Noah's ark is not entombed in ice on Mt. Ararat as claimed by some.
However, the video "The Discovery of Noah's Ark" presents evidence
that you can visit the remains of Noah's ark today in Turkey, in the
mountains of Ararat, 17 miles South of Mt. Ararat at the base of
Mt. Judi (Al Judi), resting at 6000 feet. The mountains of Ararat
refer to an area not a specific mountain. 2 Kings 19:37.
Jeremiah 51:27.
By the way, Copyrighted 1997-2002 by Wayne Mckellips. Last updated
13 July 2011. Please copy and share but don't sell. You do not have
permission to mirror this article or site on the Internet.
The physical evidence for the ark includes large anchor or drogue
stones with corresponding sized curved holes for ropes which are
near the ark but many miles from the nearest sea. In his excellent
book "The Ark of Noah" David Fasold says these drogue stones are east
of the ark. I like to think of the drogue stones as capsize prevention
stones. There are also several pieces of sections, of the material
that may have covered the ark, there. These pieces are thick and
hardened but appear to be very light and strong. Remember the words
"gopher" actually unknown but transliterated gopher and "ets" translated
wood in Genesis 6:14 can also mean "reed stalks." I believe the ark was
covered with reeds which were well coated with a binding, sealing, and I
think strengthing, solution. My understanding is that the final product
was a type of cement. David Fasold goes into this in convincing detail
in his book, "The Ark of Noah." Also, a wooden boat longer than
300 feet is considered unsafe in the oceans.
Several tests on the artiface itself indicate the remains are those
of a completely decayed large boat the dimensions of Noah's ark.
That is, provided the cubits recorded in Genesis for the ark refer
to the Egyptian cubit which was 20.6 inches and the width of the ark
was computed according to its volume.
It's believed the ark was not rectangular but was built like the
Egyptain Nile boats of long ago whose two ends were curled up
and back toward the deck. It's also felt the ark had a moon pool
inside it. A moon pool can provide ventilation inside a boat. It
can also absorb the top part of a wave so the ends of a large boat
don't end up sticking out of the water as the boat rides on the top
of a wave. It's also believed Noah's ark had a roof which would have
helped accumulate rainwater for cleaning and drinking. Although it
rained continuously for 40 days and nights, it must have also rained
on and off throughout the year they were in the ark. The Hebrew word
"tsohar" translated "window" in Genesis 6:16 can also mean "roof."
You can order the VHS video "Discovery Of Noah's Ark," or, Fasold's
book, "The Ark of Noah" through
http://www.eskimo.com/~dwpatten/index.html
Or you can write:
Pacific Meridian Publishing Company
13540 39th Ave N.E.
Seattle WA 98125
The government of Turkey has officially determined the artifact is
in fact Noah's ark. They have credited Ron Wyatt with giving the
evidence proving it is Noah's ark. Ron, now deceased, has printed
infomation and many videos on Noah's ark and many other events in
the Bible. I found his very interesting site at:
http://www.wyattmuseum.com
I should also say that there are those who view Ron's conclusions
with skepticism. I think hope, trust, and skepticism are all
important with dealing with people, as one searches for the truth.
If one should embellish a real story or find, that doesn't make the
real find or story any less real.
Back to the start of "Reasons You Can Trust The Bible"
Intro: For a long time I thought the flood waters destroyed all air
breathing life on earth, except for those in the ark. However, there
are a number of scientific problems with the idea that Noah's flood
covered the entire earth. There are also some serious scientific problems with
the idea that a preflood water vapor canopy supplied the water to cover
all the mountains of the world, including Mt. Everest.
I now believe Noah's flood affected the earth and in the end filled the
land of Turkey up with water. As 1st Samuel 30:16 shows sometimes "the
whole earth" or "all the earth" can refer to a country or land area. The
word translated land or earth in 1st Samuel 30:16 is the main one of the
two words used in Genesis when talking about the extent of Noah's flood.
Either Hebrew word "erets" or "adamah" can refer to a country, land, etc.
In the New Testament "world" from "cosmos" can refer to world in a narrow
or in a broad way. John 12:19 is an example where it was meant in a narrow
sense. I think the flood waters destroyed all air breathing life that was
on Noah's land mass. I also don't think the flood was caused by an
overflowing river or why build an ark? Why not just move yourself and
the animals to higher land? I think the flood covered the tops of the
mountains Noah was able to observe in his "erets" or country.
You can verify the following Hebrew words can be translated as I have
suggested by looking them up in www.blueletterbible.org, then clicking
on "C", then clicking on specific Hebrew words. They will have a H followed
by a number. You can also use Hebrew dictionaries like, "The New
Strong's Complete Dictionary of Bible Words." You can also verify
much of what I'm saying by reading the appropriate passages in "The
New Jerusalem Bible" and "The New English Bible." I believe these
events are written as Noah saw and recorded them from the ground
and then the ark. Much of this is from Noah's viewpoint on the ark!
