pompeii

By Angela Rocco DeCarlo, copyright 2009 The ancient city of Pompeii, Italy, has fascinated the world since excavations began in 1748 on this city buried  more than 1700 years ago. Victim of Mt. Vesuvius' cataclysmic volcanic eruption on August 24, 79 AD, it remains one of the world's most important travel destinations. Today, visitors can get a taste of the lost city of Pompeii at Los Angeles County Museum of Art's (LACMA) exhibit, "Pompeii and the Roman Villa - Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples." The show runs from May 3 through October 4, 2009. It is testament to the voracious appetite ancient Romans had for all Greek culture and art. That single-mindedness resulted in priceless treasures being preserved for nearly two thousands of years. Fortunately, we know exactly what happened to the ill-fated people of ancient Pompeii thanks to the scholar, Pliny the Younger, who wrote a detailed eyewitness description of the sudden explosion, in 79 AD, of  Mount Vesuvius on the Bay of Naples, Italy. The powerful volcanic eruption, together with earthquakes and tsunamis, devastated the coastal area and the cities were covered under volcanic rock and nearly forgotten, until 1738 when the royal family of the region initiated ...