Mount Vesuvius
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One of its earliest recorded eruptions, in a.d. 79, buried Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae under cinders, ash, and mud.
It is the only active volcano on the mainland of Europe. (Another, Mount Etna, is on the island of Sicily.)
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And when it comes to the legacy of Mount Vesuvius — able to change the sky and move the earth — history encompasses all that’s above and plenty that’s subterranean, too.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 13, 2026
An intricate mechanical model created in 1775 to capture the explosive beauty of Italy's Mount Vesuvius has erupted to life for the very first time, 250 years after it was first imagined.
From Science Daily • Nov. 7, 2025
He writes in a wry, amicable style, skillfully layering on his chosen leitmotifs—the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 17, 2025
Stunning artworks have been uncovered in a new excavation at Pompeii, the Roman city famously buried in an eruption from Mount Vesuvius in AD79.
From BBC • Apr. 11, 2024
In the 1730s and 40s, building work near Naples had accidentally discovered the buried ruins of the first-century Roman towns Herculaneum and Pompeii, in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
