Lake Nemi study and research trip

The Nemi Ships were two ships, one ship larger than the other, built by the Roman emperor Caligula in the 1st century AD. Although the purpose of the ships is only speculated upon, the larger ship was essentially an elaborate floating palace, which contained quantities of marble, mosaic floors, heating and plumbing and amenities such as baths. Both ships featured technology thought to have been developed historically much later.

Recovered from the lake bed in 1929, the ships were destroyed by fire during World War II in 1944.

The lake was sacred to the goddess Diana Nemorensis and the site of the festival Nemoralia. Near the sanctuary of Diana were found a number of diminutive bronze statues of draped women and men, each holding libation bowls and incense boxes. Four of these figures are now in the British Museum's collection. Emperors Caligula and Tiberius sailed Lake Nemi not merely to cool off in summer, but to assert themselves as Nemorensis, rulers aligning with the Stars, wedded to Earth's perpetual life-force.

At the Hotel Diana, on the Western edge of the crater at Via Nemorense, there is a fine exhibit of the archeological excavation of the late 1920s.

The lake has also featured in numerous works of art and literature. Notably painted by William Turner, John Robert Cozens, George Inness, and Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes, among many other, the lake is also the setting for Muriel Spark's 1976 novel 'The Takeover' and is featured in the game Assassin's Creed Brotherhood!