See an animation of the Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79 A.D., which buried Pompeii.

Described as the most popular traveling exhibition ever staged by an Australian museum, Zero One Animation’s simulation of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D., which buried the City of Pompeii, was presented in 2009, at the Melbourne Museum’s immersive 3D theater installation.

The video, published on Dec 19, 2013, begins at 8:00 a.m. on August 24, 79 A.D. and ends at the end of August 25. The closing caption reads:

By the end of 25 August, the landscape around Mt. Vesuvius had been changed forever. Vesuvius was a crater. The river and the port were gone. Pompeii had been completely buried. Within a few years no one could remember where the city had once stood.

A Day in Pompeii

VIDEO: 8 min. 40 sec., Animation

To see Pliny, the younger’s description of how people reacted to and evaded the disaster, visit the next page.