The Second Wave

The first phase rained pumice stones down on the city for hours. Roofs collapsed under the weight. Then came the pyroclastic surges — superheated clouds of gas and rock traveling at 700 km/h with temperatures near 300 degrees Celsius.

Death was instant. What Vesuvius sealed was not a ruin but a snapshot: a working Roman town caught mid-sentence, its streets and shops frozen exactly as people left them.

Roughly a third of the city remains unexcavated to this day.