A palindrome is a word, number, phrase, or other sequence of characters which reads the same backward as forward. The first palindrome was written in Latin and traced back to ancient Rome; they have also been found in ancient Sanskrit and Greek. Additionally, palindromes have been found as graffiti in the remains of the city of Herculaneum. Herculaneum was buried in volcanic ash circa AD 79 by Mount Vesuvius, Italy. The last week of February is a week of palindromes: 