Steve Klein, age 16, of Nogales, Ariz., for his question:
WHERE IS HERCULANEUM?
Herculaneum was an ancient Roman city in Italy. Like Pompeii and Stabiae, it was buried when Mount Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79. Herculaneum actually stood at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, six miles from Naples.
The mud and lava that buried Herculaneum also preserved it as a record of life in ancient times. Fifteen hundred years later, archaeologists dug through the hardened layers of mud and lava and found priceless manuscripts, works of art and tools of daily life.
Herculaneum was a pleasant city with a good harbor. It had strong fortifications and was the home of many artistic treasures. The city was badly shaken by an earthquake in A.D. 63 but the damage was repaired.
Sixteen years later came the volcanic eruption that buried Herculaneum, Pompeii and Stabiae. Pompeii and Stabiae were covered by ashes and lava. These cities were not as well preserved as Herculaneum, which was buried under a massive flow of lava and mud that was more than 100 feet deep in some places.
Most of the people of Herculaneum escaped, but thousands of persons in other nearby cities were killed.
A village later grew up near the site of Herculaneum. In the early 1700s, a farmer sank a shaft for a well and found marble statues far below the surface. Soon afterward, someone sank another shaft and discovered a theater.
The government of Naples took up the task of excavation in 1738. The deposits were much deeper at Herculaneum than at Pompeii, so digging was more difficult. Excavation was stopped in the 1800s but resumed in 1926 by the Italian government.
The site of the old city is now honeycombed by tunnels, many of which robbers dug. It is believed that thieves have carried off many of the priceless works of art that were buried under the ash and lava.
Although thieves did take many of the treasures of Herculaneum, the authorized excavators still found large numbers of priceless works of art.
Most of the precious works of art which archaeologists were able to discover in the ruins of Herculaneum are now housed in an exhibit at the National Museum in Naples, Italy.
Vesuvius is the only active volcano on the mainland of Europe and probably the most famous volcano in the world. It rises on the Bay of Naples. It has been studied by scientists more than any other volcano.
Vesuvius' big eruption was in A.D. 79. Then in 472 it erupted again and ashes poured from the crater in such great amounts that they were carried by the wind as far as what is now Istanbul. There were other great eruptions in 1794, 1822, 1855, 1872, 1880, 1895, 1906, 1929 and 1944.
Before the eruption of 1944, thousands of visitors came to Vesuvius every year. They could go down into the crater for some distance and see a crimson stream of lava flow from the cone and turn into a bed of cold stone. A cable railway which took visitors to within 450 feet of the edge of the crater was destroyed in this eruption.
Many people today still visit the area.