Arca lui Noe a fost găsită oficial în munţii Turciei

A devenit un fapt obişnuit ca, din când în când, să apară diverse reportaje în
mass-media cu privire la urmele legendare Arce a lui Noe. Majoritatea acestor arată
că există un obiect misterios aşezat pe vârful Muntelui Ararat, ce pare a fi o corabie
veche pe care Noe a salvat animalele de la Marele Potop.

Muntele Ararat.
Iată ce spune referatul biblic cu privire la Arca lui Noe: „Atunci a zis Domnul
Dumnezeu către Noe: «Sosit-a înaintea feţei Mele sfârşitul a tot omul, căci s-a umplut
pământul de nedreptăţile lor, şi iată Eu îi voi pierde de pe pământ. 14. Tu însă fă-ti o
corabie de lemn de salcâm. În corabie să faci despărţituri şi smoleşte-o cu smoală pe
dinăuntru şi pe din afară. 15. Corabia însă să o faci aşa: lungimea corăbiei să fie de
trei sute de coţi, lăţimea ei de cincizeci de coţi, iar înălţimea de treizeci de coţi. 16. Să
faci corăbiei o fereastră la un cot de la acoperiş, iar uşa corăbiei să o faci într-o parte
a ei. De asemenea să faci într-însa trei rânduri de cămări: jos, la mijloc şi sus. 17. Şi
iată Eu voi aduce asupra pământului potop de apă, ca să pierd tot trupul de sub cer, în
care este suflu de viaţă, şi tot ce este pe pământ va pieri. 18. Iar cu tine voi face
legământul Meu; şi vei intra în corabie tu şi împreună cu tine vor intra fiii tăi, femeia
ta şi femeile fiilor tăi. 19. Să intre în corabie din toate animalele, din toate târâtoarele,
din toate fiarele şi din tot trupul, câte două, parte bărbătească şi parte femeiască, ca să
rămână cu tine în viaţă.»” (Facere 6, 13-19).
După ce a început Potopul, corabia se înălţa tot mai sus deasupra pământului
până când a ajuns la vârful celui mai înalt munte. Potopul a continuat timp de 40 de
zile si 40 de nopţi şi apoi s-a oprit, iar corabia a rămas suspendată pe vârful Muntelui
Ararat.
De atunci mulţi oameni au încercat să descopere rămăşiţe ale Arcei lui Noe pe
vârful muntelui. Cu toate acestea, Sfânta Scriptură menţionează că pe munţii Ararat
s-a oprit corabia (Facere 8, 4), şi nu pe Muntele Ararat. Experţii sunt de părere că este
vorba despre Munţii Urartu din estul Turciei de astăzi.
În 1960, Lihan Durupinar, un general din armata turcă, a făcut mai multe
fotografii aeriene. Într-una din aceste fotografii, Durupinar a observat un obiect
ciudat suspendat la o înălţime de 1900 metri în Munţii Ararat. Obiectul avea formă de
navă, cu o lungime de aproximat 150 de metri. La scurt timp după ce fotografia a fost
publicată, o echipă alcătuită din oameni de ştiinţă americani şi turci au pornit într-o
expediţie de cercetare pe munte.

