Location of Noah's ark



In, the Bible tells that Noah and his family survived a devastating global flood by following God's instructions to build a massive ark, in which they placed two of every unclean land animal, and seven of every clean animal. The ark was defined as being three hundred cubits long (450 ft), twenty-two and a half meters wide (75 ft) and thirteen and a half meters high (45 ft).

The Bible says that following the flood the ark came to rest in the mountains of Ararat. Furthermore, it is stated that the Ark came to rest more than two months before the tops of the mountains were visible.

Numerous sightings of the ark have been reported and many expeditions undertaken to search for its remains. Due to the aforementioned verses, most believe the Ark to reside at the top of the largest peak in the mountains of Ararat, which today remains covered by glacial ice. As of yet no claim of discovery has been confirmed to be the Ark of Noah.

Sightings

 * Main Article Noah's ark expeditions

The Bible says that the Ark came to rest in the mountains of Ararat, which are a range of mountains found in eastern turkey, between the Black and Caspian Seas in southern Armenia. The tallest of the peaks is known as Mount Ararat, which may be the largest mountain in the world by mass.

Two peaks, about 7 miles (11 kilometers) apart, have been the primary site for the search for Noah's Ark. Mount Ararat is 14,300 feet and the other 10,300 feet above the adjacent Araxes plain. The higher of the two has a snow-covered peak year round, and was known to the ancient Persians (who were neither Jews nor Christians) as "Noah's mountain."

The Turkish government will not lets us search for the ark on Ararat. The conditions of Ararat's peak would maybe preserve the ark because of freezing temperatures. 

There has been many sightings of the ark recorded throughout history. Numerous people have claimed to have found the ark when hiking such as Georgie Hagopian who claimed his uncle took him to see the ark when he was a boy. He claimed to have stood on the Ark, and his uncle shot the Ark, but the bullets bounced off. His description of size and appearance does not fit the account in Genesis. Another sighting was made by man named Ed Davis. He went hiking and camped about one hundred feet above it. He could not get near it though.

Ararat Anomaly

 * Main Article: Ararat Anomaly

The Ararat Anomaly is an area on Mount Ararat of ice that when partly melted, looks as thought the remains of the ark. Photos of this site have been taken by the military and were released to the public in March of 1995. The Turkish authorities believe that the CIA placed a listening post there to listen to the soviets. Mount Ararat has been closed to the public, making it extremely hard to search for the Ark. Another explanation of this anomaly is linear facades. They form when ice slides down a mountain slowly.

Porcher Taylor is the man that the photos were released to. He has studied them deeply. He fought to get his hands on the photos, he has worked on this project for thirteen years. After careful study it has been pointed out that this would be about as big as one of the largest aircraft carriers.

Other Ararat sightings
The following account of sightings were compiled in the book The Ark on Ararat by Tim LaHaye & John Morris, 1976.


 * 257 BC - Berosus, Chaldean historian

"But of this ship that grounded in Armenia, some part if it still remains ... and some get pitch from the ship by scraping it off and use it for amulets to ward off evil." (LaHaye p. 15).


 * 1st Century - Jewish historian Flavius Josephus mentions the remains of Noah's ark 3 times.

''"The Armenians call that spot the Landing-Place, for it was there that the Ark came safe to land, and they show the relics of it to this day. This flood and the Ark are mentioned by all who have written histories of the barbarians. Among these is Berosus the Chaldean, who in his description of the events of the flood writes somewhere as follows: 'It is said, moreover, that a portion of the vessel still survives in Armenia on the mountains of the Gordyaens, and that persons carry off pieces of bitumen, which they use as talismans.' These matters are also mentioned by Hieronymus the Egyptian, author of the ancient history of Phoenicia, by Mnaseas and by many others. Nicholas of Damascus in his ninety-sixth book relates the story as follows: 'There is above the country of the Minyas in Armenia a great mountain called Baris, where, as the story goes, many refugees found safety at the time of the flood, and one man, transported upon an ark, grounded upon the summit: and relics of the timber were for long preserved.'

"...the country called Carrae: it was a soil that bare amomum in great plenty: there are also in it the remains of that ark, wherein it is related that Noah escaped the deluge, and where they are still shown to such as are desirous to see them" (LaHaye pp. 16-17).


 * 180 AD - Theophilus of Antioch

"And of the Ark, the remains are to this day to be seen in the Arabian mountains" (LaHaye p. 17)


 * 4th Century - Bishop Epiphanius of Salamis

"Do you seriously suppose that we are unable to prove our point, when even to this day the remains of Noah's Ark are shown in the country of the Kurds? Why, were one to search diligently, doubtless one would also find at the foot of the mountain the remnants of the altar where Noah, on leaving the Ark, tarried to offer clean and fatly animals as a sacrifice to the Lord God" (LaHaye p.21).


 * 4th Century - John Chrysostom

"Do not the mountains of Armenia testify to it, where the Ark rested? And are not the remains of the Ark preserved there to this very day for our admonition" (LaHaye p. 21).


