Reading Comprehension 8-16

An Ancient Disaster

For more than six hundred years, Pompeii was an important city in the Roman Empire. Located on the Bay of Naples in southern Italy, Pompeii was a favorite spot for wealthy Romans to build their country villas. The city was busy and prosperous, and the streets were lined with shops, houses, and temples. Citizens had use of an open-air theater and public baths. But this dream city had one flaw. Pompeii sat at the foot of Mount Vesuvius.

In A.D. 79, on the morning of August 24, Vesuvius erupted violently. Fire and ash filled the sky and buried the beautiful city When Vesuvius finally settled down, Pompeii lay buried under pumice nearly ten feet thick. The volcano so changed the area that the spot where Pompeii, a port city, once stood was now two miles from the ocean. Many people died in the great eruption, either from falling rock and col lapsing buildings or from the volcano’s poisonous fumes. The great city of Pompeii had disappeared.

So it was a great surprise when, in the 1700s, a peasant discovered some stat ues buried in his vine ard. When people began to dig further, they unearthed the houses, food, and even the bodies of some of the citizens of the once—bustling Pompeii. The city had been covered so quickly that everything in it seemed to be frozen in time.

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