La o înălţime de aproape 2.000 de metri deasupra nivelului mării, au observat o

porţiune de teren plat acoperit cu iarbă. Într-adevăr, terenul semăna cu o corabie.
Dimensiunea parcelei de teren era foarte apropiată de cea menţionată în Biblie. Cu
toate acestea, oamenii de ştiinţă nu au efectuat o examinare detaliată a sitului
arheologic. Ei pur şi simplu ajuns la concluzia că acea formaţiune ciudată nu a fost
nimic altceva decât un fenomen natural.
În luna septembrie anului 1960, un medic american de 27 de ani, Ron Wyatt,
arheolog amator, a citit un articol în revista „Life” despre acest fenomen şi astfel
căutarea Arcei lui Noe a devenit principalul obiectivul din viaţa sa.
În 1977, Wyatt a început misiunea în Turcia împreună cu cei doi fii ai săi.
Având de depăşit numeroase piedici, în cele din urmă cercetătorul american şi fiii săi
au ajuns în sat, unde au găsit indicaţii preţioase în rândul populaţiei locale. La
marginea satului, ei au descoperi mai mulţi bolovani, ce semănau cu pietre de
ancorare. Ron văzuse înainte fotografii ale acestor roci în cărţi de arheologie.
Bolovanii perforaţi au servit ca ancore pentru navele vechi. S-a dovedit că au existat
cruci gravate pe toate pietre din acea zonă.
 Ron Wyatt
Ceva mai târziu, Ron a găsit obiectul ce semăna cu o corabie. Acest obiect
fusese cufundat adânc în pământ. Cei trei au avut de efectuat lucrări de excavare
pentru a afla dacă legendara arcă era ascunsă în pământ.
În august 1979, după cutremur în Turcia, Ron Wyatt a vizitat situl din nou.
Cercetătorul a descoperit că pământul a descoperit rămășițele fosilizate ale navei.
Wyatt nu primise o autorizaţie pentru lucrările arheologice până la acea dată, aşa că a
decis să lucreze pe cont propriu. Data viitoare, în august 1984, el a folosit aparate de
detectat metale în cercetarea sa.
Scanarea a scos la iveală o întreagă reţea de metal în jurul obiectului, ce era de
origine artificială. Ron a cercetat panta muntelui unde se oprise „Arca”. Sus în munte,
a descoperit ruinele ale unei vechi construcţii din piatră. În apropierea ruinelor exista
un lot de teren de 36×12 metri, ce era încadrat cu un fel lemn fosilizate.
În decembrie 1986, oficialii turci reprezentând Ministerele de Interne şi Externe,
precum şi un grup de cercetători din oraşul lui Ataturk au aprobat poziţia oficială
afirmând că formaţiunea descoperită de către Ron Wyatt şi colegii săi conţine într-
adevăr rămăşiţele Arcei lui Noe.
După descoperirea “oficială” a Arcei lui Noe au avut loc multe discuţii. Unii
oameni de ştiinţă sunt de părere că Wyatt a descoperit într-adevăr corabia biblică, în
timp ce alţii nu sunt de acord cu această teorie. Căutare pentru Arca continuă.
Anul trecut, un grup de exploratori chinezi şi turci aflaţi în căutarea relicvelor
biblice a anunţat la rândul său că rămăşiţele găsite în vârful muntelui sunt ale Arcei
lui Noe.
 Yeung Wing-Cheung
“Nu suntem 100% siguri că este vorba despre Arcă dar, în proporţie de 99,9 %,
despre ea este vorba”, a declarat Yeung Wing-Cheung, membru al echipei de 15
oameni aflată pe urmele Arcei.
Structura descoperită de parteneriatul chinezo-turc avea câteva compartimente,
dintre care unele conţineau cuşti din lemn, în care se crede că erau ţinute animalele.
Oficialii locali turci vor solicita guvernului de la Ankara să aplice pentru statutul de
Patrimoniu Internaţional UNESCO, astfel încât situl recent descoperit să fie protejat
în timp ce mari săpături arheologice sunt performate în jurul său.
sursa: pravda.ru & descopera.ro
Noah's Ark
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Noah's Ark (1846), a painting by the American folk painter Edward Hicks.
Noah's Ark (Hebrew: ‫ ;תיבת נח‬Biblical Hebrew: Tevat Noaḥ) is the vessel in the
Genesis flood narrative (Genesis chapters 6–9) by which God spares Noah, his
family, and a remnant of all the world's animals from a world-engulfing flood.[1][2]
According to Genesis, God gave Noah instructions for building the ark. Seven days
before the deluge, God told Noah to enter the ark with his household and the animals.
The story goes on to describe the ark being afloat for 150 days and then coming to
rest on the Mountains of Ararat and the subsequent receding of the waters.[3] The
story is repeated, with variations, in the Quran, where the ark appears as Safina Nūḥ
(Arabic: ‫" سفينة نوح‬Noah's boat"). The Genesis flood narrative is similar to numerous
other flood myths from a variety of cultures. The earliest known written flood myth is
the Sumerian flood myth found in the Epic of Ziusudra.[4]
Searches for Noah's Ark have been made from at least the time of Eusebius
(c.275–339 CE) to the present day. There is no scientific evidence for a global flood,
and despite many expeditions, no evidence of the ark has been found.[5][6][7][8][9][10] The
challenges associated with housing all living animal types, and even plants, would
have made building the ark a practical impossibility.[11]
Ark: Genesis 6–9
The Hebrew word for the ark, teba, occurs twice in the Bible, in the flood
narrative and in the Book of Exodus, where it refers to the basket in which Jochebed
places the infant Moses. (The word for the ark of the covenant[12] is quite different.)
In both cases teba has a connection with salvation from waters.[13]:21
Noah is warned of the coming flood and told to construct the ark. God spells out
to Noah the dimensions of the vessel: 300 cubits in length, 50 cubits in width and 30
cubits in height (450 × 75 × 45 ft or 137 × 22.9 × 13.7 m).[14][15] It had three internal
divisions (which are not actually called "decks", although presumably this is what is
intended), a door in the side, and a tsohar, which may be either a roof or a skylight.[16]
It is made of "gopher" wood, a word which appears nowhere elsewhere in the
Bible, and is divided into qinnim, a word which always refers to birds' nests
elsewhere, leading some scholars[who?] to emend this to qanim (reeds), the material
used for the boat of Atrahasis, the Babylonian flood-hero. God instructs Noah to
kapar (smear) the ark with koper (pitch): in Hebrew the first of these words is a verb
formed from the second and, like "gopher", it is a word found nowhere else in the
Bible.
Noah is instructed to take on board his wife, his three sons, and his sons' wives.
He is also to take two of every living thing, and seven pairs of every clean creature
and of every bird, together with sufficient food.
Theology: the ark as microcosm
The story of the flood closely parallels the story of the creation: a cycle of
creation, un-creation, and re-creation, in which the ark plays a pivotal role.[17] The
universe as conceived by the ancient Hebrews comprised a flat disk-shaped habitable
earth with the heavens above and Sheol, the underworld of the dead, below.[18] These
three were surrounded by a watery "ocean" of chaos, protected by the firmament, a
transparent but solid dome resting on the mountains which ringed the earth.[18] Noah's
three-deck ark represents this three-level Hebrew cosmos in miniature: the heavens,
the earth, and the waters beneath.[19] In Genesis 1, God created the three-level world
as a space in the midst of the waters for humanity; in Genesis 6–8 (the flood
narrative) he fills that space with waters again, saving only Noah, his family and the
animals with him in the ark.[17]
Origins
Composition of the flood narrative
There is a consensus among scholars that the Pentateuch (the first five books of
the Bible, beginning with Genesis) was the product of a long and complex process
that was not completed until after the Babylonian exile.[20]
Comparative mythology: the Babylonian origins of Noah's ark
For well over a century scholars have recognised that the Bible's story of Noah's
ark is based on older Mesopotamian models.[21] Because all these flood stories deal
with events that allegedly happened at the dawn of history, they give the impression
that the myths themselves must come from very primitive origins. But in fact, the
myth of the global flood that destroys all life only begins to appear in the Old
Babylonian period (20th–16th centuries BCE).[22] The reasons for this emergence of
the typical Mesopotamian flood myth may have been bound up with the specific
circumstances of the end of the Third Dynasty of Ur around 2004 BCE and the
restoration of order by the First Dynasty of Isin.[23]
There are nine known versions of the Mesopotamian flood story, each more or
less adapted from an earlier version. In the oldest version, the hero is King Ziusudra
and this version was inscribed around 1600 BCE in the Sumerian city of Nippur. It is
known as the Sumerian Flood Story, and probably derives from an earlier version.
The Ziusudra version tells how he builds a boat and rescues life, when the gods
decide to destroy it. This remains the basic plot for several subsequent flood-stories
and heroes, including Noah. Ziusudra's Sumerian name means "He of long life". In
Babylonian versions his name is Atrahasis, but the meaning is the same. In the
Atrahasis version, the flood is a river flood (lines 6–9 Atrahasis III,iv)
Probably the most famous version is contained in a longer work called the Epic
of Gilgamesh, now known only from a 1st millennium Assyrian copy in which the
flood hero is named Utnapishtim, "He-found-life". (Gilgamesh is the hero of the
complete epic, not the flood story hero).
The last known version of the Mesopotamian flood story was written in Greek in
the 3rd century BCE by a Babylonian priest named Berossus. From the fragments
that survive, it seems little changed from the versions of two thousand years before.
[24]

The version closest to the Biblical story of Noah, as well as its most likely
source, is that of Utnapishtim in the Epic of Gilgamesh.[25] The most complete text of
Utnapishtim's story is a clay tablet dating from the 7th century BCE, but fragments of
the story have been found from as far back as the 19th century BCE.[25]
The parallels – both similarities and differences – between Noah's Ark and the
boat of the Babylonian flood-hero Atrahasis have often been noted. Noah's ark is
rectangular, while Atrahasis was instructed to build his in the form of a cube;
Atrahasis's ark has seven decks with nine compartments on each level, while Noah's
has three decks, but he is not given any instructions on the number of compartments
to build.[26] The word used for "pitch" (sealing tar or resin) is not the normal Hebrew
word, but is closely related to the word used in the Babylonian story.[27]
The causes for God/gods having sent the flood also differ. In the Hebrew
narrative the flood comes as God's judgment on a wicked humanity. In the
Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh the reasons are not given and the flood appears to be
the result of the caprice of the gods.[28] In the Atrahasis version of the Babylonian
flood story, the flood was sent by the gods to reduce human over-population, and
after the flood, other measures were introduced to prevent the problem recurring.[29][30]
[31]

Religious views
Rabbinic Judaism

The Building of Noah's Ark (painting by a French master of 1675).

