Was Noah really. What is the Ark? Myths and Reality in the History of the Flood

Thanks to Noah and his obedience to God, the human race did not perish during the Flood, animals and birds were saved. A wooden ship 147 meters long and smeared with resin at the behest of the Lord rescued living creatures from the raging elements. A well-known biblical legend haunts people to this day.

What is Noah's Ark?

Noah's Ark is a huge ship that God ordered Noah to build, climb on it with his family, take all the animals, two male and female, for further reproduction. In the meantime, Noah and his family and animals are in the ark, a flood will fall on the Earth to destroy the entire human race.

Noah's ark - orthodoxy

Noah's Ark from the Bible is known to all believers and not only. When people morally fell, and this angered God, he decided to destroy the entire human race and arrange. But not everyone deserved this terrible fate to be wiped off the face of the Earth, there was also a righteous family, pleasing to God - the family of Noah.

How many years did Noah build the ark?

God told Noah to build an ark, a wooden ship three stories high, three hundred cubits long and fifty wide, and coat it with pitch. There is still debate about what tree Noah's ark was built from. The gopher tree, mentioned in the Bible once, is considered a cypress, a white oak, and a tree that has not existed for a long time.

There is not a word in the scriptures about when Noah began to build the ark. But it follows from the text that at the age of 500, Noah had three sons, and the command from God came when the sons were already. He finished construction of the ark for his 600th anniversary. That is, Noah spent about 100 years building the ark.

There is a more accurate figure in the Bible, around which there is controversy over whether it has anything to do with the timing of the construction of the ark. In the book of Genesis in the sixth chapter, it is said that God gives people 120 years. During these years, Noah preached about repentance and predicted the destruction of the human race through the flood, while he himself led the preparations - he built the ark. The age of Noah, like many antediluvian characters, is hundreds of years old. There is an interpretation of the verse about 120 years, as that now the life of people will be reduced.

How long did Noah sail on the ark?

The legend about Noah's ark from the Bible says that it rained for forty days, and for another one hundred and ten days, water came from the ground. The flood lasted one hundred and fifty days, the water covered the surface of the earth completely, not even the tops of the highest mountains were visible. Noah sailed on the ark even longer, until the water left - about one year.

Where does Noah's ark stop?

Very soon after the flood ended and the water began to decrease, Noah's ark nailed, according to legend, to the mountains of Ararat. But the peaks were still not visible, Noah waited forty more days after seeing the first peaks. The first bird released from Noah's ark, the raven, returned with nothing - found no sushi. So the raven returned more than once. Then Noah released a pigeon, which on his first flight did not bring anything, and on the second he brought a leaf of an olive tree, and the third time the dove did not return. After that, Noah and his family and beasts left the ark.

Noah's Ark - True or Fiction?

The debate over whether Noah's ark actually existed, or whether it is just a beautiful biblical legend, continues to this day. The search fever was not limited to scientists. American anesthesiologist Ronn Wyatt was so inspired by the photographs published in Life magazine in 1957 that he set out in search of Noah's ark.

A photo taken by a Turkish pilot in the area showed a boat-like trail. The enthusiast Wyatt converted to a biblical archaeologist and found the place. The controversy did not subside - what Wyatt declared the remains of Noah's ark, that is, a petrified tree, according to geologists, was nothing more than clay.

Ron Wyatt has a whole crowd of followers. Later, new photographs were published from the place of "mooring" of the famous biblical ship. All of them depicted only the outlines, resembling the shape of a boat. All this could not fully satisfy the scientists and researchers, who even questioned the existence of the famous ship.

Noah's ark - facts

Scientists have found Noah's ark, but some inconsistencies still make skeptics doubt the reality of the biblical tale:

1. A flood of such magnitude that the peaks of the highest mountains disappeared, is contrary to all natural laws. Global flood, according to scientists, it could not be. Rather, the legend speaks of a specific territory, and philologists confirm that in Hebrew land and country are one word.
2. It is simply impossible to build a ship of this size without the use of metal structures, and is beyond the power of one family.
3. The number of years Noah lived, 950, confuses many and unwittingly suggests that the whole story is fiction. But philologists came in here too, they say that there is a possibility that 950 months were meant in the Biblical covenant. Then everything fits into the normal, subject to modern understanding, human life span.

Scientists believe that the biblical parable of Noah is an interpretation of another epic. The Sumerian version of the legend speaks of Atrahasis, whom God ordered to build a ship, everything like Noah. Only the flood was of a local scale - on the territory of Mesopotamia. This already fits into scientific ideas.

This year, Chinese and Turkish scientists discovered Noah's ark at an altitude of 4,000 meters above sea level in the vicinity of Mount Ararat. Geological analysis of the found "boards" showed that their age is about 5,000 years, which agrees with the dating of the Flood. The expedition members are sure that these are the remains legendary ship, but not all researchers share their optimism. They skeptically remind that all the water on Earth is not enough to lift a ship to such a height.

The first people expelled from paradise lived by their own labor - they worked the land by the sweat of their brow, raised children and adapted to life, not hoping for anyone's help.

Millennia have passed. People forgot their Creator, began to sin. Their wicked deeds filled the cup of God's patience. And he decided to destroy humanity. But among many people, he considered the family of the patriarch Noah worthy of salvation. According to the Bible, God warned Noah about an impending catastrophe, commanding him to build an ark, accurately describing its parameters. Noah was a God-fearing man and fulfilled the Creator's order. It took about a hundred years to build this ship. In addition to Noah's family, there were many animals on board.

At exactly the appointed time, an unimaginable downpour began. He poured without stopping for forty days and nights. The whole Earth disappeared under the water column of a continuous ocean. The peaks of the mountains were not even visible from under the water! For seven months Noah's ark sailed across the endless ocean. But when the ship sailed over the Caucasian mountains, which had sunk into the water, the bottom of the ark caught on the top of Mount Ararat and it ran aground. Only a year after the start of the disaster, Noah opened the roof of the ship and looked around. The family of the righteous was on the ship until the water slept. The Bible indicates that this happened 4400 years ago. Noah and his household left his floating shelter. Nobody needed the ark anymore - they forgot about it. And who needed to drag such a bulky structure from the top of the mountain? The ark fulfilled its role - saved people and animal world planets.

It is interesting that a legend similar to this was not only among the ancient Jews, but also among neighboring peoples. In the Sumerian epic, this ship of salvation was called Utnapishtim. The Babylonian chronicler of the III century - Berossus wrote that numerous pilgrims go to Mount Ararat, picking pieces of the ark for amulets. This means that even then this ship was considered a shrine. In the 14th century, one of the monks wrote to Rome that the inhabitants of Armenia revered Mount Ararat as sacred: “The people living there told us that no one climbed the mountain, as it probably could not please the Almighty.” By the way, climb it is quite difficult to get to the top of Ararat - dangerous animals and poisonous snakes, numerous rockfalls and avalanches, strong winds and thick fogs, deep cracks and gorges make these ascents extremely dangerous in the gorges.

At the same time, traveling to China in the 13th century, Marco Polo noted in his notes: “... in this country of Armenia, on the top of a high mountain rests Noah's ark, covered with eternal snows, and no one can climb there, to the top, especially that snow never melts and new snowfalls add to the thickness of the snow cover. "

In the 16th century, another traveler, Adam Olearius, in his book Journey to Muscovy and Persia, wrote the following: "The Armenians and Persians believe that the remnants of the ark are still on the mentioned mountain, which over time have become solid and strong as stone." ...

But the most intense searches for the ark took place in the 19th century. Moreover, not only believers, but also severe atheists were engaged in searches. The first is to find a biblical relic, the second is to refute biblical truth. Some of them claimed to have seen a structure similar to the skeleton of a ship.

