Have we Found Noah's Ark?

An angel and a demon stand side by side on the Mesopotamian plain, both in awe of God’s wrath. A man and his family are loading animals into a really big boat, two of every kind, slowly making their way aboard, apparently content with their lot. What is happening, the demon wonders.

The angel explains: the Almighty, it seems, is a little miffed and will be sending a great storm to drown everyone – to wipe out the human race – except for the family on the boat. They’ll be fine. The demon is shocked – the whole world?

Everyone? But the angel is quick to reassure him – it’s only the locals that will drown. The Almighty is not upset with the Chinese.

Or the Native Americans. Or the Australians. And, when the whole thing is done, the Almighty will put a rainbow in the sky as a promise not to drown everyone again.

The demon is still shocked – this is something he’d consider his lot to do. The rain starts falling – the storm has arrived.

The tale of Noah’s ark is probably one of the better known stories in the Bible and has seen its fair share of use in popular culture – those familiar with the television show Good Omens would have recognized the conversation between the demon Crawley and the angel Aziraphale. However, for many, this is more than just a story – this is something that really happened. But how does a believer go about convincing the rest of us heathens of the truth of this tale? Well, one way would be to find the actual ark. Many have set out to do exactly that and a great many came back with proof – wooden fragments, eyewitness accounts, photographic evidence and, now that science has finally caught up, ground penetrating radar scans. Considering the time, effort, and money spent on the search for this elusive boat, you’d expect some tangible results – so, today, we’re looking at the quest to find the ark and answer the question: has Noah’s ark been found?

The story of Noah

So, who was Noah? This renowned boat builder is a central figure in the three Abrahamic faiths: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Most people have some idea of who Noah was, but since the story of Noah is kind of important if we want to find his ark, it’s worth revisiting.

The story of Noah and his ark is similar in both the Bible and the Torah. God looked upon the earth and saw only wickedness. He regretted creating mankind and decided to wipe all living things from the face of the earth.

However, Noah, being an honourable and righteous man, was loved by God and commanded to build an ark. The ark had to be 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high. If you’re wondering about cubits, we’ll get back to that a little later.

God would send a flood but Noah, his wife, his sons, and their wives would be safe on the ark. They also had to take a pair of every animal, male and female, onto the ark with them as well as a pair of every bird and things that crawl on the earth. However, later on, it states that God commanded Noah to take seven pairs of all clean animals and one pair of unclean animals, so there’s a bit of a discrepancy there.

It’s been suggested that this is the result of two flood myths being combined into one. Noah also had to fill the ark with enough food for all the people and their charges.

Once the ark was completed, in Noah’s 600th year, Noah, his family, and the entire zoological department of earth entered the ark and God shut them in. Then the flood gates opened from the springs in the earth and the rain started falling. It rained for 40 days and 40 nights until all the earth, to the highest mountains, were under water and all living things perished except for those on the ark.

The flood remained for 150 days. The water steadily receded and the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. After 150 days, Noah released a raven, but it only flew in circles.

After the raven, Noah released a dove, since doves are apparently more trustworthy, but the dove, finding nowhere to perch, returned to the ark. After seven days, the dove was released again, and it returned carrying an olive leaf. After another seven days, it was released a third time and never returned which must’ve been a bummer for dove-kind.

On the first day of Noah’s 601st year, the earth was dry enough, and Noah was commanded to leave the ark. He built an altar to God and sacrificed some of the clean animals, and God made a covenant with Noah that He would never again send floods to destroy all of mankind. The rainbow appearing in the sky after a storm is a reminder of that promise.

The tale of Noah in the Quran has a few differences. Noah is a prophet sent by Allah to warn people of their imminent eradication. However, the chiefs, wary of losing their power, accuse Noah of lying. Noah is commanded to build the ark, and he is mocked by the unbelievers for building his ark.

Similar to the Bible and Torah, Noah is commanded to take two of every animal onto the ark with him. Unlike the Bible and the Torah, Noah doesn’t only take his family. He takes a small group of believers onto the ark with him. One of his own sons throws in his lot with the non-believers and drowns in the flood.

Once all the non-believers had drowned, Allah stopped the rains and halted the flood. There doesn’t appear to be any reference to ravens and doves, and the ark came to rest on Mount Judi rather than the mountains of Ararat.

While Noah’s ark is probably the best known version, it’s not the only story that involves floods, big boats, and a select few surviving. There are over 250 flood myths across the globe – basically every culture has one. One of the earliest versions, and one some scholars consider the Noah’s ark tale to be based on, is the Epic of Gilgamesh. The epic poem tells the story of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, and was written sometime around 2150 BCE and 1400 BCE.

The legend goes that, in his search for immortality, Gilgamesh came upon Utnapishtim, a man who had apparently achieved what Gilgamesh himself seeks. Utnapishtim revealed to Gilgamesh the tale of the flood. The god Enlil decided to send a flood to annihilate mankind, a bit of an extreme reaction to overpopulation, but the god Ea warned Utnapishtim to build a boat and give up his wealth in favour of collecting living things to take with him on the boat.

He did as he was told and, when the flood came, he took his family and the collection of living things onto his boat. The storm raged for seven days, the earth was flooded, and every living thing died except for the ones safely aboard Utnapishtim’s ark. The boat finally lodged itself on Mount Nimush.

On the seventh day after coming to rest on Mount Nimush, Utnapishtim released a dove but it returned, finding nowhere to perch. Next he released a swallow, but the swallow also returned finding nowhere to land. Finally, he sent a raven, which didn’t return, presumably having found dry land.

Utnapishtim and all the living things on the boat disembarked, and he sacrificed a sheep to the gods. For his obedience, both Utnapishtim and his wife were granted immortality.

There are a great many similarities between the tales of Gilgamesh and Noah. The gods send a flood, a chosen and righteous man is called to build a boat and take representatives of all living things aboard, all of mankind is annihilated, the boat finally wedges on a mountain, the dove and the raven, and even the sacrifice. Since the Bible was written after the Epic of Gilgamesh, many scholars believe that the story of Noah was a re-telling of the tale of Gilgamesh but adapted to a monotheistic religion.