Talmudic tractates Sanhedrin, Avodah Zarah and Zevahim relate that, while
Noah was building the ark, he attempted to warn his neighbors of the coming deluge,
but was ignored or mocked. In order to protect Noah and his family, God placed lions
and other ferocious animals to guard them from the wicked who tried to stop them
from entering the ark. According to one Midrash, it was God, or the angels, who
gathered the animals to the ark, together with their food. As there had been no need to
distinguish between clean and unclean animals before this time, the clean animals
made themselves known by kneeling before Noah as they entered the ark. A differing
opinion said that the ark itself distinguished clean animals from unclean, admitting
seven pairs each of the former and one pair each of the latter.
According to Sanhedrin 108B, Noah was engaged both day and night in feeding
and caring for the animals, and did not sleep for the entire year aboard the ark.[32] The
animals were the best of their species, and so behaved with utmost goodness. They
abstained from procreation, so that the number of creatures that disembarked was
exactly equal to the number that embarked. The raven created problems, refusing to
leave the ark when Noah sent it forth and accusing the patriarch of wishing to destroy
its race, but as the commentators pointed out, God wished to save the raven, for its
descendants were destined to feed the prophet Elijah.
According to one tradition, refuse was stored on the lowest of the ark's three
decks, humans and clean beasts on the second, and the unclean animals and birds on
the top; a differing interpretation described the refuse as being stored on the utmost
deck, from where it was shoveled into the sea through a trapdoor. Precious stones,
said to be as bright as the noon sun, provided light, and God ensured that food
remained fresh.[33][34][35] Some more unorthodox interpretations of the ark narrative
also surfaced: the 12th-century Jewish commentator Abraham ibn Ezra interpreted
the ark as being a vessel that remained underwater for 40 days, after which it floated
to the surface.[36]
Christianity

An artist's depiction of the construction of the Ark, from the Nuremberg

Chronicle (1493).

A woodcut of Noah's Ark from Anton Koberger's German Bible

Interpretations of the ark narrative played an important role in early Christian
doctrine. The First Epistle of Peter (composed around the end of the first century
AD[37]) compared Noah's salvation through water to salvation through water in
baptism.[1Pt 3:20–21]
St. Hippolytus of Rome (died 235) sought to demonstrate that "the Ark was a
symbol of the Christ who was expected", stating that the vessel had its door on the
east side – the direction from which Christ would appear at the Second Coming – and
that the bones of Adam were brought aboard, together with gold, frankincense, and
myrrh (the symbols of the Nativity of Christ). Hippolytus furthermore stated that the
ark floated to and fro in the four directions on the waters, making the sign of the
cross, before eventually landing on Mount Kardu "in the east, in the land of the sons
of Raban, and the Orientals call it Mount Godash; the Armenians call it Ararat".[38]
On a more practical plane, Hippolytus explained that the lowest of the three decks
was for wild beasts, the middle for birds and domestic animals, and the top level for
humans. He says that male animals were separated from the females by sharp stakes
so that there would be no breeding on board.[38]
The early Church Father and theologian Origen (c. 182–251), in response to a
critic who doubted that the ark could contain all the animals in the world, argued that
Moses, the traditional author of the book of Genesis, had been brought up in Egypt
and would therefore have used the larger Egyptian cubit. He also fixed the shape of
the ark as a truncated pyramid, square at its base, and tapering to a square peak one
cubit on a side; it was not until the 12th century that it came to be thought of as a
rectangular box with a sloping roof.[39]
Early Christian artists depicted Noah standing in a small box on the waves,
symbolizing God saving the Christian Church in its turbulent early years. St.
Augustine of Hippo (354–430), in his work City of God, demonstrated that the
dimensions of the ark corresponded to the dimensions of the human body, which
according to Christian doctrine is the body of Christ and in turn the body of the
Church.[40] St. Jerome (c. 347–420) identified the raven, which was sent forth and did
not return, as the "foul bird of wickedness" expelled by baptism;[41] more enduringly,
the dove and olive branch came to symbolize the Holy Spirit and the hope of
salvation and eventually, peace.[42] The olive branch remains a secular and religious
symbol of peace today.
Ussher's chronology, one of the most prominent attempts to date events
according to the Bible, calculated that Noah would have lived from 2948 until
1998 BCE, with the deluge occurring in 2349 BCE. Calculations based on figures in
the Hebrew Bible place the flood in 1656 AM (Anno Mundi); those based on the
Greek LXX Bible in 2262 AM; and those based on the Samaritan Pentateuch, in
1308 AM. The Book of Jubilees, by a different calculation, also yields the date
1308 AM for the flood.
Islam
Main article: Noah in Islam
 Miniature from Hafiz-i Abru's Majma al-tawarikh. Noah's Ark Iran
(Afghanistan), Herat; Timur's son Shah Rukh (1405–1447) ordered the historian
Hafiz-i Abru to write a continuation of Rashid al-Din's famous history of the world,
Jami al-tawarikh. Like the Il-Khanids, the Timurids were concerned with legitimizing
their right to rule, and Hafiz-i Abru's A Collection of Histories covers a period that
included the time of Shah Rukh himself.

