In 79 AD, Mount Vesu­vius erupt­ed with dev­as­tat­ing effect. Many small towns and set­tle­ments in the region were com­plete­ly destroyed by the erup­tion, not least Pom­peii. Iron­i­cal­ly, being buried under lay­ers of ash that fell from the vol­cano has led to an incred­i­bly well-pre­served snap­shot of a Roman city frozen in the midst of a dis­as­ter.