Quick- name an ancient city buried under the debris of a volcano. Pompeii of course! And there was that other city; what was its name? While it's true that Pompeii and Herculaneum are the most famous examples, they are far from the only cities buried by a volcanic eruption. They weren't even the only cities buried under the 79AD eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. When people began to congregate in cities, they didn't know how dangerous that nearby volcano could be.
Cuicuilco was a Mesoamerican city, located in the present-day borough of Tlalpan in Mexico City, that was destroyed in a series of eruptions at the Xitle volcano.
The city emerged during a period when Mesoamerican villages from the mid-Preclassic (800 BC) were merging into the large population centres of the late Preclassic (AD 100).
Cuicuilco became an important regional urban and ceremonial centre, inhabited by an estimated population of around 20,000 people.
A series of eruptions at the Xitle volcano during the end of the pre-Classic period released basaltic lava flows that engulfed much of the city in volcanic rock, leading to the dispersion of Cuicuilca’s people towards Toluca and Teōtīhuacān.
As you can see from the image, urban living is once again encroaching upon Cuicuilco. Read the stories of six cities that thrived until the volcano blew at HeritageDaily. -via Strange Company