1) God tells Noah to make an ark of ("gopher" "ets" reed stalks).
The ark is to be coated inside and out with "kopher" which probably
bound the reed stalks together and made the ark strong and leak proof.
"Kopher" may have been a coating consisting of lava, pumice, etc.
Looking at sections of what may be "Kopher" siding from Noah's ark in
the video "The Discovery of Noah's Ark" leads me to believe this
covering was very strong, light and several inches thick. God also
tells Noah to load the ark with enough food to provide for him and
the animals. God also says that Noah will be saving the animals and
birds of the ("adamah" country or land), in pairs. A pair is a male
and a female. The Bible does not say how old Noah was when God
talked with him. Genesis 6:14,21,19-20. In the Epic of Gilgamesh,
Utnapishtim, a type of Noah, tells Gilgamesh he Utnapishtim was told to
tear down the reed house and build a large boat for the comming flood.
The text seems to imply he was to build the boat from the reeds in the
reed house he was told to tear down. Because he did that, according to
the story all mankind and all the animals were not killed by the flood.
2) Noah, hopefully his family, and anyone he may have hired,
work on the ark until it is finished. The Bible does not say how
many years or months they worked on the ark. Noah may have built
the ark in Bolovia, or Spain, or even Turkey.
3) With only 7 days before the flood comes, God instructs Noah
to load the ark with seven pairs of clean animals and birds and a
pair of unclean animals. After doing this Noah, his wife and his
three sons and their wives, that is eight people are to enter the
ark. I think Noah loaded the ark with animals obtained from his
whole "erets" or land. Genesis 7:1-4. 1st Peter 3:20.
4) Noah does as God commanded him. Genesis 7:5.
5) The 7 days are up. Noah is 600 years old. It is the 17th day of
the 2nd month. The fountains of the ("rab" abundant in quantity,
number, size, etc,) ("tehom" the deep, the main sea, that is the
oceans), were ("baqa" broke forth, or opened). It also began to
rain for 40 days and nights. I think Mars orbited the Earth in a
very elliptical somewhat geostationary orbit probably between
40 and 150 times. Genesis 7:11-12.
Genesis 7:20 tells us that the waters prevailed 15 cubits upward;
and also that the mountains were covered. David Fasold has a
convincing argument that "15 cubits upward" simply means it was 15
cubits from the bottom of the ship to the top of the water. See
"The Ark of Noah" by David Fasold page 166. Water covered the whole
"erets" country, or land.
The ride got pretty rough. Genesis 8:9. Genesis 7:18. Once Mars
reached escape velocity and proceeded on the extremely high water level
went back down. However, the ark was now trapped along with volumes
of water inside the Anatolia plateau in Turkey which is completely
surrounded by Mountains. It took the waters inside Turkey many days
to drain out through the openings in the mountains.
6) Sometime after the 40 days and nights of rain, Noah opened the
roof and sent out first the raven and then later the dove. I believe
the 40 days here takes us back to the 40 days of rain that began
when the flood started. Genesis 8:6-12. Genesis 7:12,17. In his
book "The Ark of Noah" David Fasold explains the job of the raven
and the dove. Hint - think of lookouts, radar, and carrier pigeons.
7) The Bible tells us after 150 days Noah's ark "nuwach" rested in
the mountains of Ararat. David Fasold in "The Ark of Noah" explains
that saying a ship "rested" or is at rest can be the same as saying
it is moored and no longer underway. Genesis 7:24; 8:3-4. Regardless of
whether or not David Fasold currently believes the object in
question is Noah's ark, David's Fasold's book, "The Ark of Noah" is
full of valuable and enlightening information.
8) On the 1st day of the 10th month the tops of ("har" mountains or
range of hills) was seen. Remember, these were seen by Noah from the
ark. Genesis 8:5 David Fasold suggests that eventually they cut off
some drogue stones or anchor stones and (let them fall) from the ark.
The ark then drifted eastward to where it is now. According to the
VHS video "Discovery Of Noah's Ark" there are many huge anchor
stones with there peculiar shapes not very far from the object they
believe to be the remains of Noah's ark. One of the anchor stones
weighs around 10 tons. These drogue stones are around 6000 feet
above sea level and many miles from the nearest sea. Some of the
stones still have their tops which contain a curved hole.
9) On the 1st day of the 1st month, Noah opened the roof and looked
and saw the ground was dry. Genesis 8:13.
10) On the 27th day of the 2nd month, Noah and all the animals and
birds leave the ark. The remains of the ark are believed to be in
Turkey at the base of Mount Judi about 17 miles south of Mount
Ararat. Genesis 8:14-19.