So, for example, in 1856, three Englishmen decided to prove that the story of the ark was just fiction. They arrived in the Ararat region and hired several guides for very big money (the locals believed in terrible legends and did not want to go to the mountains in search of the ark, but even then money decided everything). They found the ark! But the shock was so great that the British decided to keep the find a secret, threatening the guides with death for divulging: after all, the Ark found was convincing proof of the real existence of Noah and the truthfulness of the Bible. Just before his death, one of the guides, nevertheless, told about this find.

At the same time, there was a statement from Archbishop Nurri, who claimed that in one of the glaciers he saw Noah's Ark, made "of very thick dark red wooden beams." But I could not get close to him, because of the rising hurricane wind.

The search for the legendary ark did not stop even in the 20th century. In 1916, Rostovitsky, one of the first Russian aviators, claimed that when flying over Mount Ararat, he clearly saw the contours of an incredibly large ship. The Russian government, interested in this information, sent an expedition to Armenia. But the revolution that broke out crossed out the search for the Ark, and all the materials of the expedition (reports, photographs) disappeared without a trace. As a consequence, the members of this expedition who survived in the crucible of the war claimed that they had found the Ark! But there was no evidence, and then this territory went to Turkey. And for the seekers of the Ark, the north-western slope of Ararat became inaccessible: there were Turkish military bases there.

In 1955, a French climber brought from his Caucasian expedition a piece of a board, according to his assurances that it was part of Noah's ark. He claimed to have found the Ark frozen in the ice of a mountain lake. When studying this fragment by the method of radiocarbon analysis, it turned out that the object was a contemporary of Christ or even Julian the Apostate, that is, its age dates back to five thousand years. But in scientific circles, this find did not cause delight - you never know where he took this piece of wood.

It must be said that even if the version with the finding of the remains of the ark on Mount Ararat is not confirmed, the optimists of the search engines have another search target - Tendruk (Turkey, 30 km south of Mount Ararat). It was there that the Turkish pilot filmed an object very similar to the wreck of a ship. And then an American researcher brought back fossils from the area that looked like ship beams. There are many more versions where Noah's ship may be located: perhaps it is the Iranian part of Elbrus or, even, the Krasnodar Territory.

It should be noted that too many objects have recently been found in the mountains that resemble a ship in outline - and this greatly complicates the search. Perhaps there is a mistake in this approach. After all, the word "ark" in translation sounds like a "box". Noah built his floating facility not as a ship, in its classical sense (bow, stern), but simply as a chest. This is how the order of the Most High is described in the Bible: “Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make compartments in the ark, and coat it with pitch inside and out. And make it this way: the length of the ark is three hundred cubits; its breadth is fifty cubits, and its height is thirty cubits. And make a hole in the ark, and bring it at the top of the cubit, and make the door to the ark on its side; arrange the lower, second and third dwellings in it. " Let's try to translate this into modern measures of length. So, the chest should be 157 meters long, 15 meters high, and 26 meters wide. Such a "box" contained about three floors of cages, had an air intake and a door on the side of the entire structure. And at that time the Jewish people did not know how to build ships. So, if you are looking for the Ark, then you need to pay attention to the search for huge tarred logs or an object that looks like a three-story house. Noah was given the task: to take a couple of all kinds of animals, so there were rooms on the ark to accommodate this whole zoo.

The question arises - why are modern people busy looking for the Ark, which is more than four thousand years old? Believers dream of discovering shrines. Perhaps shrines mean things forgotten by Noah on the ark, things that are perceived as artifacts. But most importantly, seekers hope to find any sacred texts associated with Noah's journey across the ocean (these are either some records of Noah himself or his family members, or books given by the Almighty).

Seekers with an inquiring mind are trying to find convincing evidence of the information contained in the Bible.

The hope of finding the ark in the vicinity of Ararat is rather illusory. Over the past millennia, large earthquakes have periodically occurred in the mountains, the slopes of the mountains are covered with frozen ancient multilayer lava. In addition, no one managed to find at least some traces of marine sediments there (after all, if the mountains were covered with water, they should be there).

You can try to explain the finds that the searchers of the ark could take for its remains (this is the testimony of pilots, and travelers, and climbers, etc.). So the rocks often have a very bizarre shape (Mother Nature's fantasy is all right). Some of them may have looked like the skeletons of a ship. And the boards? So in ancient times, wooden buildings could have been erected in the mountains. For example, livestock pens - why not? By the way, here is some more interesting information in connection with this assumption: at the place of the search for the Ark, in ancient times, there was a highly developed state of Urartu. The inhabitants of this country undoubtedly built houses, grew plants on mountain terraces and raised livestock.

Our native 21st century provided a person with enough technical means to search for lost artifacts, which, undoubtedly, is Noah's ark. So one of the researchers, studying the map obtained by the satellite, discovered on Mount Ararat a formation resembling a ship frozen in ice in outline. So, the story of the search for the rescue ship is not over.

It would seem a simple matter. The last resting place of the ark is known, where there was "a pair of each creature" - Mount Ararat. Go and see if there is a ship there. But at first it was impossible to do this - ascents to the sacred peak were strictly prohibited ...
This taboo was broken only in 1829 by the Frenchman Friedrich Parrot.

But during the first ascent, the climber least of all thought about the Flood. But after half a century, a competition began, in essence, for the right to be the first to find the remains of Noah's ship. In 1876, Lord Bryce, at 13,000 feet (4.3 km), discovered and sampled a 4-foot (1.3 m) piece of treated log. In 1892, Archdeacon Nuri, one of the main priests of the Chaldean Church, finally, for the first time, together with five accompanying persons, discovered a “large wooden ship” near the summit! (magazine "English Mechanic", 11.11.1892).
In 1856, "three atheist foreigners" hired two guides in Armenia and set out on a journey with the goal of "refuting the existence of the biblical ark." Only dozens of years before his death, one of the guides admitted that "to their surprise, they found the ark." At first they tried to destroy it, but they failed because it was too large. Then they swore that they would not tell anyone about their discovery, and they made their escorts do the same ... (The Christian Herald magazine, August 1975).
In 1916, the fearless Russian front-line pilot V. Roskovitsky reported in a report that he had observed a "lying large ship" from an airplane on the slopes of Ararat (then this area was part of the Russian Empire)! Immediately equipped by the tsarist government (despite the war!), The expedition began to search. Subsequently, the direct participants claimed that they had achieved their goal, photographed and examined in detail ... Apparently, this was the first and last official expedition to the ark. But, unfortunately, its results were reliably lost in Petrograd in 1917, and the territory of Greater Ararat was captured by Turkish troops ...
In the summer of 1949, two groups of researchers went to the "ark" at once.

