Pompeii, Herculaneum, and the other ancient cities along the Bay of Naples destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE continue to spark our imagination just as they did when they were dug up in the eighteenth century. The excavation of so many well-preserved examples of ancient Greco-Roman civilization helped inspire the Enlightenment and an interest throughout the Western world in ancient art and design, classical philosophy, and literature.