 * 610 BC - Isidore of Seville

''Ararat is a mountain in Armenia, where the historians testify that the Ark came to rest after the Flood. So even to this day wood remains of it are to be seen there"'' (LaHaye p. 22)

1245 AD - Jehan Haithon, an Armenian monk

"Upon the snows of Ararat a black speck is visible at all times: this is Noah's Ark" (LaHaye p. 21)


 * 1633 AD - Adam Olearius

"The Armenians, and the Persians themselves, are of opinion that there are still upon the said mountain some remainders of the Ark, but that Time hath so hardened them, that they seem absolutely petrify'd. At Schamachy in Media Persia, we were shown a Crosse of a black and hard Wood, which the Inhabitants affirmed to have been made of the Wood of the Ark" (LaHaye p. 22).


 * 1856 AD - Haji Yearam

"It was an unusually hot summer, so the snow and glaciers had melted more than usual. The Armenians were very reticent to undertake any expedition to the Ark because they feared God's displeasure, but the father of Haji thought that possibly the time had come when God wanted the world to know the Ark was still there and he wanted to prove to those atheists that the Bible story of the Flood and the Ark is true.

"They went inside the Ark and did considerable exploring. It was divided up into many floors and stages and compartments and had bars like animal cages off today. The whole structure was covered with a varnish or lacquer that was very thick and strong, both outside and inside the ship. The ship was built more like a great and mighty house on the hull of a ship, but without any windows. There was a great doorway of immense size, but the door was missing. The scientists were appalled and dumbfounded and went into a Satanic rage at finding what they hoped to prove nonexistent. They were so angry and mad that they said they would destroy the ship, but the wood was more like stone than any wood we have now. They did not have tools or means to wreck so mighty a ship and had to give up. They did tear out some timbers and tried to burn the wood, but it was so hard it was almost impossible to burn it.

"They held a council, and then took a solemn and fearful death oath. Any man present who would ever breathe a word about what they had found would be tortured and murdered"

(LaHaye pp. 46-47).

In 1915, just before Haji died at 75 years old, he told his story. In 1918 on his death bed one of the 3 atheists told his story which matched in every detail.


 * 1883 AD - Turkish scientists, soldiers, and a British diplomat, Captain Gascoyne, investigated an earthquake on Ararat.

"At last they were rewarded by the sight of a huge dark mass, protruding twenty or thirty feet from the glacier, on the left side of the ravine. ... It was in a good state of preservation, being painted on the outside with a dark brown pigment, and constructed of great strength. ... the explorers found it filled for the greater part with ice, the interior being partitioned off into compartments about twelve or fifteen feet high..." (LaHaye p. 57).


 * 1908-10 - Georgie Hagopian, Armenian immigrant

"The Ark was resting on a huge rock, bluish-green in color, but one side was on the edge of a steep cliff. The mountain was impossible to climb from the side. When he looked over the edge, he could hardly see the bottom of the mist.

"The Ark was very long and rectangular. Parts of the bottom were exposed and he could see that it was flat. The roof was nearly flat, except for a row of windows, 50 or more, estimated size 18 inches x 30 inches, running from front to back covered by an overhanging roof. The front was also flat. The side tipped out a little from the bottom to top.

"The wood appeared to be entirely petrified" (LaHaye pp. 70-71).


 * 1916-17 - Russian and Turkish soldiers entered the Ark.


 * 1943 - American Airmen photographed the Ark.


 * 1948 - Kurdish Farmer named Resit

"The prow of a ship protruding into a canyon was seen. The prow was almost entirely revealed, but the rest of the object still was covered." (LaHaye p.115)


 * 1953 - George Green

Helicopter pilot Green described the Ark lying generally in a north-south direction, situated seemingly on a large rock bench or shelf on the side of a vertical rock cliff at the 13,000 to 14,000 ft. level. He photographed it, but his photos disappeared in British Guiana when he was murdered there in 1962 (LaHaye pp. 135-137)

The Iran Claim
In the Elburz Mountains a group of scientists discovered what is thought to be a mass of stone beams. The beams looked as though they had once been wood. The Elburz Mountains are located in Iran. Another source of proof would be that they also discovered fossils of marine animals such as shells and other small crustaceans. The rock beams they found turned out to be petrified wood. The group also found wood and broken pottery not far form the location indicating that the area was a place of worship. This find does not seem likely to many people because none of Noah's workmanship shows, even wooden pegs would us more to base our information on. Many tests have been done but, no results have come in handy in proving that the finding was really the ark. The biggest problem we have is that the ark is made of gopher wood, we have no idea what that is.

The Durupınar Site

 * Main Article: Durupınar

A man named Captain İlhan Durupınar discovered a large formation in Turkey that resembled the shape of a boat on October of 1959. In 1960, he and another team surveyed the site and after two days of digging, found nothing of artefactual importance. The site was not paid much attention until it was re-popularized by Ron Wyatt in the early 80s. When measured, the site the site was found to be five hundred and thirty eight feet long, the approximate length of the ark described in the Bible. In 1987 the site was officially declared to be Noah's Ark by the Turkish Government, and dedicated as a national park. While numerous people hold that the boat-shaped mound is the remains of Noah's ark, the vast majority of creationists interpret the formation to be the result of regional mud flows.

Hoaxes
There have been many hoaxes in claim to have found the ark. A French man told people that he have found a wooden beam that supposedly belonged to Noah’s Ark. The beam was dated at ninety five and fifty years old two different times. Come to find out the man was found out. His guide had told them that the man bought it from a village. A man named George Jammal also claimed to have found a piece of wood while exploring. Jammal turned out to be an actor and he had taken the wood from Long Beach California and hardened it by cooking it with things that made it very hard.