Dark Tourism from the Ancients: Pompeii, Italy
On a warm August day in 79 AD, citizens of Pompeii, a Roman port city, woke up to an average, regular day. By nightfall, most of them would be dead. In a timeline recorded by Pliny the Elder, a cloud emerged over nearby Mount Vesuvius around noon. Ash started falling from the sky around 1pm, and by 2pm, it was raining pumice. The weight of the pumice and volcanic rock would collapse roofs by 5pm.
The eruption would block the sun as people began to flee the city. Multiple pyroclastic surges hit the city throughout the night. There were at least six surges, the heat killing people who could not escape. Volcanic materials buried the city and entombed the people by morning. Today, visitors can walk the excavated streets and explore buildings preserved in time.