Another flood myth thought to have influenced the Biblical account of Noah is the Sumerian tale of King Ziusudra, king of Suruppak, who also happened to be a seer. After witnessing the gods’ council and realizing something catastrophic was coming, he’s visited by the god Enki who confirmed what he already suspected. From there, the tale is similar to that of Utnapishtim – the king builds a boat, survives the flood, and gains immortality.

When you look at other flood myths, in many of them the same motifs repeat. However, not all myths are cataclysmic levels of destruction, some myths limit the flooding to only a certain area, like a village, or, in one instance, a disobedient son’s land became a lake. Some stories also take on characteristics of the places where they’re told – after much digging, one can find two African flood myths that not only include an ark, but also birds. However, the birds are vultures and a hawk rather than doves and ravens.

Apparently, Noah wasn’t the only one to build himself a really big boat.

Was there an ark to begin with?

Before we can go looking for an ark, we need to consider another question: was there an ark to begin with? One of the biggest problems with the search for the ark and the flood narrative in general is the idea that it was a global flood. An all-destructive global flood isn’t something life as we know it would’ve been able to come back from. Not with only eight people and a boatload of animals – and science seems to agree.

There are a number of problems with a global flood, the main one being that there isn’t enough water in the atmosphere to allow a flood of that magnitude. If there was a flood like that, the ground would’ve been saturated, so we’re talking about flood waters deep enough to cover all mountains, including Everest, evaporating in less than a year. Where did all that water go?

While there is no archaeological or geological evidence of a global flood, scientists agree that a localized flood of some magnitude isn’t outside the realm of possibility. One interesting theory is that a comet struck the earth around 5000 years ago, off the coast of Madagascar. The ensuing tsunamis hitting coastlines across the world caused by the impact is the source of all the flood myths.

Some archaeologists also suggest that there might’ve been a local flood on the flood plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia, today Iraq, which gave rise to all the flood myths, including Noah and his ark, in the region. The Sumerian King List indicates a flood in the beginning of the third millennium as the history is divided into the reign of the pre-flood (antediluvian) kings, starting with Eridu and the reign of the post-flood kings starting with Kish. Clearly, there was a catastrophe of note in Mesopotamia early in the third millennium; however, there is no proof that this catastrophe was global.

According to geologist Carol Hill, if you take the Bible at face value, the Bible itself doesn’t mention a global flood either. Language is far more than a system of symbols and sounds – history, culture, and context play a big role in constructing meaning. Moses, generally accepted as the writer of Genesis, didn’t know about Australia, Africa, or the Americas. He wasn’t familiar with Native Americans, Chinese, or the San peoples in the Kalahari Desert. He’d probably also never seen llamas, panda bears, or blue whales, and one imagines he might’ve been rather surprised by the platypus. When Moses talks about a flood covering the earth, he meant his earth which, at that time, was very small. The Hebrew word used for earth, eretz, literally means “earth, ground, land, dirt, soil, or country.” People in the time of Noah and Moses didn’t yet understand the concept of a planet. Why would they have a word for a concept that didn’t exist yet? Noah’s world was essentially Mesopotamia – a flat alluvial plain surrounded by mountains. While Moses would’ve known about Egypt, it’s unlikely he understood the idea of an entire continent, the size of Africa, attached to Egypt. In Gen. 1:10, God called the dry land earth – it seems to be rather like God is being very specific.

A local flood would also explain the animals. If we accept that Noah took two of every animal, we’re talking about thousands of animals, and that’s if you don’t include dinosaurs as some creationists want to. Arguments have been made that Noah loaded two of every family, rather than every species, and that animals mutated into the variety we have today which sounds suspiciously like evolution, but that’s a whole different can of worms.

Regardless, that’s a lot of animals for eight people to take care of. Also, not all species had relations in the Middle East. The Capybara, native to South America, would’ve had to get all the way to Mesopotamia for no apparent reason, hop a boat, cruise around for a year with a bunch of hungry carnivores, and then canoe back home after the unwanted cruise without leaving any trace of its passing.

The Bible does make a point of mentioning miracles, but if there were any miracles involved in finding and keeping all the animals, the writer of Genesis neglected to put it on paper. That means that Noah had to go out and gather all these animals himself. Since he didn’t yet know about the existence of Australia or the arctic, how would he have known to go there?

Even if the continental plates only shifted after the flood, the discovery of ice fields and penguins would’ve been extraordinary enough to merit some mention in ancient texts. They’re hardly a common bird in the Mesopotamian landscape. However, if the flood was local, only animals local to the area would’ve been on the ark, and that’s a much more manageable number.

A global flood would also have been disastrous for marine life – a sudden influx of fresh water into the ocean or the ocean spilling salt water into fresh water lakes and rivers would’ve upset the ecosystem enough that most species would’ve died out – that’s if the sheer weight of the water didn’t crush them first.

The Bible instructs Noah to load animals and food for his family and their charges; however, the Bible doesn’t mention anything about taking seeds and saplings to repopulate the forests of the earth. If the globe was covered with water for almost a year, most, if not all, living plants would’ve drowned. Some seeds can remain dormant for decades – the oldest seed to germinate was a 2000 year old date seed. However, being soaked in water for a year is not the ideal conditions if you want to preserve seed, unless you’re planting seaweed.

Of course, cataclysmic disasters are plentiful in historic record: the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the eruption of Krakatoa, the Black Plague, and others, so a catastrophic flood decimating the earth’s population to some extent isn’t entirely impossible. Even today, hundreds, if not thousands, of lives are lost annually across the world due to flash floods, tsunamis, and other disasters involving lots of water. It’s reasonable to conclude that our ancestors came to the shocking conclusion that a boat is a good place to be in a flood and if you have the chance to load some of your livestock while you’re at it, your future looks relatively rosy once all the water subsides.

Ark fever

So, you’re convinced the ark is real and you wish to go on an expedition to find it. You would not be the first. In fact, so many people claimed to have found the ark that new expeditions and their findings don’t even make the news anymore. But, where to start the search?

