Caligula's Giant Ship

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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 feet) and a beam of about 20.3 meters (66 feet). 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.^[1]

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Gateway to Rome, Simon Keay, British Archaeology, Issue 57, February 2001, ISSN 1357-4442.

[edit] See also

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

[edit] External links

• 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
• Wrecks & shipfinds of the Mediterranean 2. Antiquity after 480 BC, Per Åkesson, rev aug '05, Wrecks & shipfinds Worldwide, Nordic Underwater Archaeology.