On the tracks of Noah's Ark

We feel we needed to deal with the issue of Noah's Ark so that the controversies surrounding its scientific discovery would not deteriorate the veracity of the 7 laws transmitted to Humanity from generation to generation. The Bible is not a book of history but a teaching of divine nature, whose literal interpretation is however charged with meaning. Noah's Ark prompted numerous scientific researches. Several archaeologists and historians throughout the world explored mount Ararat, supposed place of its accosting, and have assembled recounts, old or recent, concerning it. Here are some testimonies of those who inquired into Noah's Ark reality, even when it meant setting up an expedition…

In High Antiquity, the Persians named the Mountains of Ararat "Khouhi-Noukh", the Mountain of Noah. Epiphane of Salamine (400 b.c.e.) wrote : "Today still, one may see the remainders of Noah's Ark in the country of the Kurds". The Chaldean Bérose (275 b.c.e.) reported: "It is being said that one may still see the remainders of the Arch on the mountain of the Kordians (...) Some brought back from that place pieces of bitumen of which it was coated". And about the autochtones from Caucasus mountains : "They were scraping the bitumen coating of Noah's Ark which they had found and turned it into antidotes and talismans". The Egyptian Hiéronymus (30 b.c.e.), author of Phoenician Antiquities, mentions the Arch in his writings. In the Hebraic sources, Rabbi Yonathan Ben Houziel attests that the Arch is on the Cardon mountains. One of its summits carries the name of Cardanya and the other Armanya, in an area located at the North-West of Iran, between Turkey and Kurdistan. The Bible, in its aramenian version, quotes the mountains of Kardou, etymologically close to the names of Kurd and Kurdistan. Nicolas of Damas wrote : "(…) In the province of Miniad, [there is] a high mountain named Baris where some say several people saved themselves during the Flood, and that an Arch (…) in which a man would have lived, accosted there". Jerome and Theophilus from Antiochus evoke in their writings the remainders of the Arch left intact on Ararat. The historian Flavius Joseph (Ist century) reports that it is notorious at his time that the vestiges of Noah's Ark were there, and that the Armenians named this place "descent" or "exit". He notes that the name of a city close to the Nakhchevan mountain means in Armenian "place of accosting", and he adds: "(…) Because it is there that the Arch touched ground". It is also noted that king of Adiabene Mounbaze gave to his son Isitas the area of Ceron where the Arch was. In 330 of our era, the monk Jacob tries the rise of the famous mountain and brings back a fragment from there which will be preserved like a relic in the monastery of Etschmiadzin until 1829, date of the destruction of this monastery by an earthquake. The traveller Benjamin of Toledo from the XIIth century writes to have heard that Arabs would have transferred some remainders from the Arch into a place of prayer. The written testimoniess from Epiphane, bishop of Constantinopolis, Jean Chrysostome, Faustus de Byzance, and king Heraclius who would have visited the site have been recovered since. Isidore, bishop of Seville, Marco Polo also attest to have been informed of the ship, and Haithon king of Armenia which, in 1245, will testify to the existence of the Arch that one could see at the time of the melting of snows.

In the XIXth century, explorer Claudius James Rich, Dr. Freidrich Parrot and hadji Yearam undertook an expedition. In July 1840, following an eruption on the sides of Ararat, the Turkish authorities dispatched teams of workmen. One of them discovered the remainders of a very large ship of which the accessible part was divided into three rooms. In 1856, three British scientists made the rise of Ararat, and discovered the vestiges of a very large ship captive of the ices, but kept it secret during 62 years. In 1918, a newspaper with a wide diffusion published an account evoking the testimony of the one of the three British scientists corroborating the facts. In 1872, the british assyriologist Smith discovered tablets recounting the Flood in cuneiform script. In 1876, James Bryce, member of the Company of Royal Geography of London, rose upon Ararat and spotted among blocks of lava a piece of wood from approximately 1 meter of length and 20 cm of thickness, obviously cut by man. In 1883, following an avalanche, the Turkish government ordered an investigation and called upon a British glaciologist named Gascoyne. It will testify to have observed the remainders of an antique vessel esconced into the ice. In 1887, archdeacon Nourri will discover the remnants of the Arch formed by staves of a very thick wood, dark red. He will report of his discovery to the congress of the World Parliament of the Churches.

In August 1916, a Russian aviator named Vladimir Roskovitsky testifies to have observed, at the time of a reconnaissance mission at the Turkish border, a frozen lake on the eastern slope of Great-Ararat and identifies the carcass of a gigantic ship. In order to confirm these statements, the Koorbatoff captain will fly over in his turn the area and will address a report to tsar Nicolas II who will immediately order a terrestrial expedition. That one will be directed by Roskowitsky and the Italian Angelo Palego, accompanied by 150 men. In 1914, Arno Poebel will publish the account of the Flood according to sumerian tablets found in the city of Guilgamesh, first king of Ourouk, a city of Low Mesopotamia. In 1943, the newspaper of the American Army "Stars and Stripes" publishes: "Two pilots from the Air Force who flew away of Erivan, in Russia, on their way to Tunisia, saw, while passing above Ararat a large boat half immersed in a small lake at a very high altitude". About the same time, major Jasper Maskelyn, chief of the Soviet services of camouflage, quote the exploits of one of his men who will affirm to have seen the debris of an antique ship on Ararat.

In 1952, following the declarations of an Armenian named Alin, the mountaineer Fernand Navarra undertakes his first expedition and scans the mountainsides of Ararat. In July 1953, Navarra and his comrade Seker spot a strange dark mass. They manage to approach it at some hundred meters and take photographs. Upon his return, Navarra gives conferences to Palais of Chaillot in Paris, then is suddenly denied of entry by Turkish authorities into the military zone of Ararat. In 1955, in spite of the interdiction, Navarra undertakes a second expedition and finally discovers pieces of staves out of carved wood. Upon return, he orders several scientific analyses with carbon-14 in various European laboratories. The latter will date the fragments between 3 000 to 5 000 years, precisely the time of the Flood according to science and the Bible. He then publishes a report of his discovery in a volume entitled "I touched Noah's Ark" published in 1956. On July 31st, 1969, helped by the American team 'Search', Navarra will again discover wood coming from the Arch.

In 1974, Harold Cumming publishes a photograph which shows a non identifiable object on the mountain side taken by a satellite of the Technology of the Earth resources (ERTS) located at 720 kilometers above Mount Ararat. According to the declaration of former senator Franck Moss, who was at that time president of the senatorial committee for the spatial questions: "the object had remarkably the size and the shape of Noah's Ark".

From the above, it is quite obvious that evidence, testimonies and certificates abound. One should also consult the works from archaeologist Hardwidke Knignht, Ray Lubeck, ED Davis, pilot Vince Will, colonel Walter Hunter, David Duckworth, photographer William Todd, Charlie Mc Callen, and the mountaineer James Corbin, author of the "The explorers of Ararat".

Nowadays, many newspaper clips, be they Japanese, Turkish, French or American already made themselves the echo of those discoveries, and a photograph of the place taken by the services of the C.I.A. in 1943, would have disappeared. There are to date several Internet sites devoted to research on Noah's Ark, as well as many printed works on the subject.