Noah's ark and the deluge from Zubdat-al Tawarikh

In contrast to the Jewish tradition, which uses a term that can be translated as a
"box" or "chest" to describe the Ark, surah 29:15 of the Quran refers to it as a safina,
an ordinary ship, and surah 54:13 describes the ark as "a thing of boards and nails".
Abd Allah ibn Abbas, a contemporary of Muhammad, wrote that Noah was in doubt
as to what shape to make the ark, and that Allah revealed to him that it was to be
shaped like a bird's belly and fashioned of teak wood.[43]
Abdallah ibn 'Umar al-Baidawi, writing in the 13th century, explains that in the
first of its three levels wild and domesticated animals were lodged, in the second the
human beings, and in the third the birds. On every plank was the name of a prophet.
Three missing planks, symbolizing three prophets, were brought from Egypt by Og,
son of Anak, the only one of the giants permitted to survive the Flood. The body of
Adam was carried in the middle to divide the men from the women. Surah 11:41
says: "And he said, 'Ride ye in it; in the Name of Allah it moves and stays!'"; this was
taken to mean that Noah said, "In the Name of Allah!" when he wished the ark to
move, and the same when he wished it to stand still.
Noah spent five or six months aboard the ark, at the end of which he sent out a
raven. But the raven stopped to feast on carrion, and so Noah cursed it and sent out
the dove, which has been known ever since as the friend of humanity. The medieval
scholar Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Husayn Masudi (died 956) wrote that Allah
commanded the Earth to absorb the water, and certain portions which were slow in
obeying received salt water in punishment and so became dry and arid. The water
which was not absorbed formed the seas, so that the waters of the flood still exist.
Masudi says that the ark began its voyage at Kufa in central Iraq and sailed to Mecca,
circling the Kaaba before finally traveling to Mount Judi, which surah 11:44 states
was its final resting place. This mountain is identified by tradition with a hill near the
town of Jazirat ibn Umar on the east bank of the Tigris in the province of Mosul in
northern Iraq, and Masudi says that the spot could be seen in his time.[33][34]
 The Subsiding of the Waters of the Deluge (1829), a painting by the American
painter Thomas Cole
Bahá'í
The Bahá'í Faith regards the Ark and the Flood as symbolic.[44] In Bahá'í belief,
only Noah's followers were spiritually alive, preserved in the "ark" of his teachings,
as others were spiritually dead.[45][46] The Bahá'í scripture Kitáb-i-Íqán endorses the
Islamic belief that Noah had numerous companions on the ark, either 40 or 72, as
well as his family, and that he taught for 950 (symbolic) years before the flood.[47]
The Bahá'í Faith was founded in 19th century Persia, and it recognizes divine
messengers from both the Abrahamic and the Indian traditions.
Historicity
The practical challenges associated with building an ark large enough to house
all living animal types, and even plants, would have been very considerable.[11]
Various editions of the Encyclopædia Britannica reflect the collapse of belief in the
historicity of the ark in the face of advancing scientific knowledge. Its 1771 edition
offered the following as scientific evidence for the ark's size and capacity: "...Buteo
and Kircher have proved geometrically, that, taking the common cubit as a foot and a
half, the ark was abundantly sufficient for all the animals supposed to be lodged in
it ... the number of species of animals will be found much less than is generally
imagined, not amounting to a hundred species of quadrupeds". By the eighth edition
(1853–60), the encyclopedia said of the Noah story, "The insuperable difficulties
connected with the belief that all other existing species of animals were provided for
in the ark are obviated by adopting the suggestion of Bishop Stillingfleet, approved
by Matthew Poole ... and others, that the Deluge did not extend beyond the region of
the Earth then inhabited". By the ninth edition, in 1875, no attempt was made to
reconcile the Noah story with scientific fact, and it was presented without comment.
In the 1960 edition, the article on the ark stated that "Before the days of 'higher
criticism' and the rise of the modern scientific views as to the origin of the species,
there was much discussion among the learned, and many ingenious and curious
theories were advanced, as to the number of animals on the ark".[48]
Ark's geometrics
 This engraving, made from carved sardonyx and gold, features a line of animals
on the gangway to Noah's ark. It is based on a woodcut by the French illustrator
Bernard Salomon.[49] The Walters Art Museum.
In Europe, the Renaissance saw much speculation on the nature of the ark that
might have seemed familiar to early theologians such as Origen and Augustine. At
the same time, however, a new class of scholarship arose, one which, while never
questioning the literal truth of the ark story, began to speculate on the practical
workings of Noah's vessel from within a purely naturalistic framework. In the 15th
century, Alfonso Tostada gave a detailed account of the logistics of the ark, down to
arrangements for the disposal of dung and the circulation of fresh air. The 16th-
century geometer Johannes Buteo calculated the ship's internal dimensions, allowing
room for Noah's grinding mills and smokeless ovens, a model widely adopted by
other commentators.[42]
Searches for Noah's Ark
Searches for Noah's Ark have been made from at least the time of Eusebius
(c.275–339 CE) to the present day. Various locations for the ark have been suggested
but have never been confirmed.[5][6] The practice is widely regarded as
pseudoarchaeology.[7][8][9] Search sites have included Durupınar site, a site on Mount
Tendürek in eastern Turkey and Mount Ararat, but geological investigation of
possible remains of the ark has only shown natural sedimentary formations.[50]
Flood geology
Flood geology is the religiously-inspired interpretation of the geological history
of the Earth in terms of the global flood described in Genesis 6–9. Similar views
played a part in the early development of the science of geology, even after the
biblical chronology had been rejected by geologists in favour of an ancient Earth.
Flood geology is a creation science, which is a part of young Earth creationism.[51][52]
Modern geology and its sub-disciplines utilize the scientific method to analyze
the geology of the earth. Flood geology contradicts the scientific consensus in
geology and paleontology, as well as that in related disciplines such as chemistry,
physics, astronomy, cosmology, biology, geophysics and stratigraphy.[53][54][55] There
is an absence of evidence for any of the effects proposed by flood geologists, and
their claims concerning phenomena such as fossil layering are not taken seriously by
scientists.[56] More generally, the key tenets of flood geology are refuted by scientific
analysis,[53] and it is considered to be pseudoscience within the scientific community.
[57]
Author JJ Dyken notes that established civilizations in Egypt and China were not
impacted by claims of a global flood during the time of Noah's Ark.[58]
 References
Citations
1.
 Graves, Robert; Patai, Raphael (1986). Hebrew Myths: The Book of
Genesis. Random House. p. 315. ISBN 9780795337154.
  Schwartz, Howard; Loebel-Fried, Caren; Ginsburg, Elliot K. (2007).
Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism. Oxford University Press. p. 704.
ISBN 9780195358704.
  "In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the
second month the flood began." Genesis 7:11; "The water receded steadily from the
earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, and on the
seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth
month the tops of the mountains became visible." Genesis 8:3-5; The 17th day of the
7th month - the 17 day of the 2nd month = 5 months @ 30 days / month = 150 days.
  Bandstra 2008, pp. 61, 62.
  Mayell, Hillary (27 April 2004). "Noah's Ark Found? Turkey Expedition
Planned for Summer". National Geographic Society. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
  Noah's Ark Quest Dead in Water – National Geographic
  Fagan, Brian M.; Beck, Charlotte (1996). The Oxford Companion to
Archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195076184. Retrieved 17
January 2014.
  Cline, Eric H. (2009). Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction.
Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199741077. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  Feder, Kenneth L. (2010). Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology: From
Atlantis to the Walam Olum. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO.
ISBN 031337919X. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  Isaak 1998; Young 1995; Isaak 2006; Morton 2001; Isaak 2007, p. 173;
Stewart 2010, p. 123; Schadewald 1982, pp. 12–17; Scott 2003.
  Moore, Robert A. (1983). "The Impossible Voyage of Noah's Ark".
Creation Evolution Journal. 4 (1): 1–43.
  Hebrew: ‫ ָארֹון ַהב ְִּרית‬ʾĀrôn Habbərît, modern Hebrew pronunciation: Aron
Habrit
  Levenson, Jon D. (2004). "Genesis: introduction and annotations". In
Berlin, Adele; Brettler, Marc Zvi. The Jewish Study Bible. Oxford University Press.
ISBN 9780195297515.
  W. Gunther Plaut, Bernard J. Bamberger, William W. Hallo (eds.)
(1981). The Torah. New York: Union of American Hebrew Congregations. ISBN
9780807400555
  See also footnote to Genesis 6:16 in New International Version and text
of The Expanded Bible
  Hamilton 1990, pp. 280–282.
  Gooder 2005, p. 38.
   Knight 1990, pp. 175–176.
  Kessler & Deurloo 2004, p. 81.
  Enns 2012, p. 23.
  Kvanvig 2011, p. 210.
  Chen 2013, p. 3-4.
  Chen 2013, p. 253.
  Finkel 2014, p. 89-101.
  Nigosian 2004, p. 40.
  Hamilton 1990, p. 282.
  McKeown 2008, p. 55.
  May, Herbert G., and Bruce M. Metzger. The New Oxford Annotated
Bible with the Apocrypha. 1977.
  Stephanie Dalley, ed., Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, The Flood,
Gilgamesh, and Others, pp. 5–8.
  Alan Dundes, ed., The Flood Myth, pp. 61–71.
  J. David Pleins, When the Great Abyss Opened: Classic and
Contemporary Readings of Noah's Flood, pp. 102–103.
  Avigdor Nebenzahl, Tiku Bachodesh Shofer: Thoughts for Rosh
Hashanah, Feldheim Publishers, 1997, p. 208.
  McCurdy, J. F.; Bacher, W.; Seligsohn, M.; et al., eds. (2002). "Noah".
Jewish Encyclopedia. JewishEncyclopedia.com.
  McCurdy, J. F.; Jastrow, M. W.; Ginzberg, L.; et al., eds. (2002). "Ark
of Noah". Jewish Encyclopedia. JewishEncyclopedia.com.
  Hirsch, E. G.; Muss-Arnolt, W.; Hirschfeld, H., eds. (2002). "The
Flood". Jewish Encyclopedia. JewishEncyclopedia.com.
  Ibn Ezra's Commentary to Genesis 7:16. HebrewBooks.org.
  The Early Christian World, Volume 1, p.148, Philip Esler
  Hippolytus. "Fragments from the Scriptural Commentaries of
Hippolytus". New Advent. Retrieved 27 June 2007.
