Tredy Sas

Mount Vesuvius is certainly the symbol and the main feature in the Neapolitan landscape, and it is one of the smallest active volcanoes in the world (1277 mt high). It consists of a truncated cone, Monte Somma, which rises to the height of 1152 mt in punta Nasone, on the Northern side. From the centre of this crater Vesuvius proper rises. Austere and all yellow with broom in spring, it inspires a mighty solitude just as the poet Giacomo Leopardi described it. This famous volcano was responsible for the destuction of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae and so on. On the 24th August of 79 A.D. it erupted and, over the centuries, even the memory of their exact location was lost. For more than 1500 years Pompeii has been buried undisturbed beneath heaps of ashes and cinders until it was rediscovered in 1748. Among the most significant aspects of the discoveries at Pompeii is the remarkable degree of preservation of the ancient objects. The showers of wet ashes and cinders that accompanied the eruption formed a hermetic seal on the town, preserving many public structures, temples, theaters, baths, shops, and private dwellings.