Caligula's Giant Ship

Caligula's "Giant Ship", also known as the 'round ship', was a very large barge whose ruins were found during the construction of Rome's Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in Fiumicino, Italy. This was previously a Roman port a few miles north of Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber River.

This Roman barge had a length of between 95 and 104 meters (341 ft) and a beam of about 20.3 meters (66 ft). It was 6 decks high, displaced a minimum of 7400 tons, and carried a crew of 700-800.

Pliny the Elder describes the sinking of a massive 800 ton ship that had transported the St. Peter's Square obelisk from Egypt to use as the foundation of a large lighthouse in Ostia. This lighthouse was an imitation of the famous lighthouse in Alexandria, the Pharos of Alexandria. [ [http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba57/feat3.html "Gateway to Rome"] , Simon Keay, British Archaeology, Issue 57, February 2001, ISSN 1357-4442.]

Notes

See also

*Roman Navy
*Nemi ships
*List of world's largest wooden ships

External links

* [http://www2.rgzm.de/navis/Musea/Ostia/Fiumicino_English.htm "The Museum of the Roman Ships: The Port of Claudius"] , Giulia Boetto, translated by Claire Calcagno, Museum of the Roman Ships, Ministry of the Cultural Activities and Heritage Archaeological Superintendency of Ostia
* [http://www.abc.se/~pa/uwa/wrekmed1.htm "Wrecks & shipfinds of the Mediterranean 2. Antiquity after 480 BC"] , Per Åkesson, rev aug '05, Wrecks & shipfinds Worldwide, Nordic Underwater Archaeology.