Mount Vesuvius in Italy is as deadly as it is beautiful. It is the volcano responsible for destroying (and preserving) Pompeii and Herculaneum (as well as Oplontis and Stabiae). Famously Mount Vesuvius erupted in its fire and fury in AD 79 in an eruption that ejected clouds of stones, ashes, volcanic gases to a height of 33 kilometers or 21 miles into the atmosphere.

Today it is thought of as one of the most dangerous volcanos on earth. It is also one of the easiest to visit. But Pompeii is not the only ancient city to be covered and preserved by volcanic ash. In Greece thousands of years before Pompeii, the ancient Minoan city of Akrotiri was likewise destroyed and preserved.