The first, of 4 missionaries, led by a pensioner from North Carolina, Dr. Smith, saw only one strange "vision" at the summit (Le Monde, 09.24.1949). But the second, consisting of the French, reported that "they saw Noah's ark ... but not on Mount Ararat", but on the neighboring peak of Jubel-Judy southeast of Sevan ("France-Soir", 08/31/1949). True, according to local legends, near this place, visions were often observed in the form of a ghost ship covered with a layer of mud. In the same place, two Turkish journalists later allegedly saw a ship (or a ghost?) Measuring 500 x 80 x 50 feet (165 x 25 x 15 m) with the bones of sea animals and next to the grave of Noah. However, after 3 years, Ricoeur's expedition found nothing of the kind.
In the cold summer of 1953, American oilman George Jefferson Green, flying in a helicopter in the same area, took 6 very clear photographs of a large ship from a height of 30 meters, half sunk into the rocks and ice sliding from a mountain ledge. Green subsequently failed to equip an expedition to this place, and 9 years after his death all the originals of the photographs disappeared ... But photographs with clearly distinguishable outlines of the ship, taken from Space, appeared in print! (The Daily Telegraph, 09/13/1965).
In 1955, Fernand Navarre manages to find an ancient ship among the ice, from under the ice he removed an L-shaped beam and several planks. After 14 years, he repeated his attempt with the help of the American organization "Search" and brought some more boards. A radiocarbon analysis carried out in the USA determined the age of the tree at 1400 years, in Bordeaux and Madrid the result was different - 5000 years! (F. Navarra. Noah's Ark: I Touched It, 1956, 1974).
Following him to Ararat goes John Libi from San Francisco, who shortly before saw the exact location of the ark in a dream, and ... finds nothing. Seventy-year-old "poor fellow Libi", as the journalists dubbed him, made 7 unsuccessful ascents in 3 years, during one of them he barely managed to escape from a bear throwing stones! The owner of a hotel in Dugobayazit at the foot of Mount Ararat, Farkhetin Kolan, participated as a guide in several dozen expeditions. But Eril Cummings, who has completed 31 ascents since 1961, is rightfully the champion among the "ark-addicts"!
One of the last to make his 5 ascents is Tom Crotser. Returning with his trophy board, he exclaimed in front of the press: "Yes, there are 70 thousand tons of this tree, I swear on my head!" And again, radiocarbon analysis showed the age of the boards at 4000-5000 years ("San Francisco Examiner", 06/29/1974).
The history of all expeditions (official at least) ends in 1974. It was then that the Turkish government, having placed monitoring posts on the border line on Ararat, closed the area for any visits. Now there, in connection with the warming of the international situation, voices for lifting this ban are being voiced more and more insistently. So we can only hope that the ancient ship preserved in the ice will not crumble in anticipation of new explorers.
However, the description in the Bible of the World Flood, which lasted about a year 5 thousand years ago, is far from the only mention of this disaster. An earlier Assyrian myth, recorded on clay tablets, tells of Gilgamesh, who escaped in an ark with various animals and stuck after the end of a 7-day flood, strong winds and downpours to Mount Nitsir (400 m high) in Mesopotamia. By the way, in the accounts of the flood stories, many details coincide: in order to find out whether the earth appeared from under the water, Noah released a crow and twice a dove; Utnapishtim - a dove and a swallow. The methods of building arks were similar. By the way, similar stories are also found among the aborigines of South and North America, Africa and Asia.
Wyatt's research
Anesthesiologist Ronal Eldon Wyatt devoted himself entirely to finding and researching the remains of the biblical Noah's ark.
Since 1977, he has organized several expeditions to Turkey and created Wyatt Archeological Research to popularize this research.
Wyatt proved that this ship is the work of man, and thus is the legendary ark of Noah. Also, the scientist did a tremendous job: he collected a lot of evidence, photographed and video the work carried out, and analyzed the samples taken in reputable scientific laboratories.
From 1977 to 1987, Ronald made 18 expeditions to the location of the ark. And as a result of this, Wyatt concluded - Noah's Ark was found!

Remains of the ark
In 1978, an earthquake struck Turkey, which led to the subsidence of the soil that hid the vessel. Thus, the petrified remains of the ship were on the surface. Depressions could be seen around the entire ark, which resembled disintegrating ribs (frames). The horizontal beams of the deck support were also visible. The length of the ship is 157 meters (515 feet).
In Knoxville, Tennessee, a mineral analysis was performed on soil samples taken near the ark. Samples taken from the crack showed 4.95% carbon content, which indicates that there was once living matter there - rotten or petrified wood.
The earthquake split the object from bow to stern, allowing scientists to sample materials from the ark from any depth from the crack in the ark.
In 1986, a new research method was applied - surface radar scanning. Ronald Wyatt and Richard Rives have done mini digs on the ark. They cleared out a section of the ship that was badly damaged. There were rib beams (frames). After removing the earth that hid the ark, they saw a difference in color between the darker soil and the lighter beams. This process was videotaped.

Lava flow
There are suggestions that during the volcanic eruption, the ark moved in a lava flow, and he did this sideways down the mountainside. This lava flooded the ship. They split the ark, pressing it against a huge limestone ledge. As a result, the entire ark was engulfed in lava. The theory was confirmed by scans that showed voids along the entire length of the hull.
Ron found "strange stones" found in the lowest compartment of the ark, in its torn off part. He assumed it was the ship's ballast material. As a result of the ship's split, a large amount of ballast fell out, while the other part remained inside.
The material that was used as ballast did not turn out to be an ordinary stone, as it outwardly resembled metallurgical waste. Analyzes later confirmed that the ballast was not naturally occurring.

Metal rivets
Soil samples inside the ark showed a high iron content. The Turkish authorities refused to carry out excavations. Therefore, in 1985, Ron Wyatt, Dave Fassold and John Baumgardner performed a deep penetration survey. The result was simply amazing! The metal detectors reacted in a very orderly manner. Stones were placed in these places, then they were connected with a ribbon. This showed the internal structure of the ship.
Also, metal detectors found thousands of metal rivets, with the help of which the wooden structures of the ship were fastened. This suggests that both wooden and metal parts were used in the construction of the ark. Titanium alloys were found in the samples. Titanium is known as a metal that has tremendous strength, light weight, and high corrosion resistance. And, what is most interesting, man mastered the metallurgical production of titanium only in 1936!
Stone anchors
In 1977, during the first expedition, very large stones were discovered in the area where the ark was located. They were similar in shape and design to the anchor stones found by archaeologists in the Mediterranean. But the stones that Ron found were much larger!
This is a type of floating anchors that are constantly found at the bottom of the Mediterranean and other seas. They were often used on ships in ancient times to keep the ship perpendicular to oncoming waves and to be stable.
Deck wood
The Turkish authorities have acknowledged the research findings of Ronald Wyatt and his team. On June 20, 1987, the official opening of "Noah's Ark" took place. The event was attended by officials and journalists.
After the ceremony, the governor asked Wyatt to scan the site. Suddenly, Ronald noted a particular reading after several radar passes. Digging was started and an object about 45 cm long was found, which was named “deck timber”.
The journalists filmed the process of excavating the wood, and later showed it on television in Turkey. The sample was taken to the United States for research. Laboratory analysis of wood was performed at Galbrays Laboratory in Knoxville, Tennessee. The entire analysis process was filmed.

The test results showed that this sample is a former organic matter. In addition, this wood lacked annual layers, which usually occur when the diet changes during the changing seasons. This can be explained by the peculiarity of the climate before the flood. The Bible says that after the flood, the Lord said: “Henceforth, throughout the days of the earth, sowing and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will not cease” (Genesis 8:22).
The root of the Aramaic word, which is similar in meaning to the Hebrew word for “gopher tree”, means glued wood (layers of wooden slabs are glued together to provide additional strength). After investigating the cut, it became apparent that this part of the deck flooring was definitely glued timber.
Resin was used as glue, the remains of which, in a fossilized form, have survived to our times. Thus, the method of joining structures that Noah used to build the ark involved gluing three separate layers of wood together for strength.
Without much publicity
Why is this discovery kept silent? There is clear evidence. It can be concluded that the world does not want to admit that the ark has really been found, thus we will have to admit that the Bible, the Word of God, speaks the truth. Therefore, one must live differently.
One Australian film crew visited the site where the ark was found. But she didn’t take pictures of the results of the metal detectors that were taking place before their eyes. They chose to film what they thought would serve to discredit the finding of the ark.
You can deny the truth, but from this it will not cease to exist ... and sooner or later it will still have to be reckoned with ...
“Above all, know that in the last days there will be insolent abusers, walking according to their own desires.
and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers began to die, from the beginning of creation, everything remains the same.
Those who think so do not know that in the beginning by the word of God the heavens and the earth were made up of water and water:
therefore the world of that time perished, being drowned by water.
And the present heaven and earth, contained by the same Word, are preserved by fire for the day of judgment and destruction of wicked men.
This one thing must not be hidden from you, beloved, that the Lord has one day as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
The Lord does not hesitate in fulfilling the promise, as some consider it to be slow; but is longsuffering to us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

For believers, Noah is “a righteous and blameless man in his kind”, the one who, according to the Bible, “walks before God,” who “found grace in the eyes of the Lord,” and who died nine hundred and fifty years old. For science, Noah is just an object of study. And if this "object" lived, it was, perhaps, ...

