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 kilometers 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 obelisk 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.

The ship was destroyed during WW2 when German soldiers burned down the Italian museum where it was being restored.

See also

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

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.