*Includes pictures*Includes descriptions of Pompeii In Charles River Editors’ History for Kids series, your children can learn about history’s most important people and events in an easy, entertaining, and educational way. Pictures help bring the story to life, and the concise but comprehensive book will keep your kid’s attention all the way to the end.They come in droves, busloads of tourists shepherded down through modern streets, shops and stalls, past souvenir stands and hordes of local guides offering insight and spectacle. From all across the world they come to the Italian region of Campania, to walk the cobbles of ancient streets, peer at frescoes, marvel at sculptures, and visit the remnants of historic villas, bath-houses and even brothels. In 2003, it was estimated these international visitors contributed some $35 million dollars to the Italian economy. A feature of the Grand Tour, an educational rite of passage for wealthy travelers from the mid-1600s to the mid-1800s, Pompeii has long been a popular destination for tourists; in 2008, an estimated 2.5 million tourists visited it.The type of tourists also changed over time. In 79 A.D., the year Vesuvius erupted, Pompeii was actually the equivalent of a resort town for wealthy Romans. Over 1500 years later, it was only the wealthy elite who could afford to travel, trekking through Italy to examine culture, art and the roots of Western civilization. They sought exposure to the relics of classical antiquity while deepening language skills, broadening aristocratic connections, commissioning paintings and generally mingling with the higher social classes of the Continent. In more contemporary times, increases in the technology of transportation allowed the movement of people from multiple social classes, scales of wealth and cultural backgrounds. The style of traveler has altered, but the attractions of Pompeii have not.Naturally, the main attraction of Pompeii is its time capsule nature, and the way in which it provides a snapshot of life in the past. The study of archaeology can examine varied scales of space and time, examining the long term changes of human material across centuries and continents, or the short term actions of a single event in one small room. Scale varies according to the research questions and the available data, but it goes without saying that it is highly unusual to encounter the material culture of an entire city effectively preserved within a single moment.The right conditions for preservation are rare enough, but such preservation also requires tragedy, and it is this that provides the other part of Pompeii’s great attraction. The story of Pompeii’s destruction is perhaps even more compelling to many tourists than the tales of its everyday life. The power of an erupting volcano burned and buried a vibrant, living city in an astonishingly short amount of time, killing many in the cataclysm. Modern visitors to the remains of the ancient city are able to come face to face with that moment of destruction and death, perhaps contextualizing their own mortality as they do so. Now listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, the archaeological remains of Pompeii continue to be a vibrant part of the modern world through its tourist interaction, economic contribution and opportunity to provide knowledge of the past to the people of the present.History for The Ancient Roman City of Pompeii comprehensively covers the history of the famous Roman city that was born, destroyed, and reborn again, looking at what life was like in the city before and during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Along with pictures, your kids will learn about Pompeii like never before.