Sensational itching

This disease can affect anyone. Even a doctor. After all, nothing foreshadowed trouble when, in the middle of the last century, an unremarkable and unknown American anesthesiologist Ron Wyatt was suddenly "infected" with it. It is he who owns the most popular hypothesis about the existence of Noah's ark. She was born after Ron got the issue of Life magazine from 1957 with published photographs of the vicinity of the Tendurek stratovolcano in the Ararat mountains (recall that it was in the Ararat mountains, according to the Bible, that Noah moored with his ark). It was in this area that the captain of the Turkish army Ilham Durupinar took his famous photographs from an airplane, which depict incomprehensible formations resembling the remains of an ark.

The muse of distant wanderings, as you know, beckons a person. She snatched Father Fyodor out of the quiet district abode, and forced the anesthesiologist Ron Wyatt to look for the ark in the mountains of Ararat. And the tireless Ron found him. Rather, only the place that the Turkish pilot photographed. The boat-like trail was surrounded by a kind of clay walls, which Wyatt declared to be the woody remains of the ark. After him, all the ark hunters repeated the same thing, immediately joining the ranks of the loyal "Wyattists."

The snapshot that changed the fate of Dr. Wyatt

However, geologists have their own opinion on this matter.

“As a geologist, I don't understand their conviction that this is a tree,” says Geology Professor Larry Collins. - The chaotic pattern of the presented samples of this "wood" has nothing to do with the structure of the petrified wood. In addition, petrified wood is very hard, as wood cells are replaced over time by silicate molecules, commonly known as quartz. Quartz, like diamond, is incredibly hard. The sample given to me does not possess this quality.

One of the creationists, an expert on underwater finds, David Fesseld, who, at Wyatt's insistence, provided the sample to geologist Larry Collins, after the latter's conclusion, even stopped writing his book about the ark, admitting that Wyatt's conclusions were erroneous. What can not be said about Ron Wyatt himself, who was fanatically "confident" until the end of his days. As well as the rest of the hunters for a miracle.

- Looking at this photo, I, first of all, thought that it was a small ledge in the stone, since there is another similar ledge visible there, - says Farouk El-Baz, a geologist from Boston University. - The stones slid down, forming a moat, and this is clearly visible in the picture. I doubt that this is human handiwork.

Slope of Ararat: Another Ark?

The length of the sought-after object in the Tendurek volcano area is 157 meters. The length of Noah's ark, according to the Bible, is 300 cubits (137 meters). A follower of Wyatt, a certain Jerry Bowen, finds an explanation for this difference. Moses, who wrote the Book of Genesis, studied in Egypt, and he obviously had in mind a measure of length called the royal Egyptian cubit. Thus, the difference in the end is not twenty meters, but only a few centimeters.

However, the size of the "elbows" varies greatly. And if you really want to - everything is possible. See a human face on Mars, declare the Nazca desert as an airfield for flying saucers and see petroglyphs in the form of space suits in the walls of the Egyptian pyramids.

- Why are we surprised that the expectations to see the ship on Mount Ararat were crowned with success? - says Russian researcher Vadim Chernobrov. “Moreover, as many as three of his images were found in different places.

In spite of everything, these too are just general phrases. Let's figure it out in detail.

Ararat is the highest volcanic massif in the Armenian Highlands. It consists of two cones of extinct volcanoes merged by their bases: Big Ararat and Small Ararat. The height of the Bolshoi - 5165 m above sea level

About half a century ago, in one of the glacial crevices on Ararat, at an altitude of 4 km, French archaeologists found another wooden artifact. They were later dated to 800 BC. - at times ancient, but much later than the supposed voyage of Noah. Perhaps the tree was raised to a height for construction that was never completed.

Noah's destroyer

“And you shall make it thus: the length of the ark is three hundred cubits; its width is fifty cubits, and its height is thirty cubits. "

Neither more nor less (the elbow is about 50 cm), these are the dimensions of a modern destroyer or mega yacht of an Arab sheikh. With a length of 140 meters, it would be the largest ship in the entire ancient world. Backbreaking work for one family.

“Even in the 19th century, they could not have built such a ship out of wood alone,” says shipbuilding expert Tom Vosmer. - Metal parts would be needed. At sea, such a vessel will crack the skin and leak. He would have drowned as quickly as an ordinary stone.

Perhaps Noah built the ark, only its dimensions were much more modest.

Jan Brueghel the Younger, "Driving animals into Noah's Ark" (17th century)

Each creature has a pair

“Bring also into the ark, of all animals and of all flesh, in pairs, so that they may remain alive with you; male and female, let them be. Of birds after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, and of all that creep on the earth after their kind, of all of them, a couple of them will come in to you to stay alive. "

It is believed that our planet is inhabited by 30 million species of animals. Perhaps after these words, comments seem superfluous. Had Noah had a whole fleet of "destroyers", it would have been worse than Landau's problems if Noah had a whole fleet of "destroyers" in it — "a couple" of each species (totaling 60 million individuals). The same applies to the loading of "critters". According to Scripture, Noah and his family were able to accomplish this in a week. According to experts, at real speed, this would take at least thirty years.

Perhaps the Bible does not mean all animals, but only those who lived in the area where Noah lived? The Book of Genesis describes specific species: seven pairs of ten species of "clean" animals (those that could be sacrificed to God): sheep, antelopes, cattle, goats, deer. There are also described "unclean" animals: pigs, hares, lizards, snails, etc. A total of 30 species. In total, 260 individuals were supposed to be on board the ark. This is very small compared to 30 million (count 60 million), but much more realistic.

Another sensation associated with Noah's ark, appeared already in 2000, when satellite photographs of the slopes of Ararat were studied. In the saddle between its two peaks, under the snow, someone again made out the outlines of the ship. Alas, scientists again considered this to be just a normal fold of a sliding glacier. In the end, experts are quite sure: the ark could not remain frozen in the ice for so long under no circumstances. After all, the glacier moves and blows everything in its path to the foot of the mountains. According to scientists, if the fragments of the ark were trapped in the glacier, they would be found not at the top, but at the base of Ararat.

From the flood - not a trace

“In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on this day all the springs of the great abyss were opened, and the windows of heaven were opened; and it rained on the earth for forty days and forty nights ... And the water on the earth increased enormously, so that all the high mountains that are under the whole sky were covered ... The water on the earth became stronger for a hundred and fifty days. "

The whole legend of Noah is meaningless without the fact of the flood. The flood described in the Bible would invariably leave a very clear, worldwide visible, geological footprint. His search began a century and a half ago. Geologist Lan Plimer looked for him on all continents, but in vain. However, not quite. He, like many others, managed, rather, to prove that nothing like this had ever happened.

