Pompeii. If you want to see more, there was a more thorough video tour produced with the help of drones from 2015. This video takes us a bit further, into buildings and higher above the city. It’s also fun to see the shots of how they operated the drone.
And today we celebrate...