Caligula's "giant ship"

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Caligula's "Giant 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 about 95 meters and a beam of about 21 meters wide. Some speculate that this ship, or a similar ship, was used to transport the obelisk in St. Peter's Square from Egypt on the orders of Roman emperor Caligula.

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.
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