  Cohn 1999, p. 38.
  St. Augustin (1890) [c. 400]. "Chapter 26:That the ark Which Noah Was
Ordered to Make Figures In Every Respect Christ and the Church". In Schaff, Philip.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers [St. Augustin's City of God and Christian Doctrine].
1. 2. The Christian Literature Publishing Company.
  Jerome (1892) [c. 347–420]. "Letter LXIX. To Oceanus.". In Schaff, P.
Niocene and Post-Niocene Fathers: The Principal Works of St. Jerome. 2. 6. The
Christian Literature Publishing Company.
  Cohn 1999
  Baring-Gould, Sabine (1884). "Noah". Legends of the Patriarchs and
Prophets and Other Old Testament Characters from Various Sources. James B.
Millar and Co., New York. p. 113.
  From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 28 October 1949:
Bahá'í News, No. 228, February 1950, p. 4. Republished in Compilation 1983, p. 508
   Poirier, Brent. "The Kitab-i-Iqan: The key to unsealing the mysteries of
the Holy Bible". Retrieved 25 June 2007.
  Shoghi Effendi (1971). Messages to the Bahá'í World, 1950–1957.
Wilmette, Illinois, USA: Bahá'í Publishing Trust. p. 104. ISBN 0-87743-036-5.
  From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual
believer, 25 November 1950. Published in Compilation 1983, p. 494
  All quotations from the article "Ark" in the 1960 Encyclopædia
Britannica
  "Cameo with Noah's Ark". The Walters Art Museum.
  Collins, Lorence G. (2011). "A supposed cast of Noah's ark in eastern
Turkey" (PDF).
  Parkinson 2004, pp. 24–27; Numbers 2006, p. 10.
  Evans 2009 Proponents were first known as flood geologists, but
renamed themselves as "scientific creationists" or "young-earth creationists" in the
early 1970s.
  Young 1995; Isaak 2006; Morton 2001; Isaak 2007, p. 173; Stewart
2010, p. 123.
  Young Earth Creationism : NCSE
  Montgomery, David R. (2012). The Rocks Don't Lie: A Geologist
Investigates Noah's Flood. Norton. ISBN 9780393082395.
  Isaak 1998.
  Schadewald 1982, pp. 12–17; Scott 2003.
58.  Dyken, JJ (2013). The Divine Default. Algora Publishing.
Bibliography
 Bandstra, Barry L. (2008), Reading the Old Testament  : An Introduction to the
Hebrew Bible (4th ed.), Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/ Cengage Learning, pp. 61–63,
ISBN 0495391050
 Best, Robert (1999), Noah's Ark And the Ziusudra Epic, ISBN 09667840-1-4
 Blenkinsopp, Joseph (2011), Creation, Un-creation, Re-creation: A Discursive
Commentary on Genesis 1–11, A&C Black, ISBN 9780567372871
 Chen, Y.S. (2013), The Primeval Flood Catastrophe: Origins and Early
Development in Mesopotamian Traditions, OUP Oxford, ISBN 9780199676200
 Cohn, Norman (1996). Noah's Flood: The Genesis Story in Western Thought.
New Haven & London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-06823-9.
 Cotter, David W. (2003). Genesis. Liturgical Press. ISBN 9780814650400.
 Enns, Peter (2012), The Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn't
Say about Human Origins, Baker Books, ISBN 9781587433153
 Finkel, Irving L. (2014), The Ark Before Noah: Decoding the Story of the
Flood, Hodder & Stoughton
 Gooder, Paula (2005). The Pentateuch: a story of beginnings. T&T Clark.
ISBN 9780567084187.
 Hamilton, Victor P. (1990). The book of Genesis: chapters 1–17. Eerdmans.
ISBN 9780802825216.
  Kessler, Martin; Deurloo, Karel Adriaan (2004). A commentary on Genesis:
the book of beginnings. Paulist Press. ISBN 9780809142057.
 Knight, Douglas A. (1990). "Cosmology". In Watson E. Mills (General Editor).
Mercer Dictionary of the Bible. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press. ISBN 0-
86554-402-6.
 Kvanvig, Helge (2011), Primeval History: Babylonian, Biblical, and Enochic:
An Intertextual Reading, BRILL
 McKeown, James (2008). Genesis. Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary.
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 398. ISBN 0-8028-2705-5.
 Isaak, Mark (2007). "Creationist claim CD750". The Counter Creationism
Handbook. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press.
p. 330. ISBN 978-0-520-24926-4.
 Nigosian, S.A. (2008), From Ancient Writings to Sacred Texts: The Old
Testament and Apocrypha, JHU Press
 Numbers, Ronald L. (2006). The Creationists: From Scientific Creationism to
Intelligent Design, Expanded Edition. Harvard University Press. p. 624. ISBN 0-
674-02339-0.
 Stewart, Melville Y. (2010). Science and religion in dialogue. Malden, MA:
Wiley-Blackwell. p. 123. ISBN 1-4051-8921-5.
 Young, Davis A. (1995). The Biblical Flood: a case study of the Church's
response to extrabiblical evidence. Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans. p. 340. ISBN 0-
8028-0719-4. Retrieved 16 September 2008.
 Young, Davis A.; Stearley, Ralph F. (2008). The Bible, rocks, and time :
geological evidence for the age of the earth. Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic.
ISBN 978-0-8308-2876-0.
 Parkinson, William (January–February 2004). "Questioning 'Flood Geology':
Decisive New Evidence to End an Old Debate". NCSE Reports. National Center for
Science Education. 24 (1). Retrieved 2 November 2010.
 Schadewald, Robert J. (Summer 1982). "Six Flood Arguments Creationists
Can't Answer". Creation/Evolution Journal. National Center for Science Education.
3 (3): 12–17. Retrieved 16 November 2010.
 Schadewald, Robert (1986). "Scientific Creationism and Error".
Creation/Evolution. 6 (1): 1–9. Retrieved 29 March 2007.
 Evans, Gwen (3 February 2009). "Reason or faith? Darwin expert reflects".
UW-Madison News. University of Wisconsin-Madison. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
 Isaak, Mark (5 November 2006). "Index to Creationist Claims, Geology".
TalkOrigins Archive. Retrieved 2 November 2010.
 Isaak, M. (1998). "Problems with a Global Flood". TalkOrigins Archive.
Retrieved 29 March 2007. Isaak no a geologist
 Morton, Glenn (17 February 2001). "The Geologic Column and its
Implications for the Flood". TalkOrigins Archive. Retrieved 2 November 2010.
Morton not a geologist
  Scott, Eugenie C. (January–February 2003), My Favorite Pseudoscience, 23
(1)
Further reading
General
 Aune, David E. (2003). "Cosmology". Westminster Dictionary of the New
Testament and Early Christian Literature. Westminster John Knox Press.
ISBN 9780664219178.
 Batto, Bernard Frank (1992). Slaying the Dragon: Mythmaking in the Biblical
Tradition. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 9780664253530.
 Browne, Janet (1983). The Secular Ark: Studies in the History of
Biogeography. New Haven & London: Yale University Press. p. 276. ISBN 0-300-
02460-6.
 Brueggemann, Walter (2002). Reverberations of faith: a theological handbook
of Old Testament themes. Westminster John Knox. ISBN 9780664222314.
 Campbell, Antony F.; O'Brien, Mark A. (1993). Sources of the Pentateuch:
texts, introductions, annotations. Fortress Press. ISBN 9781451413670.
 Campbell, A. F.; O'Brien, M. A. (1993). Sources of the Pentateuch: Texts,
Introductions, Annotations. Fortress Press. ISBN 9781451413670.
 Carr, David M. (1996). Reading the fractures of Genesis. Westminster John
Knox Press. ISBN 9780664220716.
 Clines, David A. (1997). The theme of the Pentateuch. Sheffield Academic
Press. ISBN 9780567431967.
 Davies, G. I. (1998). "Introduction to the Pentateuch". In John Barton. Oxford
Bible Commentary. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198755005.
 Kugler, Robert; Hartin, Patrick (2009). The Old Testament between theology
and history: a critical survey. Eerdmans. ISBN 9780802846365.
 Levin, Christoph L. (2005). The Old testament: a brief introduction. Princeton
University Press. ISBN 0691113947.
 Levin, C. (2005). The Old Testament: A Brief Introduction. Princeton
University Press. ISBN 9780691113944.
 Longman, Tremper (2005). How to read Genesis. InterVarsity Press.
ISBN 9780830875603.
 McEntire, Mark (2008). Struggling with God: An Introduction to the
Pentateuch. Mercer University Press. ISBN 9780881461015.
 Ska, Jean-Louis (2006). Introduction to reading the Pentateuch. Eisenbrauns.
ISBN 9781575061221.
 Van Seters, John (1992). Prologue to History: The Yahwist As Historian in
Genesis. Westminster John Knox Press.
 Van Seters, John (1998). "The Pentateuch". In Steven L. McKenzie; Matt
Patrick Graham. The Hebrew Bible today: an introduction to critical issues.
Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 9780664256524.
 Van Seters, John (2004). The Pentateuch: a social-science commentary.
Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 9780567080882.
  Walsh, Jerome T. (2001). Style and structure in Biblical Hebrew narrative.
Liturgical Press. ISBN 9780814658970.
 Bailey, Lloyd R. (1989). Noah, the Person and the Story. South Carolina:
University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0-87249-637-6.
 Campbell, Antony F.; O'Brien, Mark A. (1993). Sources of the Pentateuch:
texts, introductions, annotations. Fortress Press. ISBN 9781451413670.
 Campbell, A. F.; O'Brien, M. A. (1993). Sources of the Pentateuch: Texts,
Introductions, Annotations. Fortress Press. ISBN 9781451413670.
 Best, Robert M. (1999). Noah's Ark and the Ziusudra Epic. Fort Myers,
Florida: Enlil Press. ISBN 0-9667840-1-4.
 Compilation (1983). Hornby, Helen, ed. Lights of Guidance: A Bahá'í
Reference File. Bahá'í Publishing Trust, New Delhi, India. ISBN 81-85091-46-3.
 Dalrymple, G. Brent (1991). The Age of the Earth. Stanford University Press.
ISBN 0-8047-2331-1.
 Emerton, J. A. (1988). Joosten, J., ed. "An Examination of Some Attempts to
Defend the Unity of the Flood Narrative in Genesis: Part II". Vetus Testamentum.
International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament. XXXVIII (1).
 Nicholson, Ernest W. (2003). The Pentateuch in the twentieth century: the
legacy of Julius Wellhausen. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199257836.
 Plimer, Ian (1994). Telling Lies for God: Reason vs Creationism. Random
House Australia. p. 303. ISBN 0-09-182852-X.
 Speiser, E. A. (1964). Genesis. The Anchor Bible. Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-
00854-6.
Tigay, Jeffrey H., (1982). The Evolution of the Gilgamesh Epic. University of
Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia. ISBN 0-8122-7805-4.
 Van Seters, John (2004). The Pentateuch: a social-science commentary.
Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 9780567080882.
 Wenham, Gordon (1994). "The Coherence of the Flood Narrative". In Hess,
Richard S.; Tsumura, David Toshio. I studied inscriptions from before the flood
(Google Books). Sources for Biblical and Theological Study. 4. Eisenbrauns. p. 480.
ISBN 0-931464-88-9.
 Young, Davis A. (March 1995). The Biblical Flood: A Case Study of the
Church's Response to Extrabiblical Evidence. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Pub Co.
p. 340. ISBN 0-8028-0719-4.
 Douglas, J. D.; Tenney, Merrill C., eds. (2011). Zondervan Illustrated Bible
Dictionary. revised by Moisés Silva (Revised ed.). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan.
ISBN 0310229839.

