Mount Vesuvius

Mount Vesuvius is located on the western coast of Italy, near the city of Naples. It is presently the only remaining active volcano in the European mainland, and it is considered one of the world’s most threatening volcanoes. It has a long history of eruptions that dates back to prehistory, and the most famous one was the 79 AD eruption that destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum .

Mount Vesuvius was formed by the collision of the African and European tectonic plates, and it has a unique humpbacked shape. It consists of two peaks, namely, the main cone, Gran Cono, which is 4,202 feet high, and Monte Somma, which has a height of 3,770 feet. The two peaks are separated by a 3-mile valley called Atrio di Cavalla. The sides of the volcano bear scars that resulted from lava flow, but vegetation can be seen from low to high altitudes. The volcano is situated close to the shore, and it forms a beautiful background for the city of Naples when viewed from the sea. Despite the fact that it is an active volcano , there are more than 3 million people living in its vicinity. No other volcanic region in the world is as densely populated as the region around Mount Vesuvius.

The volcano was considered sacred by the ancient Greeks and Romans, and it was named after the demigod Hercules, who was often depicted in artworks as the strong man in lion-skin Greek clothing with a club. Hercules’ parents were the Greek God Zeus and Queen Alcmene. Zeus was known as the god of dews and rains, and sometimes, he was referred to as “Hu?s”, and Hercules was called the “Hu?sou huios”, which meant the “son of Hu?s”. “Vesuvius” was the Latin version of “Hu?sou huios”.

Mount Vesuvius had numerous eruptions throughout its history , and a number of them were more intense than the 79 AD eruption. Around 1800 BC, an intense eruption destroyed several settlements in the surrounding regions, and this eruption was later called the Avellino eruption. After 79 AD, the volcano erupted for about 40 more times before its most recent eruption in 1944 . Some of the eruptions were so intense that many areas in southern Europe were blanketed in ash. The eruptions of 472 and 1631 were so powerful that ashes from the volcano reached Constantinople, which was more than 750 miles away.

The 79 AD eruption that destroyed Pompeii lasted for close to two days, and it completely buried the city in layers of volcanic ash. Coincidentally, Mount Vesuvius erupted right after the Vulcanalia, which was a festival dedicated to the god of fire. An admiral of the Roman Imperial Navy, Pliny the Younger , witnessed the disaster from Misenium, which was on the other side of the Bay of Naples . His account of the event was documented 25 years later. The city of Pompeii was lost for almost 1,700 years, and it was accidentally rediscovered in the year 1748. The buildings and people of Pompeii were buried under 12 layers of soil, and their forms were surprisingly well-preserved. The people were covered in casts of volcanic ash, which preserved the shapes of their bodies and clothing.