There are a great many possible landing places for the ark, among them Mount Nisir, close to the Little Zab River in the As Sulaymaniyah region of the Zagros Mountains, and Mount Nisibis, located near the border of Turkey and Syria. A more recent expedition placed the landing place of the ark on Mount Suleiman in the Elburz Mountains. However, most expeditions have focused on three places – the Durupinar site, Mount Ararat, and Mount Judi, so we’ll focus on those.

On top of all the sightings by people who truly believe they found something of value, there are a great many intentional hoaxes perpetrated by fraudsters hoping to cash in on ark fever. We’ll set aside these hoaxes since there are more than enough actual expeditions to look at. Now, many might have doubts about this whole affair, but, as far as can be determined, the majority of these expeditions are truly looking for the ark and many sincerely believe that they found it. Of course, a lot of cash is made off the search for Noah’s ark, but we’ll just chalk that up to a happy coincidence rather than an intentional fraud, for the most part.

The Durupinar site

Probably the most famous of the Ark sites, the boat shaped anomaly on top of the mountain in the Dogubayazit region, in Eastern Turkey, has been the topic of many articles and even makes an appearance in National Geographic from time to time. Even if you don’t follow the search for the ark, or have any interest in unsolved mysteries in general, odds are, you’ve seen it even if you didn’t realize what the fuss was about. Discovered in 1959 by a cartographer, Ilhan Durupinar, the site is about 30 km south of Great Ararat and is still drawing Ark enthusiasts from around the world.

Many believers and explorers looking for the ark firmly believe that we’ve found it. However, most scientists and geologists have refuted these claims stating it’s a simple rock formation that, unfortunately, happens to be vaguely the size and shape of a boat. However, considering its continuing popularity, it’s as good a place to start as any.

The length of the formation is about 515 feet, that’s around 160 m, and is roughly equivalent to the measurements of the ark which is 300 cubits. However, things are already getting wonky. We don’t know exactly how long a cubit was. The word cubit comes from the Latin cubitum, meaning forearm, and was measured from elbow to fingertip. As with most measurements requiring body parts, this makes the exact length of a cubit a bit hard to pin down. Not only that, there were two different cubits in history: the common cubit was around 450mm, that’s around 18 inches, and the royal cubit was around 520mm, which is around 20 inches – or at least that’s our best guess. So, which cubit did Noah use? Considering that the size of the formation is one of the major plot points when it comes to convincing the world that this is the ark, that’s a fairly important detail. This is also a solid argument in favour of using one measuring system – let’s not confuse future archaeologists and stick to using the metric system; honestly, we’re well past the age of using body parts.

The discoveries of Ron Wyatt

Probably one of the most ardent believers of the ark at the Durupinar site must be Ron Wyatt. In September 1960, Life magazine ran a story about a boat-shaped formation in the mountains of Ararat. Intrigued by the possibility of it being Noah’s ark, Wyatt spent the next 30 years researching not only Noah’s ark, but a number of other biblical mysteries as well. Since most of the research at Durupinar seems to be either based on, or at least inspired by, the work done by Wyatt, it’s worth taking a look at what exactly he found – and he found a lot.

On August 9th, 1977, Wyatt and his two sons arrived in Istanbul. Needless to say, things were rather different back then. Turkey was not exactly a tourist hotspot, very few people actually spoke English, and public transport wasn’t what it is now. It took them almost four days to make their way to Dogubeyazit and, due to the language barrier, they still didn’t know where to begin looking for the formation reported on in that Life article. So, according to the Wyatt museum website, they did the only thing they could – they prayed about it, asking for the taxi taking them to Dogubeyazit to stall at the place where they needed to start looking. Not exactly the scientific method, but whatever floats your ark. The taxi stalled three times. One might chalk this up to poor maintenance but Wyatt was more optimistic. Every time the taxi stalled, he and his sons would use small stone piles to mark the spot. The very next day, they started their search at the third pile, intending to work their way back to the first. Starting at the pile, they walked away from the road, in a perpendicular line, into the unknown, and, surprisingly, they found something. On that first day, with the help of local villagers acting as guides, they came across the anchor stones.

The drogue stones, or anchor stones, found in the area are a big selling point for Noah’s ark. Drogue stones were the ancient equivalent of storm anchors. They’re large, flat, heavy stones with a hole drilled at one end for the rope.

The stones found by Wyatt and his sons had carvings of crosses on them – exactly eight. The villagers, seeing their excitement, showed them some more stones, and all the stones had eight crosses. The one that only had six crosses had obviously been broken so the other crosses were lost.

Of course, this is proof that the drogue stones found at the site were from Noah’s ark as the crosses represent Noah and his family. However, the crosses appear to be in the style of the Knights Templar. While Mount Ararat, and the Dogubayazit region, is not on the route the Crusaders took to Jerusalem, many of the Crusaders did pass through Turkey, and it wouldn’t be surprising if they shopped around for some new recruits or just went out of their way to convert some of the locals to their brand of faith while they were in the neighbourhood.

So, not only are the crosses themselves suspect, historians have pointed out that the stones are not anchor stones, but Turkish standing stones used by ancient tribes for astronomy and as calendars. The hole drilled into the top is used for sighting, and these stones can be found in other parts of Turkey as well, they’re not limited to the Mount Ararat region. That makes them far more interesting and a significant part of the local culture and history.

On the second day, walking from the second pile of rocks, Wyatt and his sons made another great discovery. Still no boat, but they did find a very old stone house with adjacent stone fencing suggesting animal pens. They also found two large stones that they interpreted as not just tombstones, but the tombstones of Noah and his wife based on some carvings.

On top of that, they found a very large rock that they considered to be an altar, complete with rock fencing indicating pens and two stones with chiselled basins possibly used to bleed animals before the sacrifice on the big altar. So now we have anchor stones, Noah’s house, his grave, and an altar fully equipped for sacrifice.

On day three, Wyatt finally found the stone formation he had come all the way to Turkey for and, excitedly, decided that he had found the remains of Noah’s ark. However, it was only in 1979, two years after his first visit that an earthquake in the region finally revealed the ark properly, and a great many expeditions followed.

