🏺🔥The last day of Pompeii

   🏺🔥The last day of Pompeii - 23th october  in 79 AD - Mt. Vesuvius erupts, burying the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis and Stabiae and killing thousands. 

The traditional date of August 24 stemmed from a transcription of a letter written by Pliny the Younger, an eyewitness to the event. However, this date has been contested since the 18th century.🏛️

The precise number of people who died in the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius is unknown, but estimates of the total death toll vary widely, with the highest figures reaching up to 16,000.

What is known with more certainty is the number of bodies recovered and analyzed:

✅  Confirmed Remains: The preserved remains (skeletons and plaster casts of cavities left by bodies) of roughly 1,500 to 2,000 people have been found in and around the buried cities, primarily in Pompeii and Herculaneum.

✅  Around 1,044 casts and scattered bones have been recovered at Pompeii.

✅  Around 300-332 skeletons have been found at Herculaneum, many of whom had gathered on the beach and in waterfront boat chambers.

The reason the total death toll is much higher than the recovered remains is that:

✅ Population Size: The cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum alone had an estimated combined population of over 20,000 people

✅ Escape: A significant portion of the population managed to flee before the most destructive phases of the eruption.

✅  Unexcavated Areas: Large parts of the cities, particularly the outer areas, and all of the other buried towns (Oplontis, Stabiae, etc.) have not been fully excavated.

✅  No Trace: Many victims may have been completely vaporized or had their remains scattered and lost by the intense heat of the pyroclastic flows.

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