But that's not all. The very idea of \u200b\u200ba flood negates everything that science knows about the history of the Earth. To flood the planet to the summits of the Himalayas, you need a volume of water three times larger than all the oceans have. Where did it come from, then? "... all the sources of the great abyss were opened," the Scripture suggests.

“It cannot be that water in such a volume came from geysers and underground sources,” says Lan Plimer. - If this happened, then it would no longer be water, but swamp slurry, on which it is impossible to swim. In addition, flooding the entire surface of the planet would lead to changes in the Earth's atmosphere. So much steam would enter the atmosphere that the person would choke on the breath, and the pressure would increase so much that the lungs would burst. The geyser emissions also contain sulfur dioxide, so people would suffocate even before the flood.

In 1949, the CIA carried out aerial photography of Ararat. For many years these photographs were classified, access to them was opened only in 1995. In the photographs you can see a certain dark mass, the length of which is 140 m, almost the exact size of the ark. However, geologists also declared these photographs unconvincing, citing extremely low image quality. The “dark mass” in the pictures can be either melted snow or a simple play of light and shadow.

Noah, Gilgamesh and Atrahasis

At one time, philologists also joined the investigation of the ark. After studying the language of the legend of Noah, they came to the conclusion that it was written in the 6th century BC. It was inserted into the Torah by Jewish priests who lived in Babylon (modern Iraq - ed.). There is a chance that it was they who composed the beautiful parable. But scientists are well aware - any of such legends always contains a certain amount of truth. Perhaps the story of Noah's Ark is just an exaggerated retelling of real events.

One hundred and fifty years ago, Englishman Henry Leyerd studied the ruins of the Babylonian library at Nineveh. Finding hundreds of cuneiform tablets, he sent them to the British Museum, where appropriate specialists could work with them. However, the museum workers did not attach importance to the next batch of clay books and sent them to the storerooms. They were kept there until 1872, when museum employee George Smith found them and deciphered them. His conclusion turned out to be truly sensational. He found a similarity between the famous Epic of Gilgamesh and the biblical legend of our Noah.

"Noah's Ark". Illustration by Gustave Dore

Then it went like clockwork. A lot of archaeological and geological expeditions were organized on the territory of Iraq. All of them confirmed that there really was a serious flood in this region. It happened at least five thousand years ago in the territory of Mesopotamia. But it was there that the civilizations of Sumer, Assyria and Babylon were born. We owe them the Epic of Gilgamesh, as well as the predecessor of this legend - the epic of the Sumerian hero Atrahasis. All these people, like Noah, with enviable consistency listen to the voice of the gods, build a raft and save themselves on it. In addition, both epics tell of a real flood in the territory of Mesopotamia, which, as we have already said, happened five thousand years ago.

Therefore, scientists assume that the legend of Noah is only a Christian version of a pagan epic, written shortly after the above flood. The latter eroded many cities in Mesopotamia, but, of course, not the whole world.
Meanwhile, the scientist Alan Milord is sure that the Bible does not say anything about the Flood:

- In Hebrew, the words "land" and "country" were spelled the same. It can be assumed that a local flood is described there.

Probably the puzzle has come together.

Was Noah?

Scientists answer: "It may very well be." Only if we take into account the above logical chain will we have to cross out the familiar image of the biblical Noah, who historically was probably a completely different person.

He was a Sumerian. And that means he was shaved bald, dyed his eyebrows and wore a skirt. This was accepted in the culture of the Sumerians. How did this man live? The Epic of Gilgamesh says that he had both gold and silver. It turns out that Noah was not a simple winemaker at all, he was a merchant. Instead of an ark, he most likely had a large barge, perfect for transporting livestock, grain, beer and other goods. Shopping centers in those parts lay along the banks, so it was easier and cheaper to transport goods by water.

How big was Noah's barge? Scientists have not yet found an accurate description of the Sumerian merchant barges, so they simply estimate the maximum possible size of such a vessel at that time.

“The Epic of Gilgamesh says that the boat was divided into sections,” comments the expert on ancient ships Tom Vosmer. - Large ships could be built like pontoons. Several barges, for example, were tied together with ropes, and at the top was the ship's owner's house.

Perhaps Noah lived on this ship with his family, could load animals on it for sale. When this ship was “moored”, and Noah and his family were just aboard it (according to various versions, it was a moment of some kind of celebration), hurricane wind cut the rope and carried the barge through the waters of the Euphrates River.

Satellite image of the area in one of the regions of the Ararat Mountains, where the remains of Noah's ark are believed to have been found

Scientists know that melting snow in the mountains of Armenia in July raises the water level in the Euphrates. At this time, the channels become passable for ships. Noah waited for such a flood to go down the river with his goods. If we assume that a strong storm happened at this time, then the Euphrates could turn into a raging sea, causing floods. However, in July in these places it rarely rains, so such floods do not occur more often than about once every thousand years (it is not surprising that such events were necessarily recorded in the annals). In those days, the climate in these regions was hotter and more humid, and therefore hurricanes and rainstorms are stronger than now. If such a storm coincided with the melting of snow in the mountains, it could flood the entire Mesopotamian plain. Which is probably what happened.

But the Bible writes about 40 days and nights when it rained and "the windows of heaven were opened." The Babylonian epic is more modest: it tells only about seven days. But even this week would have been enough to "destroy people from the face of the earth." It is possible that Noah's barge, torn off the coast by a hurricane, really drifted for quite a long time, but not along the fresh waves of the Euphrates, but along the sea. After all, the Babylonian text states: the water overboard has become salty. Scientists calculated the course of the barge over the flooded plain and came to the conclusion that it was apparently carried away to the Persian Gulf. It is unknown how long the Noah family sailed in the bay. If you believe the Bible - a year, if the Sumerian epic - seven days. The latter's version, of course, is much more likely. Noah's barge most likely carried beer that has been brewed here since time immemorial. He was drunk instead of water by Noah's relatives and himself. But the Sumerian Noah hardly wanted to return after the flood back to his native Sumerian city of Shurupak. According to Sumerian laws, anyone who owed money and could not repay the debt was invariably enslaved. As a merchant, Noah probably owed money, and "burned out" in the flood, he could not make a profit, and he had nothing to repay the debt with. However, according to Babylonian sources, Noah was none other than the head of the city of Shurupak. But that didn't change anything either. Sumerian laws were equal for everyone.

Further life of Noah is shrouded in mystery. But one of the Babylonian tablets still says that Noah remained in the land of Dilmun (now the island of Bahrain - author's note), but in the mountains of Ararat, Noah's barge could not have ended up after the flood. There are many unexplored burial grounds on the island of Bahrain. Who knows, maybe one of them still keeps the remains of the legendary Noah?

Alternative opinion

It certainly is. And it consists in the fact that the Armenians who have inhabited the vicinity of Aratat since ancient times are none other than the descendants of Noah. The year of foundation of the capital of Armenia, Yerevan, is considered the year of foundation of the Urartian city of Erebuni - 782 BC. e. However, Armenian legends say that the first settlements in these places appeared in the time of Noah. The main proof is the folk etymology of the word "Erevats!" (She appeared!), Which Noah allegedly uttered after the peak of Small Ararat appeared from under the water.

View of Ararat from Yerevan

The 17th century traveler Jean Chardin writes: “Erivan, according to the Armenians, is the world's most ancient settlement. Because they claim that Noah and all his family settled here before the Flood, and after that he came down from the Mountain where the Ark remained. "

Be that as it may, only Noah seems to know the truth, if he really existed. We can only rely on facts and, probably, just believe.