Wyatt theorized that the ark did initially land on Mount Ararat but, in time, due to an earthquake and a landslide, the ark slid down the mountain to its current resting place near Dogubayazit, and impaled itself on a wedge of white limestone where it still remains to this day. After its delightful slide down the side of a mountain, the ark was covered by a volcanic lava flow that protected it against erosion and weathering. In time, water seeping through this layer of protective lava leeched out elements such as iron, magnesium, and titanium allowing the wood of the ark to petrify. A lava flow will destroy everything in its path, including a wooden boat, but Wyatt saw it differently.

The earthquake of 1979 exposed evenly spaced indentations suggesting ribs. To further bolster the theory of the ark, Wyatt also discovered petrified wooden beams, essentially nice rectangular blocks of black rock, which showed three different layers in a cut section and was described as “plywood” that had obviously been glued together. Since the ark was made of gopher wood, and we don’t actually know what gopher wood is, the guess that it was similar to plywood is as good as anything.

This was sent for analysis at Galbraith Laboratory and the results showed elements of iron, aluminium, and carbon. A rippled rock was also found near the site and was described as fossilized reeds or bark and even sounded hollow when hit with a hammer. Had actual proof of an ark finally been found?

According to petrologist Lorence Collins, the answer is a resounding no. After analyses of 12 different sections taken from both pieces of petrified wood, both pieces were proven to be either basalt or andesite volcanic rock. The so-called glue holding the supposed pieces of plywood together is most likely calcite or siderite.

The rippled rock that was apparently a bundle of petrified reeds consisted of layers of pyroxene and olivine crystals – so, once again, no petrified wood. Because the crystals are closely interlocked, the rock vibrates when it’s hit with something like a hammer, making it sound hollow. Petrology is a branch of geology that focuses exclusively on rocks, and since Collins holds a Ph.D., his expertise carries weight.

Collins felt that the boat shape was simply the result of erosion of the bedrock by landslide debris. But petrified wood was not the only weapon in Wyatt’s arsenal.

Using a metal detector, Ron Wyatt, John Baumgardner, and David Fasold found iron artefacts at regular intervals in what they assumed to be the walls along the length of their ark. Metal flakes were also detected in the ribs of the ark. They came to the conclusion that these were rivets, washers, and brackets used by Noah to keep the big boat together. Chemical analyses done by the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Galbraith Laboratory in Knoxville, Tennessee, indicated that these artefacts were composed of iron, magnesium, manganese, aluminium, and titanium.

Of course, this would suggest that Noah was able to forge alloys of these metals well before it became possible for your standard blacksmith. However, that isn’t the only problem.

Magnetite grains deposited in cracks and fractures in the rock by rain water could oxide into iron-rich limonite which would be picked up by a metal detector and might look like iron brackets. A thin section of these washers and brackets should’ve been tested, but, initially, no-one bothered to do this. Much later, a thin section of the bracket was finally tested but didn’t contain any actual metal – it was composed of altered magnetite grains cemented together with limonite. Also, as Collins pointed out, if the ark was indeed constructed with iron rivets, washers, and brackets, the ark discoverers should’ve found hundreds of these artefacts lying around, not a single bracket and one or two rivets.

Above the ark site, higher up on the mountain side, Wyatt found what he believed to be the bottom of the ark and a strange piece of rock that was similar to a piece of rock he found at his original site. He came to the conclusion that this was the ballast of the ship. Going further up the mountain towards the Iranian border, Wyatt also came across the broken remains of an ancient stele, essentially a stone slab, depicting three forms of writing.

The most legible segment showed the unique ridge just above the site of the stele, a mountain peak in the distance, a ship with eight faces in it, and several animals. Wyatt excitedly decided the stele was marking the original landing place of the ark. This is entirely possible of course; however, this doesn’t prove that the ark actually landed there, only that someone believed it enough to put up a marker in the place they thought the ark had landed.

These discoveries are fascinating and might seem pretty air-tight to some. However, there are two concerns. The first is that Wyatt was not an archaeologist, a geologist, or a chemist.

While he worked in a lab for four years, he was a Certified Registered Nurse Anaesthetist. Anyone can do research on a topic and, occasionally, amazing discoveries are made by laymen in the field. However, having training definitely helps you to evaluate what you’re looking at.

Wyatt set out to find the ark that he decided was there and, not only did he find the ark and the ark’s anchor stones, he found a whole lot of other things along the way to prove, in his mind, that Noah lived in the area after the flood – Noah’s house, Noah’s tombstone, and an altar for sacrifice. However, no-one has ever confirmed that these artefacts were related to Noah at all. Secondly, if Wyatt only discovered the ark through persistent research, that would be one thing.

However, he also claimed to have discovered the exact location of the red sea crossing, the Ark of the Covenant, Goliath’s sword, and the tomb of Jesus, among other things. A proper archaeological dig can take years, and some archaeologists will spend their entire career on one site or one artefact. Wyatt was a great story-teller, but it’s doubtful that he ever truly found anything of value.

Despite all the proof that this is really just a rock formation, expeditions to the site continue. The most recent search was launched in 2021 by the Noah’s Ark Scans project to prove, once and for all, that the Durupinar site is the final resting place of the ark. According to researcher Andrew Jones and Dr.

Fethi Ahmet Yüksel of the Department of Geophysical Engineering and Applied Geophysics of Istanbul University, a man-made boat structure has been uncovered with 3D scans using Ground Penetrating Radar and Electrical Resistivity Tomography, which basically means dropping electrodes into boreholes. Since this technique is apparently mainly used to determine the depth of groundwater and identifying clays, its relevance to finding a petrified ship is questionable. The team claims that the structure matches the dimensions of the ark as described in Genesis; however, we already determined that we’re not entirely sure what those dimensions were.

Apparently, the new data shows clear parallel lines and angular structures between eight and 20 feet down, that’s around two to six metres. The researchers feel that this is not something you’d see in a natural rock formation, but that is simply not true – just take a look at the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland. This remarkable formation is the result of volcanic activity, not human intervention.

In an attempt to preserve the site, due to the continued interest, the Turkish Ministry of Culture has declared the site a national park, and built a visitor’s centre, now called the Noah’s Ark Museum maintained by the Wyatt Foundation. However, despite the most recent claims, no excavations have been approved yet. Since the site has become quite the tourist attraction, Turkey has reason not to allow anyone to dig up, and possibly kill, their goose with the golden eggs, so we’ll have to be content with rock analyses and 3D scans for now.