Searches for Noah's Ark

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Mount Ararat (39°42′N, 44°17′E), satellite image – a stratovolcano, 5,137
metres (16,854 ft) above sea level, prominence 3,611 metres (11,847 ft), believed to
have erupted within the last 10,000 years. The main peak is at the centre of the image.
Searches for Noah's Ark have been made from at least the time of Eusebius
(c.275–339) to the present day. Despite many expeditions, no physical proof of the
ark has been found.[1][2] Many of the supposed findings and methods are regarded as
pseudoscience and pseudoarchaeology by geologists and archeologists.[3][4][5]
Conflicting opinions
Modern organized searches for the ark tend to originate in American evangelical
circles. According to Larry Eskridge,
An interesting phenomenon that has arisen within twentieth-century
conservative American evangelism – the widespread conviction that the ancient Ark
of Noah is embedded in ice high atop Mount Ararat, waiting to be found. It is a story
that has combined earnest faith with the lure of adventure, questionable evidence with
startling claims. The hunt for the ark, like evangelism itself, is a complex blend of the
rational and the supernatural, the modern and the premodern. While it acknowledges
a debt to pure faith in a literal reading of the Scriptures and centuries of legend, the
conviction that the Ark literally lies on Ararat is a recent one, backed by a largely
twentieth-century canon of evidence that includes stories of shadowy eyewitnesses,
tales of mysterious missing photographs, rumors of atheistic conspiracy, and pieces
of questionable "ark wood" from the mountain. (...) Moreover, it skirts the domain of
pop pseudoscience and the paranormal, making the attempt to find the ark the
evangelical equivalent of the search for Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster. In all
these ways, it reveals much about evangelicals' distrust of mainstream science and the
motivations and modus operandi of the scientific elite.[6]
Ark-seeker Richard Carl Bright considers the search for the ark a religious
quest, dependent on God's blessing for its success. Bright is also confident that there
is a multinational government conspiracy to hide the "truth" about the ark:
I firmly believe that the governments of Turkey, Russia, and the United States
know exactly where the ark sits. They suppress the information, but (...) God is in
charge. The structure will be revealed in its time. We climb the mountain and search,
hoping it is, in fact, God's time as we climb. Use us, O Lord, is our prayer.[7]
Antiquity
 According to Genesis 8:4, the Ark came to rest "on the mountains of Ararat."
Early commentators such as Josephus,[citation needed] and authorities quoted by him,
Berossus,[citation needed] Hieronymus the Egyptian,[citation needed] Mnaseas, and Nicolaus of
Damascus,[citation needed] record the tradition that these "mountains of Ararat" are to be
found in the region then known as Armenia, roughly corresponding to Eastern
Anatolia.
Syrian tradition of the early centuries BC had a tradition of the ark landing at
Mount Judi, where according to Josephus the remains of the ark were still shown in
the 1st century BC. The location of the "Place of Descent" (αποβατηριον, i.e.,
Nakhchivan) described by Josephus was some 100 km to the southeast of the peak
now known as Mount Ararat, in what is today Iraqi Kurdistan.
According to Jewish Rabbinic tradition, the Ark was looted in antiquity, the
remains being used for idol worship, as related in the Talmud Tractate Sanhedrin by
Sennacherib circa 705 – 681 BC,[8] and as related in the Midrash anthology Yalkut
Shimoni by Haman circa 486–465 BC.[9]
Middle Ages and early modern period
Marco Polo (1254–1324) wrote in his book, The Travels of Marco Polo:
In the heart of the Armenian mountain range, the mountain's peak is shaped like
a cube (or cup), on which Noah's ark is said to have rested, whence it is called the
Mountain of Noah's Ark. It [the mountain] is so broad and long that it takes more
than two days to go around it. On the summit the snow lies so deep all the year round
that no one can ever climb it; this snow never entirely melts, but new snow is for ever
falling on the old, so that the level rises.
Sir Walter Raleigh, writing c. 1616, made a laborious argument taking up
several whole chapters of his History of the World, that the term "Mountains of
Ararat" originally encompassed all the adjoining and taller ranges of Asia, and that
Noah's Ark could only have landed in the Orient – especially since Armenia is not
technically east of the plain of Shinar (or Mesopotamia), but more northwest.
19th-century expeditions

