A New Discovery In Pompeii, Italy
Vocab level: B2
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Mount Vesuvius may have erupted 80 years ago, but it's best known for the eruption that occurred in 79 AD,
covering the ancient city of Pompeii in volcanic ash for thousands of years.
Archaeologists have spent centuries unearthing the well-preserved ancient city in Italy and continue making discoveries even today.
And we're getting a glimpse of the high-end, resort-like destinations that people were enjoying nearly 2,000 years ago.
Our Ben Wedeman is there to show us around a lavish spa complex that's recently been unearthed in Pompeii.
Around noon in AD 79, Mount Vesuvius began to erupt.
If they were lucky, residents managed to flee. The rest were dead.
For centuries afterward, Pompeii was largely forgotten
until the middle of the 1700s, when digging began in earnest.
The site is so vast, and its..., you know, 13,000 rooms excavated in two and a half centuries.
There are still new discoveries.
The latest: this lavish complex of baths, including a caldarium (a hot room),
a tepidarium (a warm room),
and a frigidarium (a room with a pool of cold water)
and the banquet hall.
Now, one of the reasons why Pompeii is so well-preserved is that...
when the eruption of Vesuvius took place,
it was covered by this: pumice - lightweight solidified lava.
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