Mount Ararat

So we can probably agree that Noah’s ark is not at the Durupinar site. Instead, some believe that the ark didn’t slide down the mountain at all and can still be found resting atop Mount Ararat. Kurdish tribes tend to their flocks on the lower slopes of Ararat but many natives refuse to go higher than a certain point, claiming that there’s a magic zone and that Noah’s ark is up there, but God doesn’t want anyone to reach it yet. Regardless of this, multiple expeditions have gone up the mountain, trespassed into the magic zone, and found the one thing that God apparently doesn’t want mankind to find yet.

Mount Ararat, also known as Massis in Armenian and Agri Dagh in Turkish, is a 5165m, that’s about 17,000 feet, high ice-capped mountain peak in eastern Turkey close to the borders of Iran and Russia. There are two peaks sitting next to each other which are often referred to as Greater Ararat and Lesser Ararat. On the northwest side of greater Ararat, a series of glaciers flow into a permanent ice field. The thing about Mount Ararat is that it’s a dormant volcano that last erupted in 1840. Admittedly, it’s not exactly Mount St Helen’s, but it’s not entirely stable either – this is a rather important detail.

For a time, there was a firm belief that Mount Ararat formed during the flood. However, there are pretty big differences between a mountain formed by underwater volcanic activity and a mountain formed on land. Based on the radio-isotope age of the volcanic rock, Ararat formed about 1.7 million years ago thus placing it in the Ice Age, which makes it a relatively new geological feature in mountain-years.

Even creationist geologists – any scientific field starting with “creationist” refers to a school of thought that considers the Biblical timeline to be accurate – have come forward stating that Ararat is clearly a post-flood mountain. Some Biblical scholars claim that the story of the ark happened 5000 years ago. But, now we’re saying Ararat is 1.7 million years old but still only appeared after the flood – different schools of thought within Christianity have different ideas about how old the earth is, and when Noah built his ark.

The important take-away is that many feel that Mount Ararat did not yet exist when Noah and his family hopped on a really big boat, and even if it did, it would’ve been very unstable, so it’s unlikely the ark could’ve landed on Ararat.

This isn’t the only problem with Mount Ararat. Many ark believers have pointed out a clear misinterpretation of scripture. The Bible states that the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat, plural mountains, not Mount Ararat.

Many scholars believe that Ararat as mentioned in the Bible refers to the kingdom of Urartu and Mount Ararat wasn’t a part of this kingdom when Genesis was written. The kingdom of Urartu was a mountainous region northeast of Mesopotamia, today Iraq. It was a small kingdom and while historians aren’t entirely clear where exactly the northern border was, it’s generally accepted that the northern border was quite a bit south of Mount Ararat.

The kingdom grew around the 9th century BCE, until it included Mount Ararat. Some believe that Mount Ararat was already part of Urartu in the time of Ezra, the writer of the book of Ezra, in around 440 – 300 BCE. Ezra worked on the final edits of the book of Genesis while compiling the Old Testament, but by then, maps looked a little different than they did in the time of Noah and, of course, Moses, the writer of the book of Genesis.

This would mean that a lot of resources have been spent looking for the ark on the wrong mountain, but, yet people persist. The ark is resting on Mount Ararat – and there are eyewitnesses to prove it!

Tradition placing the ark on Mount Ararat starts as early as 290 – 278 BCE with Berossus, a Babylonian priest-chronicler who tells the story of a flood in his Babyloniaca, essentially a history of Babylon. Many Ararat believers use Berossus as a definitive source of the first mention of a flood to prove the flood was real and the ark landed on Ararat. The main problem with this is that none of Berossus’ work survives – we only know what he wrote through the observations of other writers who claimed to have read his work, and most of it’s in either Jewish or Christian interest with little real interest in historical accuracy. It’s important to remember that up to fairly recently, in the grand scheme of history, writers and artists were sponsored by patrons – writing anything your patron didn’t agree with was a sure way to get yourself fired if you’re lucky, beheaded if you’re not. This means that while most ancient sources, and even Middle Age sources, are very interesting to read, they’re nearly impossible to verify. Most of the stories that supposedly prove the ark’s existence were based on sermons, second-hand tales heard from someone who’s seen the ark, and stories of pilgrims who visited the ark to scrape off pitch for good luck charms, but very few tales of people who visited the ark themselves have survived. For that reason, we’ll skip over these and focus on tales of the 1900s which is easier to verify. None of them prove the existence of the ark, but readers can make up their own minds.

We’ll start with George Hagopian, a native Armenian who claimed to have visited the ark twice with his uncle: once in 1902, when he was around 10 years old, and again in 1905. Not only did he see the ark, he actually climbed on top of it! Apparently his uncle told him stories of the holy mountain with the holy ship resting at the top and, one day, decided to take his young nephew to see this holy ship for himself. Many ark enthusiasts feel that Hagopian was telling the truth, and, since he used the name Massis, which is the Armenian name for Ararat, there is no doubt where the ark is resting. Hagopian’s story was consistent throughout his life – charlatans trying to make money from a scam often change their story to fit with popular opinion. He was also thoroughly checked out by everyone – he had a good reputation in his town and among his family, friends and acquaintances, a verified bank account, and he passed a lie detector test. However, he never tried to make money from his experience. It’s reasonable to believe that Hagopian definitely saw something, and he truly believed what he saw was the ark.

Another story often used to prove the existence of the ark on Mount Ararat is that of the Russian expedition. An article published in Rosseya, a Russian magazine, told the story of a Russian airman who observed the remains of a large wooden structure in a small lake on the slopes of Ararat in 1916 while on duty over the region of Mount Ararat, Lake Van, and Lake Urmia.

The Russian army could only send an expedition to look into this in the summer of 1917. A German soldier, John Schilleroff, claimed to have been part of the expedition, made up of a 100 soldiers, and stated that this expedition did indeed find the ark. He described the expedition as follows: “about two-thirds of the way up, probably a little farther, we stopped on a high cliff, and, in the small valley below, was a dense swamp in which the object could be seen.