The structure claimed to be Noah's Ark in Durupınar site, Agri, Turkey


In 1829, Dr. Friedrich Parrot, who had made an ascent of Greater Ararat, wrote
in his Journey to Ararat that "all the Armenians are firmly persuaded that Noah's
Ark remains to this very day on the top of Ararat, and that, in order to preserve it, no
human being is allowed to approach it."[10]

In 1876, James Bryce, historian, statesman, diplomat, explorer, and Professor
of Civil Law at Oxford, climbed above the tree line and found a slab of hand-hewn
timber, four feet long and five inches thick, which he identified as being from the
Ark.[11] In 1883, the British Prophetic Messenger and others reported that Turkish
commissioners investigating avalanches had seen the Ark.[12]
Modern searches (1949 to present)
Searches since the mid-20th century have been largely supported by evangelical,
millenarian churches along with local farmers and sustained by ongoing popular
interest, faith-based magazines, lecture tours, videos and occasional television
specials.

In 1949, Aaron J. Smith, dean of the People's Bible College in Greensboro,
NC, led an unsuccessful expedition to locate the ark.[13]

Former astronaut James Irwin led two expeditions to Ararat in the 1980s, was
kidnapped once, but found no tangible evidence of the Ark. "I've done all I possibly
can," he said, "but the Ark continues to elude us."[14]

In the 1980s and 1990s, the Durupınar site was heavily promoted by Ron
Wyatt. It receives a steady stream of visitors and according to the local authorities a
nearby mountain is called "Mount Cudi" (or Judi), making it one of about five Mount
Judis in the land of Kurdistan. Geologists have identified the Durupınar site as a
natural formation,[15] but Wyatt's Ark Discovery Institute continues to champion its
claims.[16]

In 2004, Honolulu-based businessman Daniel McGivern announced he would
finance a $900,000 expedition to the peak of Greater Ararat in July of that year to
investigate the "Ararat anomaly" – he had previously paid for commercial satellite
images of the site.[1] Aftermuch initial fanfare, he was refused permission by the
Turkish authorities, as the summit is inside a restricted military zone. The expedition
was subsequently labelled a "stunt" by National Geographic News, which pointed out
that the expedition leader, a Turkish academic named Ahmet Ali Arslan, had
previously been accused of faking evidence of the Ark for a CBS documentary.[17]

In June 2006, Bob Cornuke of the Bible Archeology Search and Exploration
Institute (or BASE Institute) took a team of 14 American "business, law, and ministry
leaders" to Iran to visit a site in the Alborz Mountains, purported to be a possible
resting place of the Ark. The team claimed to have visited an "object" 13,000 feet
above sea level, which had the appearance of blackened petrified wooden beams, and
was "about the size of a small aircraft carrier" [400 ft long (120 m)], and supposedly
consistent with the dimensions provided in Genesis of 300 cubits by 50 cubits.[18]
BASE Institute identifies this site as the site found by Ed Davis. The team also
claimed to have found fossilised sea creatures inside the petrified wood, and in the
immediate vicinity of the site.[19] No one outside the expedition has offered
independent confirmation, and apart from a few purported beams, no photographic
images of this supposed Ark in its entirety have been made available (though short
video segments have been made available).[20] The team's consensus on the "object" is
not absolute; Reg Lyle, another expedition member, described the find as appearing
to be "a basalt dike".[19] BASE states that it does not claim to have found the Ark,
only a "candidate".[21]

In 2007, a joint Turkish-Hong Kong expedition including members of Noah's
Ark Ministries International (NAMI) claimed to have found an unusual cave with
fossilized wooden walls on Mount Ararat, well above the vegetation line.[22] In 2010,
NAMI released videos of their discovery of the wood structures.[23] Members of
Noah's Ark Ministries International reported carbon dating suggests the wood is
approximately 4,800 years old. It is unlikely that there was any human settlement at
the site at altitude of 4,000 meters.[24] Randall Price, a partner with Noah's Ark
Ministries International from early 2008 to the summer of 2008, stated that the
discovery was probably the result of a hoax, perpetrated by ten Kurdish workers hired
by the Turkish guide used by the Chinese, who planted large wood beams taken from
an old structure near the Black Sea at the cave site.[25][26] In a response to Price,
Noah’s Ark Ministries International stated that they had terminated co-operation with
Price in early October 2008, and that he had never been in the location of the wooden
structure they identified, and regretted his absence in their find. On their website they
say they asked for the opinion of Mr. Muhsin Bulut, the Director of Cultural
Ministries, Agri Province. The web site says that his response was that secretly
transporting such an amount of timber to the strictly monitored area and planting a
large wood structure at an altitude of 4,000 meters would have been impossible.[27] At
the end of April 2010, it was reported that Turkey's culture minister ordered a probe
into how NAMI brought its pieces of wood samples from Turkey to China.[28] A
Scottish explorer investigating the NAMI claim was reported missing, on 14 October
2010, from an expedition on Ararat. His last camp site and personal effects were
subsequently located but the circumstances remain unresolved.[29]
Unsubstantiated claims

According to one story, Nicholas II of Russia sent an expedition to Mount
Ararat in 1916–1918 to investigate the Ark. The fact that Nicholas abdicated during
the February Revolution at the beginning of March 1917 (Gregorian calendar) makes
the story unlikely. A few sources put the date of the expedition at 1916, ("the Russian
imperial air force ... is supposed to have sent 150 men up Mount Ararat in 1916 to
explore a large object said to be as long as a city block", reads one). However, this
expedition was launched just as the Communist Revolution broke out in Russia.
Allegedly, the reports were turned in to Leon Trotsky, who destroyed them.[30]