In eastern Turkey, on the Anatolian coast, near the borders with Iran and Armenia, a mountain covered with eternal snow rises. Its height above sea level is only 5165 meters, which does not allow it to be among the highest mountains in the world, but it is one of the most famous peaks of the Earth. The name of this mountain is Ararat. In the clear air of early morning, before the clouds cover the summit, and at dusk, when the clouds leave, revealing the mountain that appears against the background of the evening pink or purple sky in front of the eyes of people, many are looking at the outlines of a huge ship high on the mountain ...

Mount Ararat, on the top of which Noah's ark should be located, is mentioned in the religious traditions of the Babylonian kingdom and the Sumerian state, in which the name Ut-Writehtim was given instead of Noah. In Islamic legends, Noah (in Arabic Nuh) and his huge ark-ship are also immortalized, but again, without even indicating the place of his anchorage in the mountains, which is here called Al-Jud (peaks), they mean both Ararat and two other mountains in the Middle East.

The Bible presents us with approximate information about the location of the ark: "... the ark rested on the Ararat mountains." Travelers who have made voyages with caravans in Central Asia or vice versa, repeatedly passed near Ararat and then told that they saw the ark near the top of the mountain, or mysteriously hinted at their intentions to find this ship-ark. They even claimed that amulets were made from the wreckage of the ark to protect against ailments, misfortunes, poisons and unrequited love.
Starting from about 1800, groups of mountain climbers with quadrants, altimeters, and later with cameras, climbed to Ararat. These expeditions did not find the original remains of the huge Noah's ark, but they found huge ship-like tracks - in the glaciers and near the very top of the mountain they noticed massive columnar formations covered with ice, similar to wooden beams hewn by human hands. At the same time, the opinion was increasingly asserted that the ark gradually slid down the side of the mountain and fell apart into numerous fragments, which now, probably, were frozen into one of the glaciers covering Ararat.

mount Ararat, Clickable

If we look at Ararat from the surrounding valleys and from the foothills, then, having a good imagination, in the folds of the mountainous relief it is not difficult to see the hull of a huge ship, and to notice some elongated oval object in the depths of the gorge or a not entirely clear dark rectangular spot in the ice of glaciers. However, many researchers, who claimed, especially in the last two centuries, that they saw a ship on Ararat, in some cases climbed high into the mountains and found themselves, as they claimed, in the immediate vicinity of the ark, most of buried under the ice.

Legends about an unusually large wooden ship, which have survived entire civilizations over millennia, do not seem to many to be absolutely believable. After all, wood, iron, copper, bricks and other building materials, with the exception of huge rock boulders, collapse over time, and how, then, can a wooden ship survive on the top? This question can be answered, apparently, only in this way: because this ship was frozen in the ice of the glacier.

At the top of Ararat, in the glacier between the two peaks of the mountain, it is cold enough to preserve a ship built of thick logs, which, as it is mentioned in reports that came from the depths of millennia, “were thoroughly tarred inside and out”. In the reports of mountain climbers and airplane pilots about their visual observations of a ship-like object, which they noticed on Ararat, it is always said about parts of the ship covered with a solid shell of ice, or about traces within the glacier, resembling the outline of a ship, corresponding to the dimensions of the ark given in the Bible. : "Three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high."

Thus, it can be argued that the preservation of the ark mainly depends on climatic conditions... Exceptionally warm periods took place on the Ararat mountain range approximately every twenty years. In addition, every year in August and early September it is very hot, and it is during these periods that reports appear about the tracks of a large ship found on the mountain. So, when a ship is covered with ice, it cannot undergo weathering and decay, like a number of specimens of extinct animals known to scientists: Siberian mammoths or saber-toothed tigers and other mammals from the Pleistocene era, found in Alaska and northern Canada. When removed from the ice captivity, they were completely intact, even in the stomachs there was still undigested food.

Since certain parts of the surface of Ararat are covered with snow and ice for a whole year, the seekers of the remains of the large ship could not notice them. If this ship on the mountain is covered with snow and ice all the time, extensive special research is needed. But it is very difficult to carry them out, because the mountain peak conceals, according to the inhabitants of the surrounding villages, a danger for mountain climbers, which consists in the fact that supernatural forces are guarding Ararat from people's attempts to find Noah's ark. This "protection" manifests itself in various natural disasters: avalanches, sudden rockfalls, violent hurricanes in the immediate vicinity of the summit.

Unexpected fogs deprive climbers of the ability to navigate, so that among snow and ice fields and deep gorges, they often find their graves in icy, snow-covered bottomless cracks. There are many venomous snakes in the prelgori; there are often wolf packs, very dangerous wild dogs, bears inhabiting large and small caves, in which climbers often try to make a halt, and, in addition, from time to time, Kurdish robber bands reappear. In addition, by decision of the Turkish authorities, the approaches to the mountain were guarded for a long time by gendarmerie detachments.

Aerial photography of a strange object on Mount Ararat.

Many historical evidence that something like a ship was noticed on Ararat belonged to those who visited nearby settlements and cities and admired Ararat from there. Other observations belong to those who, traveling with caravans to Persia, passed through the Anatolian plateau. Despite the fact that much of the evidence dates back to ancient times and the Middle Ages, some of them contained details that modern researchers noticed much later.

Beroes, Babylonian chronicler, in 275 BC wrote: "... a ship that sank to the ground in Armenia", and, in addition, mentioned: "... the resin from the ship was scraped off and amulets were made from it." Exactly the same information is given by the Jewish chronicler Josephus Flavius, who wrote his works in the first century after the conquest of Judea by the Romans. He presented a detailed account of Noah and the Flood and, in particular, wrote: "One part of the ship can be found even today in Armenia ... there people are gathering resin for making amulets." In the late Middle Ages, one of the legends says that the resin was ground into powder, dissolved in a liquid and this drug was drunk to protect it from poisoning.

The indications of these and other ancient writers on this ship tar are interesting not only because they clearly correspond to certain places in the book of Genesis, but also because this huge ship turned out to be quite accessible centuries after the flood, and because it gives a fairly realistic explanation for that the wooden pillars and beams from which the ship was built are well preserved under the layer eternal ice high on the mountain.

Josephus Flavius \u200b\u200bin his "History of the Jewish War" makes such an interesting remark: "The Armenians call this place" the pier ", where the ark remained to lie forever, and show the surviving today parts of it ”. Nicholas from Damascus, who wrote "The Chronicles of the World" in the 1st century after the birth of Christ, called Mount Baris: "... in Armenia there is a high mountain called Baris, on which many fugitives were saved from the Flood. There, on the top of this mountain, one person stopped, who sailed in the ark, the fragments of which were preserved there for a long time.

Baris was another name for Mount Ararat, which in Armenia was also called Masis. One of the most famous travelers of the past, Marco Polo, in the last third of the 15th century, drove near Ararat on his way to China. In his book "Travels of the Venetian Marco Polo" there is a stunning message about the ark: "... You should know that in this country of Armenia, on the top of a high mountain, Noah's Ark rests, covered with eternal snows, and no one can climb there, to the top, so moreover, the snow never melts, and new snowfalls complement the thickness of the snow cover. However, its lower layers thaw and the resulting streams and rivers, flowing into the valley, thoroughly moisten the surrounding area, on which a thick grass cover grows, attracting numerous herds of herbivorous large and small animals from all around in summer. "

This description of Mount Ararat remains relevant to this day, with the exception of the statement that no one can climb the mountain. His most interesting observation is that snow and ice melt the ground and water flows out from under the glacial ice. It is especially important to note that modern researchers have discovered wooden beams and racks, hand-worked by human hands, in glacial cracks. At the beginning of the 16th century, the German traveler Adam Olearius visited Ararat and in his book Journey to Muscovy and Persia he wrote: “The Armenians and Persians believe that the remnants of the ark are still on the mentioned mountain, which over time have become solid and strong like a stone ".