It appeared to be a huge ship or barge with one end under water and only a corner could clearly be seen. Some went close but they couldn’t get out to it because of many poisonous snakes and insects.”

Unfortunately, with the Bolshevik revolution kicking off in 1917 all the way to 1923, and the general political unrest in the region, archaeological expeditions dropped very low on the priority ladder. The reports from this expedition were lost in the chaos and never properly investigated. While multiple people have heard Schilleroff tell the story, and vouched for the man’s character, there doesn’t appear to be any existing accounts from any of the other 99 men who also went on the expedition.

There are of course people who claimed to have known people who went. Lt Rujansky claimed that his brother, Boris Vasilivich Rujansky, was a member of the investigating party. Apparently, there was a Boris V.

Rujansky, who worked in the Technological Institute of Peter the Great, and attended the Imperial Institute of Archaeology in St Petersburg, on the expedition; however, if he wrote anything about his findings, there’s no record of it.

That could be because the entire story was a fabrication by Floyd M Gurley for his magazine. Apparently, he finally admitted that at least 95% of this account was pure fiction. Many articles by ark believers list this story as one of many true accounts of people that saw the ark first hand while many articles by sceptics claim that the story was 100% fiction and nothing about it is true at all. Since there’s no evidence for this sighting and no-one else on the expedition ever made a statement to bolster the story, the sceptics’ position seems more likely.

Another big name in the quest for the ark on Ararat is French industrialist and amateur archaeologist, Fernand Navarra, who led expeditions to find the ark in 1952, 1953, and 1955. On the third trip, in 1955, on the northwest side of Mount Ararat, Navarra and his son, Raphael, finally hit gold when they reported a ship-like silhouette under the ice. Climbing into a deep crevice, Navarra discovered what he claimed to be hand-tooled wood fragments beneath a glacier sitting at 14,000 feet. He sent the fragments to Europe to get tested and the results seem to concur with the explorer – the wood fragments were approximately 5000 years old, conveniently, the estimated age of the ark according to some scholars.

Unfortunately, several people, among them two of Navarra’s climbing companions, claimed Navarra had planted the wood in the first place. Navarra denied it of course but, during a subsequent expedition in 1969, more wood was recovered only after Navarra had been left alone on the glacier. Later testing of the wood fragments using more accurate techniques also placed the wood around the 8th century CE, so, wherever the wood came from, it missed the flood by around 3000 years.

In 1974, The Holy Ground Mission Changing Centre of Palestine, Texas, alleged to have a photo of Noah’s ark. Tom Crotzer, spokesman, claimed that the group saw and photographed the ark from a distance of about 2800 feet, that’s around 800 m, but they couldn’t get closer because they lacked the necessary equipment. The photo has been evaluated by multiple professional photographers and the general consensus is that the photo had been altered – it appeared that someone may have added lines to a rock formation to make it look like a wooden structure built with planks. Some photographers even stated that the photo was so vague, it could be anything.

In 2007 and 2008, Noah’s Ark Ministries International, based in Hong Kong, claimed to have not only found, but actually entered, a structure on Mount Ararat that they were 99.9% sure was Noah’s ark. They weren’t 100% sure though. Apparently, the team found seven large wooden compartments buried at 13,000 feet (4,000m) above sea level, close to the peak of Mount Ararat. Radiocarbon dated wood taken from the site shows that the structure is around 4,800 years old.

However, since they don’t mention the lab where the tests were done, it’s a little hard to confirm whether this is actually the case.

Navarra was not the only one to find hand-tooled wood on Ararat – a lot of people claimed to have found wooden arks on Mount Ararat. Sadly, at this point, due the large number of expeditions and people’s propensity to leave behind shrines and crosses, the various possible sites of the ark have been so badly contaminated by amateurs that the authenticity of anything found is highly suspect. However, there might be something up there. No, not an ark, but the ark isn’t exactly the only wooden structure in history.

From 800 to 1400 CE, there was a slightly warmer period, often referred to as the medieval warm period. One of the effects of the warmer weather would’ve been smaller ice-caps and a higher tree line on Mount Ararat. While some sources claim that Ararat never had trees growing on it, there are others that disagree.

Apparently, 10th century Arab geographers mention that Ararat was heavily forested and local villagers cut trees on its slopes. It’s possible that timber buildings were built during this period and, when things cooled down again from around 1400 to 1850, the structures were covered by ice as the ice caps expanded, and the buildings were abandoned. Mount Ararat has always been considered a holy mountain by Armenians, so what better place to build a monastery.

Monasteries at high altitudes are not exactly unheard of – Rongbuk monastery on the slopes of Mount Everest is 16,340 feet, that’s about 4,980 meters, above sea level. This would also explain the wood found by Navarra – the wood samples he found is more in line with a warmer period allowing people to build structures on the mountain. In the 1800 and 1900s, the ice receded again, exposing the structures that were buried beneath the ice so long ago which led to an increase in sightings.

If you go up a mountain looking for a wooden ark and you find a wooden structure – confirmation bias will do the rest.

Mount Judi

We can probably agree that the formation at Durupinar is basalt rock and Mount Ararat quite possibly didn’t even exist at the time of Noah. So where’s the ark? A third option suggests Mount Judi.

Mount Ararat only became a staple of ark tales in around the 13th century; before this sudden rise in popularity, Noah’s ark was thought to be resting upon Mount Judi. Of course, we now face a similar problem to all the sources claiming Ararat – the sources for Mount Judi are even older, so verifying them becomes a near impossible task. To confuse matters even further, Mount Judi is the mountain of many names, including: Cudi Dagh, Mount Cardu, Mount Quardu, the Gordyene Mountain, and the Karduchian mountain to name a few.

The Assyrians called it Mount Nipur. A few sources even refer to it as Mount Ararat, the reasoning behind that being that the ark rests in the mountain of Ararat which means Mount Judi and Mount Ararat is the same place. Home is where the heart is and Ararat is where the ark is, I suppose.

However, for the purpose of this article, we’ll stick to using Mount Judi since we’re all confused enough already.