In 1952, Pastor Harold Williams wrote a story he claimed had been told to him
by Haji Yearam, an Armenian Seventh-Day Adventist who had moved to the United
States. He let Williams take down his account four years before his death in 1920.
According to the story, Yearam as a boy was with his father when they guided three
English scientists to the ark in 1856. Upon finding the ark sticking out of a glacier
near the summit of Ararat, these scientists were however dumbfounded and angry,
since they were "vile men who did not believe in the Bible". Having come to Ararat
to disprove the Scriptures, they now tried to destroy the ark, but were not able to.
They then took an oath to keep the discovery a secret and murder anyone who
revealed it. About 1918, Williams claimed he saw a newspaper article giving a
scientist's deathbed confession, which independently corroborated Yearam's story.
Harold Williams said he preserved both Yearam's account and the newspaper
clipping until 1940, when both were lost in a fire, leaving the story hearsay on
William's part. Despite a diligent search, the ca. 1918 newspaper article with the
scientist's "confession" has never been located. The online archive of the old
USENET newsgroup talk.origins makes note of the seeming vilification of
unbelievers and regards it as suggestive of "religious propaganda".[31] An academic
study notes "the melodrama of Haji Yearam's tale".[32]

In 1955, French explorer Fernand Navarra reportedly found a 5-foot wooden
beam on Mount Ararat some 40 feet under the Parrot Glacier on the northwest slope
and well above the treeline. The Forestry Institute of Research and Experiments of
the Ministry of Agriculture in Spain certified the wood to be about 5,000 years old –
a claim that is disputed by radio carbon dating, as two labs have dated the 1969
samples, one at 650 C.E. ± 50 years, the other at 630 C.E. ± 95 years.[33] Navarra's
guide later claimed the French explorer bought the beam from a nearby village and
carried it up the mountain.[30]

Around 1960, helicopter pilot George Greene claimed to have observed the
Ark on Ararat in 1953. It was lying on the side of a vertical rock cliff at the 13,000 to
14,000 ft. level. He photographed it from the air and tried to mount an expedition, but
his photographs failed to convince any investors. Greene was found drowned in a
swimming pool in British Guiana in 1962, and his photographs have not been seen
since. In The Ararat Report, February 1990, Ark investigator Bill Crouse listed
various "phantom arks" on the mountain, including a formation that "does look like
the prow of a huge ship. In reality, it is a huge chunk of basalt. We believe this is also
the 'ark' seen by George Greene in 1953."[34]

In 1970, an Armenian, Georgie Hagopian, claimed to have visited the Ark
twice around 1908/1910 (1902 in another version, and 1906 according to a segment
in the TV series Unsolved Mysteries) with his uncle. Hagopian claimed that he had
climbed up onto the Ark and walked along its roof and that some of his young friends
had also seen it. The online archive of talk.origins[35] notes that "[t]he apparent ease of
getting to the ark conflicts with the accounts of other explorers."[36]

Ed Davis,[37] a US army sergeant based at Hamadan in Iran during World War
II, reported that he had climbed Mt. Ararat with his driver's family in 1943. After
three days' climbing, the group camped 100 feet above the Ark and was able to look
down into it but not to approach closely. According to Davis's description, it had
broken into two pieces, which had been pushed some distance apart by glaciers. Its
description roughly matched Hagopian's, judging by Elfred Lee's paintings. Lee also
interviewed Ed Davis and created a painting based on Davis's descriptions. The
structures in the paintings appear to match.[38]
 
In 1993, CBS aired a television special entitled The Incredible Discovery of
Noah's Ark, which contained a section devoted to the claims of George Jammal, who
showed what he called "sacred wood from the ark." Jammal's story of a dramatic
mountain expedition which took the life of "his Polish friend Vladimir" was actually
a deliberate hoax, and Jammal – who was really an actor – later revealed that his
"sacred wood" was wood taken from railroad tracks in Long Beach, California and
hardened by cooking with various sauces in an oven.[39]
References
1.
 Mayell, Hillary (27 April 2004). "Noah's Ark Found? Turkey Expedition
Planned for Summer". National Geographic Society. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
  Noah's Ark Quest Dead in Water – National Geographic
  Fagan, Brian M.; Beck, Charlotte (1996). The Oxford Companion to
Archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195076184. Retrieved 17
January 2014.
  Cline, Eric H. (2009). Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction.
Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199741077. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  Feder, Kenneth L. (2010). Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology: From
Atlantis to the Walam Olum. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO.
ISBN 031337919X. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  Eskridge, Larry (1999). "A Sign for an Unbelieving Age: Evangelicals
and the Search for Noah's Ark". In David N. Livingstone. Evangelicals and Science
in Historical Perspective. D. G. Hart, Mark A. Noll. Oxford UP.
ISBN 9780195353969.
  Bright, Richard Carl (2001). "Do the Locals Know?". Quest for
Discovery: One Man's Epic Search for Noah's Ark. New Leaf. ISBN 9781614582045.
  English translation of Sanhedrin folio 96a
  ‫ רמז רנ"ו‬,‫ילקוט שמעוני פרשת בשלח‬
  Dr Friedrich Parrott
  James Bryce
  British Prophetic Messenger and the Turkish Commissioners
  Russia: Suspicion On The Mountain, Time Magazine, 25 April 1949
  James Irwin, from Arlington National Cemetery website
  bogus ark
  Wyatt Archeological Research
  Lovgren, Stefan (20 September 2004). "Noah's Ark Quest Dead in Water
-- Was It a Stunt?". National Geographic. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  Has Noah's Ark Been Found?
  "Noah's Ark? For Real". 2006-06-16.
  Dialup and broadband video footage from BASE
  "Noah's Ark: The Ark of Noah in Iran?". BASE. Retrieved 4 March
2017.
  http://www.noahsarksearch.net/eng/content05.php
   NoahsArkSearch - YouTube
  Kelly, Cathal (2010-04-27). "Noah’s Ark found, researchers claim".
Toronto Star. thestar.com. Retrieved 19 December 2010.
  [1]
  Tigay, Chanan (29 April 2010). "Ex-Colleague: Expedition Faked
Noah's Ark Find". AOL News. AOL. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
  http://www.noahsarksearch.net/eng/randall.php
  Chinese explorers stand by claim of Noah's Ark find in Turkey, The
Christian Science Monitor, 3 May 2010
  Weather hits search for Noah's Ark man Donald Mackenzie, BBC News,
accessed 24 September 2013.
  Ancient High Technology – Evidence of Noah's Flood?
  http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CH/CH505_1.html
  Evangelicals and Science in Historical Perspective, edited by David N.
Livingstone et al., Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 250
  TalkOrigins "Navarra's Wood"
  The Ararat Report, ed. Bill Crouse, February 1990
(http://www.christianinformation.org/Feb1990AraratReport.pdf, retrieved June 2014)
  CH505.4: Hagopian and the Ark
  Hagopian, however, claims that he visited during drought period and that
only the mountain's peak was covered in snow
  Noah's Ark Search – Mount Ararat
  Mount Ararat Photo Album
 Jammal, George. "Hoaxing The Hoaxers: or, The Incredible (phony)
Discovery of Noah's Ark". Atheist Alliance International. Archived from the original
on 11 September 2007. Retrieved 9 October 2012.