How Many People Died in the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius at Pompeii?

About 2,000 people died in the Mount Vesuvius eruption at Pompeii. The volcano erupted in 79 A.D. and destroyed the city of Pompeii, Italy, coating everything in a layer of ash. Many bodies were discovered centuries later covered in ash in the positions in which they had died.

Mount Vesuvius has existed for hundreds of thousands of years, and in this time, it has erupted more than 50 times. When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D., it shot volcanic lava, ash and rocks into the sky and destroyed every village in a 15 mile radius. Pompeii was abandoned after the eruption until a group of explorers discovered it in 1748.

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