Olearius' remark about the petrification of wood refers to beams that were found above the border of the forest zone and are now in the Echmiadzin monastery; they are also similar to separate parts of the ark, which in our time were found by the French climber and explorer Fernand Navarra and other travelers. Franciscan monk Oderich, who reported to the Pope about his travels in Avignon in 1316, saw Mount Ararat and wrote about this: “The people living there told us that no one climbed the mountain, as it probably could not please To the Almighty ... "

The first evidence of the discovery of Noah's ark appeared long before the birth of Christ. In the era of Christianity, the historian Josephus Flavius \u200b\u200bwrote about this in his work "Antiquities of the Jews." In 1840, a Turkish expedition discovered a wooden frame protruding from a glacier on Mount Ararat. Despite the difficulties, the researchers approached it and saw a gigantic vessel, the dimensions of which coincided with those indicated in the biblical text - 300 cubits in length, 50 in width and 30 in height, i.e. 150 by 25 by 15 meters.

The legend that God does not allow people to climb Ararat is still alive today. This taboo was broken only in 1829 by the Frenchman J.F. Parro, who made the first ascent to the top of the mountain. The glacier on the northwestern slopes of the mountain is named after him. Half a century later, there began, in essence, a competition for the right to be the first to find the remains of Noah's ship. In 1856, "three atheist foreigners" hired two guides in Armenia and set off on a journey with the goal of "refuting the existence of the biblical ark." Only dozens of years before his death, one of the guides admitted that "to their surprise, they found the ark." At first they tried to destroy it, but they failed because it was too big. Then they swore that they would not tell anyone about their discovery, and they made their escorts do the same ...

In 1893, the archdeacon of the Nestorian Church Nurri, after climbing Mount Ararat, declared that he had seen Noah's ark. According to him, the ship is made of thick dark brown planks. Having measured the vessel, Nurri came to the conclusion that its dimensions are quite consistent with those indicated in the Bible. Returning to America, he organized a society to raise funds for the expedition, after which the Ark, as a biblical shrine, was to be delivered to Chicago. But the Turkish government did not give permission to take the vessel out of the country. His testimony remained unconfirmed.

In 1916, a group of Russian aviators was based at a temporary airfield about 25 miles northwest of Mount Ararat. On one of the usual August days, aircraft number seven, specially re-equipped for high-altitude tests, was taken into the air, which were entrusted to Captain Vladimir Roskovitsky and his partner. While flying around the summit, they saw the giant outlines of the ship. Even one of the doors was visible. The dimensions of the vessel were simply staggering: from a city block! The find was reported to the base, but in response the aviators heard a loud and prolonged laugh. Then there was a second flight, after which the information was sent to the government in St. Petersburg. Tsar Nicholas II, being a devout man, equipped two detachments of soldiers with orders to climb the mountain. Fifty men attacked one slope, and a group of a hundred climbed up the other. It took two weeks of hard work to overcome the ravines at the base of the mountain, and about a month passed before the soldiers reached the ark and saw it. They performed detailed measurements, drawings, and took many photographs. The report stated that the entire structure was covered with a mass similar to wax or resin, and the wood from which it was made belongs to the cypress family. All materials were sent to Russia, but the February revolution had already broken out there, and they disappeared without a trace in its whirlpool. Some of the officers who participated in the expedition left the country after 1917. Several people successfully settled in the United States, and Roskovitsky himself became a preacher in the States.

Kurds living in this area claim that in 1948, during an earthquake, the ship was literally squeezed out of the ground. At that moment, a bright light illuminated the surroundings, and the body of the ark was divided into two parts by a piece of rock. Now the building supposedly rises above the earth's surface by about 2 meters. In the summer of 1953, American entrepreneur George Green from a helicopter took 6 clear photographs of a large ship, half sunk into the ice. After 9 years, he died, and all the originals of the photographs disappeared.

In the summer of 1949, two groups of researchers went to the ark at once. The first, of four people led by North Carolina retired Dr. Smith, saw only one strange "vision" at the top. But the second, which consisted of the French, reported that "they saw Noah's ark ... but not on Mount Ararat", but on the neighboring summit of Jubel-Judy. In the same place, two Turkish journalists subsequently allegedly saw a ship measuring 500x80x50 feet (165x25x15 meters) with the bones of sea animals.

But three years later, Ricoeur's expedition found nothing of the kind. In 1955, Fernand Navarre managed to find an ancient ship among the ice, from under the ice he removed an L-shaped bar and several planks. After 14 years, he repeated his attempt with the help of the American organization "Search" and brought some more boards. In the USA, the radiocarbon method showed the age of the tree at 1400 years, in Bordeaux and Madrid, the result was different - 5000 years!

After some time, photographs appeared in print, in which the outlines of the ship were clearly distinguishable.

Following Navarro to Ararat, John Libi went from San Francisco, who shortly before had seen the exact location of the ark in a dream, and ... found nothing. Seventy-year-old "Poor Libi", as journalists dubbed him, made seven unsuccessful ascents in three years, during one of which he barely managed to escape from a bear throwing stones!

One of the last to make five ascents was Tom Crotser. Returning with his trophy board, he exclaimed in front of the press: "Yes, there are 70 thousand tons of this tree, I swear on my head!" And again radiocarbon analysis showed the age of the boards at 4000-5000 years ...

The history of all expeditions (official, at least) ends in 1974. It was then that the Turkish government, having placed observation posts on the border line on Ararat, closed the area for any visits.

In parallel with the "land" expeditions, certificates of the ark come from the pilots. In 1943, two American pilots, during a flight over Ararat, tried to see something similar to the outline of a large ship from a height of several thousand meters. Later they, flying along the same route, took a photographer with them, who took a picture, which later ended up in the American Air Force newspaper Stars and Stripes. In the summer of 1953, the American oilman George Jefferson Green, flying in a helicopter in the same area, from a height of 30 meters took six very clear photographs of a large ship, half sunk into rocks and sliding off a mountain ledge of ice. Green subsequently failed to equip an expedition to this place, and when he died nine years later, all the originals of his photographs disappeared ...

In late spring or even summer 1960, the American pilot of the 428th tactical aviation squadron, stationed near Hell) in Turkey and under the auspices of NATO, noticed some kind of ship 'similar structure on the western spur of Ararat. Captain Schwinghammer, an American, wrote about this flight in 1981: "A huge cargo cart or rectangular boat in a crevice filled with water high above the mountain was clearly visible." Moreover, he argued that the object was slowly sliding down the slope and had to get stuck among the mountain ledges and boulders. In 1974, the American organization "Earth Research Technikal Satellite" (ERTS) photographed the mountain spurs of Ararat from a height of 4600 meters.

The photographs taken with multiple magnifications clearly showed this extraordinary object, lying in one of the crevices of the mountain, "very similar in shape and size to the ark." In addition, the same area was photographed from heights of 7,500 and 8,000 meters, and the resulting images of the glacial formations were quite consistent with what the pilots saw earlier, who spoke of the ark or other unusual object they had noticed. However, not a single object recorded from such a height, even at high magnification, can be quite confidently identified with the ark, because it is more than half hidden under the snow or is in the shadow of rocky ledges.

In 1985, T. McNellis, an American entrepreneur living in Germany, traveled to the northwestern and northeastern foothills of Ararat and talked a lot with the local residents, most often - old Turkish officers who received military education in Germany at one time, and young Turks working in Germany in last years... Many of them are firmly convinced that the ark can be easily found: "Go left along the edge of the Aorian abyss up the slope, then turn left again and after a while along this path you will reach the ark." It was explained to him that the ark was not visible from the lower ledges, since this ship, which had been sliding down from the top of the mountain for thousands of years, now lies calmly under the dense ice cover of a huge glacier.