Mount Judi is a twin peaked, non-volcanic mountain in the southeast of Turkey, roughly northeast of the city of Cizre, and 202 miles, that’s around 320 km, south of Mount Ararat. The twin peaks add to the confusion since Ararat also has two peaks, but Mount Judi is considerably smaller than Ararat at only 2,089m, that’s around 6,800 feet. It’s also far more accessible than Ararat which makes the stories of pilgrims visiting the site and collecting bits of the ark for relics and talismans far more likely.

The area around Mount Judi also has a rich ancient history. Nestorian Christians built several monasteries on Mount Judi, one named the Cloister of the Ark, which was destroyed by lightning in 766 CE, and later a mosque was built on the same site, so clearly belief in the ark has been around for a while.

Literature proclaiming Mount Judi as the final stop of the ark is plentiful. The Samaritan Pentateuch places the landing place of the ark in the Kurdish Mountains north of Assyria. The Samaritans was a Jewish sect that separated from the Jews around the 5th century BCE. Then there’s the Book of Jubilees, dated to around the 2nd century BCE, which places the landing place of the ark atop Mount Lubar, one of the mountains of Ararat.

While we’re not sure who wrote the Book of Jubilees, other sources also mention Lubar, such as the Midrashic Book of Noah, and some papyri, author unknown. Unfortunately, no-one is clear on where exactly Mount Lubar is supposed to be.

Of course, Berossus also comes up again, only this time, the authors quoting him, and those interpreting the quotes, decided that Berossus was talking about Mount Judi, not Mount Ararat. In the writing of Josephus, Berossus apparently mentioned the name Mount of Cordyaeans and tells of people carrying off pieces of the ark. We’ve mentioned Berossus before and here is a good example of why ancient sources aren’t always reliable.

Berossus was most likely familiar with both the Hebrew text, which places the ark in Urartu, and the Babylonian text placing the ark in the Gordyaean Mountains. So apparently the one scholar everyone is quoting was himself relying on other sources – he never saw an ark, he simply retold an existing story. Another source, Nicolas of Damascus, stated that the ark can be found atop a great mountain in Armenia called Baris.

Once again, there doesn’t seem to be any clarity on where Baris is or where Nicolas got this information from. However, believers argue that Nicolas’ flood story also places the ark in the vicinity of Gordyene, the Mount Judi site.

According to the Muslim faith, there’s no other place the ark could be. The Quran specifically states that the ark landed on Mount Al-Judi or Jabel Judi, and 10th century scholars Al-Mas’udi, historian, geographer, and traveller, and Ibn Haukal, geographer, both mentioned Mount Judi as the landing place of the ark.

Some scholars claim that proof of Mount Judi as the final resting place for the ark can be found in Noah’s life after the flood. You see, after spending a year on a really big boat, Noah retired in the way only a man with a really big yacht can – he planted a vineyard and made wine. Of course, considering the year he’d just had, who can blame the man for needing a drink. The wine grape most likely used in the time of Noah was Vitis Vinifera – this grape needs an average temperature of at least 16-17°C (60-63°F) in the summer months, winters that aren’t too cold, an elevation that’s not too high, with at least a moderate rainfall. Then there’s the dove and the olive leaf. Olive trees are even more picky than vineyards as they are less hardy and don’t do well in extreme hot or cold climates. They also need to grow in well-drained soil or else they drown. And this finally brings us to the dove that Noah sent out. The dove was released in the morning and returned in the evening with an olive leaf – so how far could the bird have gotten in a day? According to this theory, the dove couldn’t have gone much farther than say 100 miles, that’s around 160 km. However, pigeons today can easily fly 600 miles, that’s around 900km, in a day, so odds are that Noah’s dove could’ve gotten quite far in the few hours it was flying around before returning to the ark. However, to keep things simple, let’s assume the dove decided not to leave the current time zone. The leaf it brought back proves two things – firstly, we’re not looking at a global flood because all the olive trees would’ve drowned and, secondly, wherever the ark landed was an area suitable to vineyards and olive trees. Apparently, the area around Mount Judi is well suited to both vineyards and olive trees.

While there are many arguments in favour of Mount Judi and much discussion around the historical sources supporting Mount Judi, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot in the line of exploration happening at Mount Judi. Considering all the time and resources invested in Mount Ararat, the unwillingness to search elsewhere is understandable. A lot of people would have to admit that they were wrong – not exactly something the human race excels at. But, who knows, perhaps someone will climb up Mount Judi soon and bring back a piece of the ark to settle the argument once and for all.

Will the ark ever be found?

So far, no real trace of the ark has been found anywhere in the world. Sceptics believe that’s because the boat is a myth and never existed. However, among believers, the reason is very simple: The ark was made of wood. According to the smart people, a high mountain top isn’t ideal for petrifying wood and it’s unlikely that any pitch used in the time of Noah to treat the wood was advanced enough to preserve wood for 5000 years.

On top of that, Noah and his family had just survived a flood – they needed to build shelter and they needed to keep warm and cook food. The flood destroyed all trees but, conveniently, they had a really big wooden boat at their disposal – they already built an altar and sacrificed some animals to thank God for their salvation. They had no need to preserve the ark. They did need wood though, and plenty of it.

A big problem with the search for the ark is the fact that proof has a nasty habit of going missing, and eyewitness accounts are always second-hand, or, in some cases, the eyewitnesses themselves suddenly disappear. In 1948, stories abound that a Kurdish man, named Resit, had stumbled across the ark. However, Mr Resit could never be found despite the offer of monetary rewards – in fact, when questioned, people in villages around Ararat didn’t even know anyone by that name.

Mr Resit wasn’t the only witness to disappear, and many witnesses were proven to be unreliable or their stories of finding the ark only came out after they died. Not only eyewitnesses, but documentation like newspaper clippings, photos, and written down accounts from those elusive witnesses also keep disappearing. In 1953, George J.

Green, an employee for an American oil company, took photos from his airplane of the ark on Mount Ararat. Many people claimed to have seen these photos but, after Green was murdered in 1962, the photos disappeared. At the time the photos were doing the rounds, they weren’t proof enough to convince people to go and find the ark, but once they disappeared, suddenly, they were proof of the ark’s existence.

