History
Pompeii was preserved by the thing that killed it
Vesuvius buried the city in ash in 79 AD, sealing bread in ovens and paint on walls for 1,700 years.
More in History
The Great Pyramid held a record for 3,800 years
At 146 metres, the Great Pyramid of Giza was the tallest structure humans built until Lincoln Cathedral overtook it in the 1300s.
Cleopatra lived closer to the Moon landing than to the pyramids
The Great Pyramid was already 2,500 years old in Cleopatra's lifetime. She lived only about 2,000 years before Apollo 11.
Oxford University is older than the Aztec Empire
Teaching began at Oxford around 1096. Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire, was founded in 1325 — over two centuries later.
Pompeii was buried in a single day
When Vesuvius erupted in AD 79 it threw a 30 km column of ash into the sky, then collapsed into scorching surges that buried the city under metres of pumice within about 18 hours.
The famous Pompeii bodies are casts of empty space
The victims decayed, leaving hollow cavities in hardened ash. In 1863 archaeologists poured plaster into those voids, recreating the exact poses of people who died 1,800 years earlier.
Pompeii preserved Roman graffiti
Thousands of messages survive scratched into its walls — election slogans, love notes, insults and bar tabs. It is the closest thing we have to ordinary Roman voices.