Mount Vesuvius is an active volcano that rises above the Gulf of Naples in the Campania plain in southern Italy. More than two million people live near it. There are industrial cities along the coast of the Gulf of Naples and small agricultural centers on the northern slopes. Although a relatively young volcano, it erupted in AD 79 and buried Pompeii, Oplontes, Stabia under ash, and Labelle and Herculaneum under a mudflow.