Misidentification is another problem with many ark tales. A lot of people claimed to have seen the ark over the years, but the majority of those stories were proven to be misidentified objects – mostly rock formations or even shadows, especially for ark sightings from the air, and even people who insisted that it was definitely the ark couldn’t find the objects again by air or foot making their finds impossible to verify.

And let’s not forget the conspiracies – of course, the ark is on Mount Ararat, the government knows and is keeping it secret. Since the 70s, spy planes and weather satellites have been capturing images of a man-made structure on Mount Ararat that, of course, is the ark. And not only is Washington holding out on us, Moscow is complicit in this as well.

They may have lost that original report during the Bolshevik revolution, though that was proven fiction but when has that stopped a conspiracy theory, but, in the interim, the communist regime had taken their own images of the ark atop Mount Ararat, but they too are keeping it secret. What could any government gain from keeping the existence of Noah’s ark a secret? And if the government has indeed found it, why has none of the, by now, hundreds of expeditions going up Ararat regularly come across a boat big enough to be seen by a weather satellite in orbit?

Conclusion

Why is the search for Noah’s ark so popular? Some searchers believe that proving the existence of Noah’s ark, and thus the great flood of the Bible, will turn science on its head and convince millions of atheists and practitioners of other faiths that their beliefs are all wrong and the Bible is the only true account and thus the only true God. This is a very arrogant assertion.

If so many believers agree that the ark is real, the remains still exist, and finding this landing place will be a great blow for science and a win for the Bible, why aren’t people working together on this? Instead, the various research expeditions are secretive, unwilling to share information with other seekers, and everyone and their grandmother who’s ever gone looking for the ark has written a book or made a documentary and made a good deal of money – isn’t greed a deadly sin? Of course, the honour of being the person or group to find the ark would be substantial; however, the unwillingness to share information and findings means that a lot of money is being spent on duplicating efforts.

If this was truly a religious pursuit to prove the Bible as the only true word of God, surely money and fame wouldn’t be the driving factors? On top of that, not all expeditions have the necessary permissions. One group, allegedly, bribed officials and made the climb anyway after their requests were denied.

One would be very wary of believing any claims about finding the ark from a group willing to use bribery and bending the rules for their own purposes. If they’re willing to do that, wouldn’t they be willing to stretch the truth a little, claiming to see remains of an ark where there aren’t any? Not to mention that more would be expected from a group trying to find the ark in the name of a faith based on virtues such as honesty and integrity.

The story of Noah and his ark is a lesson to believers of God protecting the faithful. For most others, it’s a piece of delightful fiction but nothing more. The odds of a global flood destroying all life and the world being repopulated by eight people and only two of every animal is nil. However, the idea of local floods, not just in Mesopotamia, but across the world, and people on barges surviving the chaos is not that far-fetched.

There are plenty of stories of surfers surviving tsunamis – and if a dude on a surf board can ride out a tsunami, a family on a barge has a fair chance in a flood. So, is the story of Noah true – who knows, there might be some fact in the fiction. However, the ark has never been found, and it seems unlikely that it ever will.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the story of Noah’s Ark?

The story of Noah’s Ark is a well-known tale from the Bible and other Abrahamic faiths. God, seeing only wickedness on Earth, decided to send a great flood to wipe out all living things. Noah, a righteous man, was commanded to build an ark to save his family and two of every kind of animal. The ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat after the flood.

What are the dimensions of Noah’s Ark as described in the Bible?

The Bible describes Noah’s Ark as 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. However, the exact length of a cubit is uncertain, with estimates ranging from 450mm to 520mm.

What are some of the key differences between the Biblical account of Noah and the Quranic account?

In the Quran, Noah is a prophet sent by Allah to warn people of their imminent eradication. Unlike the Bible, Noah takes a small group of believers onto the ark with him, and one of his sons drowns in the flood. The ark comes to rest on Mount Judi rather than the mountains of Ararat.

What is the Epic of Gilgamesh and how does it relate to the story of Noah’s Ark?

The Epic of Gilgamesh is an ancient Mesopotamian poem that tells the story of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk. It includes a flood myth where a man named Utnapishtim builds a boat to survive a flood sent by the gods. Many scholars believe the story of Noah was influenced by this epic.

What are some of the problems with the idea of a global flood?

A global flood is scientifically implausible due to the lack of enough water in the atmosphere, the rapid evaporation of such a large volume of water, and the catastrophic impact on marine life. Scientists suggest a localized flood is more likely.

What is the Durupinar site and why is it significant in the search for Noah’s Ark?

The Durupinar site is a boat-shaped rock formation in eastern Turkey, about 30 km south of Mount Ararat. Many believers think it is the remains of Noah’s Ark, but most scientists refute this claim, stating it is a natural rock formation.

What are some of the controversies surrounding Ron Wyatt’s discoveries at the Durupinar site?

Ron Wyatt claimed to have found anchor stones, Noah’s house, his tombstone, and an altar at the Durupinar site. However, his findings are disputed by scientists who argue that the stones are natural formations and not related to Noah’s Ark.

What is the significance of Mount Ararat in the search for Noah’s Ark?

Mount Ararat is a dormant volcano in eastern Turkey, and many believe Noah’s Ark came to rest there. However, geological evidence suggests the mountain is much younger than the estimated time of the flood, and some scholars argue that the Bible refers to the mountains of Ararat, not Mount Ararat specifically.

What is Mount Judi and why is it considered a possible resting place for Noah’s Ark?

Mount Judi is a non-volcanic mountain in southeastern Turkey. It is mentioned in the Quran as the landing place of the ark and has a rich ancient history with monasteries and mosques built on its slopes. Some scholars argue that the area around Mount Judi is suitable for vineyards and olive trees, as mentioned in the story of Noah.

Why is the search for Noah’s Ark so popular among believers?

Many believers hope that finding Noah’s Ark will prove the Bible’s account of the great flood and convince others of the truth of their faith. However, the search is often driven by personal gain and secrecy, rather than collaboration and shared information.

Sources

• Original Decoding the Unknown video: Have we Found Noah’s Ark?
• Hero image source by thegetty / openverse, cc0.