Place: Ercolano

Located in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, Herculaneum (Italian: Ercolano) was an ancient Roman town destroyed by volcanic pyroclastic flows in 79 AD. Its ruins are located in the comune of Ercolano, Campania, Italy.

Herculaneum is one of the few ancient cities to be preserved more or less intact, with no later accretions or modifications. Like its sister city, Pompeii, Herculaneum is famous for having been buried in lava and ash, along with Pompeii, Stabiae, Oplontis and Boscoreale, during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.

Unlike Pompeii, the heavy blanket of lava that covered Herculaneum carbonized and thereby preserved wood and other organic-based materials such as roofs, beds, doors, and food. Although most of the residents had evacuated the city in advance of the lava, the well-preserved skeletons of 300 people who perished near the seawall were discovered in 1997.

Although it was smaller than Pompeii, Herculaneum was a wealthier town than Pompeii, possessing an extraordinary density of fine houses with, for example, far more lavish use of coloured marble cladding.