In the 1st C. A.D. the emperor Caligula had two gigantic flat keeled ships built on lake Nemi. The vessels were 70 metres long and over 20 metres wide.
Using the most amazing engineering techniques, an entire palace was built on one of them, and a temple with a colonnade on the other, both extremely luxurious buildings.
According to a few authors, the ships were intended both for ceremonies connected with the worship of the goddess Diana, and for the entertainment of the emperor. Recent theories however would seem to connect the sacred ships to the cult of Isis in Egypt, which the emperor was particularly interested in.
No reason for their sinking has even been found, but it is likely that the conspirators who murdered Caligula did so in order to wipe out all memory of him.
The hulls of the ships were retrieved from the bottom of the lake in the Thirties. In order to house the hulls along with the other materials that had been found with them, a Roman Ship Museum was built on the shores of the lake. Unfortunately the ships were set on fire by the fleeing Nazis in 1944 and completely destroyed. Now the museum exhibits exact replicas and a few remains of the originals.

Galleria fotografica