Bettie's Books

The online course Archaeology of Portus: exploring the lost harbour of ancient Rome starts today.

5)Emperor Caligula's "Giant" ship - 95-104 meters:

known as the 'round ship', it 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 kilometres north of Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber River.

This Roman barge had a length of between 95 and 104 metres (341 ft) and a beam of about 20.3 m (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. It was filled with concrete to create an artificial mole that enclosed an anchorage and be to used as the foundation of a large lighthouse in Ostia. This lighthouse was an imitation of the famous lighthouse in Alexandria, the Pharos of Alexandria.