Ercolano Italy

Legendary

Discover the well-preserved ruins of this ancient Roman town destroyed when Mount Vesuvius erupted.

Wooden doors, beds, and even loaves of bread survived here for 2,000 years. In most ancient towns, wood rots away to nothing within a few decades.

Herculaneum is different because of how it was destroyed. Superheated gas and rock swept over the town at around 400 degrees Celsius, which was hot enough to turn wood into charcoal but not hot enough to burn it away entirely.

Then a thick flow of volcanic mud sealed everything, up to 25 meters deep. Nothing could rot underneath it.

The town began around 600 BC as a Greek settlement named for the hero Heracles, better known in Latin as Hercules. Romans later took it over and turned it into a small, wealthy town by the sea.

In AD 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted. Pompeii, further away, was buried slowly under falling ash and stone.

Herculaneum's fate was different. The wind blew most of the ash away from the town at first, but then fast-moving surges of gas and rock came racing down the mountain.

For centuries, historians assumed everyone had escaped in time. Then in the 1980s, archaeologists dug along the ancient shoreline and found around 300 people sheltering in stone boat sheds by the water.

The town stayed lost until 1709. A man digging a well struck marble far underground and hit the top of the ancient theater.

Word spread fast, and treasure hunters tunneled in to grab statues for their homes. Careful, scientific digging didn't begin until 1927.

Even now, less than half of Herculaneum has been uncovered. The modern town of Ercolano sits directly on top of the rest.

Walk into houses that still have their original wooden doorframes and staircases. Look for the boat sheds along the old waterfront, which now sits half a kilometer from the sea. Visit the Villa of the Papyri, where hundreds of blackened scrolls survived, and scientists are still working out how to read them.