Claims that Noah's ark has been found are constantly being made. Only last year there were at least 20 of them. But this is at least strange, since only the southern slope of Ararat is open for climbing, where, by definition, nothing can lie in the ice.

Two of the participants of one last year's expedition (more precisely, Vadim Chernobrov, coordinator of the ONIOO "Cosmopoisk" and an employee of the TV company "Unknown Planet"; approx. M.T.) reached the top and really photographed what looked like a petrified skeleton of a huge ship ... But today, except for V. Chernobrov, no one can say for sure what it is.

Many scientists argue that it is necessary to build, bit by bit, an absolutely accurate route for the Russian expedition of 1916, since only a photograph remains of it, which is a genuine documentary evidence of the existence of Noah's ark.

But then what about all the other photographs, which depict something that looks like a huge ship?
It was possible to understand what it is only a month ago with the help of Willy Melnikov, a connoisseur of ancient languages. After looking at many photographs, he said that according to the biblical description, Noah's ark looked like a submarine, and this ship was a spilled ocean yacht. Then Melnikov said that in one of the libraries in Europe he came across a text by an unknown author, dating from about the 3rd century BC. Willie himself called this text "The Two-Speck". It was about the fact that Noah, while drifting through the depths of water, once saw a large ship, the size of his ark. He hoped that someone else had managed to escape, but when he stepped aboard this ship, he did not find a single soul there. According to Melnikov, this is the very “second ark”. In all likelihood, he was photographed last year.

If this assumption is correct, then it changes the whole modern understanding of the flood! After all, the Bible does not say anything about two arks ...
Although it is quite possible that this discovery only complements the Old Testament, since its text contains an abridged version of the flood stories borrowed from the ancient Sumerians, whose clay tablets shed much more light on this story. On some of them, you can read that before the flood, a fairly developed civilization lived on Earth with a fleet. Her ships cruised between Africa and Mesopotamia. They were very large. In the Old Testament, by the way, there is a mention of the fact that along with ordinary people on the planet at that time lived giants. It was they who "began to enter the daughters of men." When this "civilization of giants" began to threaten young mankind, and the Ecumenical Flood was sent to Earth. Noah, as you know, was almost the only righteous man, and he was destined to be saved. By the way, the name Noah, or Noah, translates roughly as "I give up hope, for she can swim."

And again, let's go back to the recent past:

In 1959, the captain of the Turkish army, Llhan Durupinar, discovered an object of an unusual shape while looking at aerial photographs. The object, larger than a football field, lay in rocky terrain at 6,300 feet, near the Turkish border with Iran.

The photographs, along with the negatives, were sent to Ohio State University to aerial photography expert Dr. Brandenburger. The conclusion was: "I have no doubt that this object is a ship."

In 1960, the photograph was published in LIFE magazine under the heading "Noahs Ark?" In the same year, a group of Americans, accompanied by Captain Durupinar (the name is so Turkish, why laugh) visited this place. They expected to find surface artifacts or something that was clearly related to the ship. They poked around for a couple of days, but finding nothing convincing - they announced to the whole world that the ark turned out to be a natural formation.

In 1977, Ron Wyatt obtained official permission from the Turks to excavate and conducted a more thorough investigation that continued for several years. The expedition used metal detectors of the time, an underground radar scanner with recorders and chemical analysis - all scientific - and the results were amazing.

Measurements

The object was a form of petrified wood. Pointed at the bow and blunt at the stern. The distance from bow to stern was 515 feet, or exactly 300 Egyptian cubits. The average width is 50 cubits.

Just like the Bible.

On the right side, in the stern area, vertical protrusions protruding from the clay are visible (B) Further, they go through equal distances - they are defined as hull frames (see below). Opposite them (pictured), on the port side, one rib (A) protruded from the ground. You can clearly see its curved shape in another photo.

The rest of the ribs are largely buried in clay, but are visible upon closer inspection.
Analyzes showed that the organic matter of the wood was replaced by mineral substances, but the shape and internal structure of the tree were preserved. But outwardly it is a stone in appearance - perhaps that is why the first expedition in 60 was disappointed.

The geologists of the expedition believed that the object is now located below, a mile, from its original location - it was carried away by a mudflow. An earthquake in 1948 is believed to have shaken off the dirt from the cracks in the hull and exposed the structure. This is indirectly confirmed by the locals, who talk about the “miraculous” and sudden appearance of the “ark” around this time - they previously knew about its existence, but did not notice it.

Reconstruction of the object

It is assumed that all of the ship's superstructures collapsed into the hull, turning into petrified debris over time.

The object was scanned by ground penetrating radar (GPR). A map was made on which the internal structure was revealed.

Symmetry and logical placement of linear internal structures (bulkheads) prove that this is not a natural object.

Artifacts.

By examining the open cavity in the starboard side and using a drill, Wyatt obtained "samples" from the "hold".

Sent to Galbraith Labs in Tennessee, they showed the presence of dung, horn pieces and animal hair. On closer examination of the petrified wood, it turned out that some of the samples consist of three-layer boards glued with some kind of organic glue. The same technology as, say, in the production of plywood. Outside, the boards were once covered with bitumen.

Even more surprising were the analyzes of rods driven into petrified wood. It could be assumed that there was brass or, at worst, copper - but the "nails" were made of iron!

Do you think that's all?

The metal detector has found strange "rivets". If iron nails have left you indifferent, then understanding people from the analysis of "rivets" ....

Analysis of the metal showed that it contains iron, aluminum and titanium. Fidelity analysis was performed in several laboratories with the same result. There is documentation. Characterization of the iron-aluminum alloy revealed that the alloy forms a thin film of aluminum oxide, which protects the material from rust and corrosion, and titanium imparts strength.
In a word - technologies of the pre-stone age. In general, what is best preserved in this skeleton is the rivets.

A few kilometers from the location of the ark, huge stones were discovered, some in an upright position, others lying on the ground. The stones have holes drilled into them. The researchers suggested that they served as anchors and through the holes they were tied to the ship with a hemp rope. The stones have long been known to pilgrims who were looking for the ark and are covered with engraved crosses.

Stone anchors are a common practice of sailors in ancient times. They were used to stabilize and stabilize heavy ships on the wave. Anchors lie near a village called .. Kazan

So, there is a lot of evidence of the existence of the ark. But in order for them to become reliable, it is necessary to find the ark itself.

And here he is the modern "Noah's Ark"

Well, if it's still more serious, then look:

Now the Dutch contractor has made his old dream come true. He built the ark as much as a biblical ship could be: 133.5 meters long (300 cubits), 22.25 meters wide (50 cubits) and 13.35 meters high (30 cubits). Hubers used his own limbs, measuring from the elbow to the fingertips of an outstretched arm, according to the measurement rules.

The only discrepancy with Noah's ark is that the modern one is not built from the mythical "gopher" tree (presumably, cedar or cypress), but from the metal frames of old barges. The hull of a full-size ship is lined with Scandinavian pine.

A menagerie with life-size dummy animals, a large restaurant and even two cinemas are provided on board.

Johan Hewbers spent three years building the ark with his team. The project spent about £ 1 million ($ 1.6 million). Now the building of the ark, as classified by the authorities, is located in the quiet harbor of the town of Dordrecht.

Earlier, in 2004, a millionaire and creationist had already erected a similar ark, but its size was half the biblical one.

Let me remind you of a few more mysteries, for example, the city. But you should definitely surprise you The original article is on the site InfoGlaz.rf The link to the article this copy was made from is