# Pompeii

> The Forum · BURIED AD 79 · ASH 4 TO 6 M DEEP

Buried under four to six metres of ash in AD 79, and largely preserved by it. The Bureau files the eruption under conservation measures, unintended. The town held ten to twenty thousand inhabitants at the time. Excavation began in 1748 under Roque Joaquin de Alcubierre, who did not at first establish which city he had found. The Bureau notes that the place was better known before it was buried than for the millennium and a half that followed.

## Sourced figures

- **eruption**: 4–6 m, buried under 4 to 6 m of ash and pumice in the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79 — source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompeii (consulted 21/08/2026)
- **population**: 10 000–20 000, a town of 10 000 to 20 000 inhabitants at the time of its destruction — source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompeii (consulted 21/08/2026)
- **excavation**: 1748, systematic excavation begun in 1748 under Roque Joaquin de Alcubierre — source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompeii (consulted 25/09/2026)

## Reference image

- print: The Forum, Pompeii, Italy
- held by: Library of Congress, Photochrom Print Collection
- licence: Public domain
- file: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Forum,_Pompeii,_Italy-LCCN2001700922.jpg

## Where to buy

Printed on demand and sold by Spreadshirt. Full page: https://gazetteerbureau.com/designs/pompeii

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The Gazetteer Bureau is a merchandise brand in the form of a fictional tourism office; the publisher and seller of record is CGDEV. Method and reference index: https://gazetteerbureau.com/sources