Noah's Ark FOUND? Evangelist Group Says It's In Turkey (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

Noah's Ark has been found atop a mountain in Turkey, a team of Turkish and Chinese evangelical explorers said Monday, April 26.

The 15-person team claims to have recovered fragments of wood and pieces of rope from a structure on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey that carbon dating has put at 4,800 years old, roughly coinciding with the time the biblical flood was said to have been occurred.

UPDATE: Scroll down for photos of the supposed ark, posted to the group's Web site, and you be the judge of the evidence.

The team is a joint effort between Hong Kong-based Media Evangelism, Noah's Ark Ministry International and the Turkish government.

Yeung Wing-Cheung, a member of the team, told AFP, "It's not 100 percent that it is Noah's Ark but we think it is 99.9 percent that this is it."

He said that the structure at the site featured wooden beams and several compartments that were believed to house animals.

Wing-Cheung added that local officials will ask the Turkish government to apply for UNESCO World Heritage status, to protect the site while further archaeological excavation is carried out.

However, the group has not revealed the location of the site beyond saying that it is 12,000 feet up the mountain. It has also failed to produce exterior photos of the structure.

Nicholas Purcell, a lecturer in Ancient History at Oxford University, called the claims "the usual nonsense," according to the Daily Mail.

"If floodwaters covered Eurasia 12,000 feet deep in 2,800 BC, how did the complex societies of Egypt and Mesopotamia, already many centuries old, keep right on regardless?" he said.

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Indeed, this is not the first time people have claimed to have found the remains of Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat:

According to the biblical story, God flooded the earth to punish its inhabitants for their corruption, but he spared Noah and his family by instructing them to build an ark, fill it with a male and female of every animal species, and ride out the flood. When the waters receded, the Bible says, the ark came to rest atop a mountain.

Many Christians, Jews, and Muslims believe that Mount Ararat, the highest point in the region, is where the ark landed.

But despite sporadic claims that remains of the Noah's Ark have been found there, no scientific evidence for its existence has ever been produced.

Comments

[janx]

06:49 PM on 05/29/2010

I don't believe any religion, but so many folks look at these stories from a modern perspective. There probably was a flood, but it only flooded their world... not THE world. How many species did they know of in THEIR world? Most of these myths and legends are based on some real event or person and the story was amped up to make it more entertaining and to teach a specific lesson in the oral tradition. We can't look back and judge these stories by our own literate prejudices. I think it's important to learn a little about the oral tradition. It doesn't matter who or when or where...it's the lesson that matters.

[Chroesus]

04:14 PM on 05/17/2010

The photographic evidence makes this look like a hoax. Some of the photos show interior parts of a structure that looks not nearly as old as they claim. More important, there is no geologic evidence of a world-wide great flood.

[HarmNone]

05:01 PM on 05/19/2010

Second that. Those photos could be anything. Agree, no geologic evidence of a 'global' flood, I think the closest thing found was a regional flood, not the same thing at all.

[FantasticFourFan]

12:17 AM on 05/08/2010

And this discredits evolution how?

[gallantEffort]

10:39 AM on 05/08/2010

I believe it discredits evolution simply by the existence of a vessel spoken of in the ancient writings of the Bible, referring to an event that, up until the discovery of the ark, was thought to be a child's fable. Even ABC News admits that if this is, indeed, Noah's Ark, which I believe it IS -- that it discredits evolution because evolution talks about there being no existence of God... which would of course mean, there would be no existence of Noah or his Ark...

By the way, where is all the evolutionary specimens that proves that evolution is more than a theory? -- something which Darwin CLEARLY identifies in his published works... hence, the term "the THEORY of evolution"... (just sayin'.....)

[USABrazil]

12:32 PM on 05/08/2010

Well...Pyramids exists and does not mean that Rá, Isis, Osiris exists...Right?
just sayin' as well...

[FantasticFourFan]

09:45 PM on 05/08/2010

Wow, do you do any research at all? First of all, evolution takes no position on the existance of a god. Second of all, try Googling "transitional species". You'll get all the specimens you want! (just sayin') Oh, and Bill maher did a good job of addressing this, apparently this isn't the first Noah's ark ever found. Go figure.

[USABrazil]

11:41 AM on 05/07/2010

“You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep seated need to believe”
-- Sagan

[tssent]

10:16 AM on 05/05/2010

My curiosity has always been aroused by
scientists establishing the parameters on fact
and religion establishing facts to explain the
parameters.

What's the big deal, I don't get it? Why can't
there be a God and a universe 15b years old?
Who cares if you can have your cake and eat
it too?

But if you have to have an Earth only 6,000 years
old because the Bible says so and then use that
to prove "God" then you have to explain to me
why he spends the first 5 books of the Bible killing
anything and everything in site instead of just
accepting that his prototypes sucked, snapping
his fingers and creating a whole new model.

[tssent]

10:17 AM on 05/05/2010

site=sight. sorry.

[Earl Schattenberg]

08:19 PM on 06/17/2010

The bible also says a day in heaven is as 1000 years on earth.Using this math-6000 years in heaven equates to about 131 billion yrs on earth-
Why is it so hard to believe that this is really Noahs ark?Science has been proving the bible for many years now.
If it IS the ark-then you have to also admit there IS God.Whats wrong with that??
Then if THIS part of the bible is true because of the ark-the rest must also be true-so for those who refuse to accept Jesus in thier lives-get ready-EVERY knee will bow and EVERY tongue will confess that You are God!
the athiests,the muslims,buddists-etc dont want this to be the actually ark of the bible.
In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word became man.

[tssent]

09:59 AM on 05/05/2010

You can find all the arks you want, but you're still going
to have to explain away carbon dating, for my money.

[Pullingthewool]

11:27 PM on 06/05/2010

The potassium-argon method:
"Scientists got dates of 164 million and 3 billion years for two Hawaiian lava flows. But these lava flows happened only about 200 years ago in 1800 and 1801.
("Dry bones and other fossils" by Dr. Gary Parker)

Many people are under the false impression that carbon dating proves that dinosaurs and other extinct animals lived millions of years ago. What many do not realize is that carbon dating is not used to date dinosaurs. The reason? Carbon dating is only accurate back a few thousand years. So if scientists believe that a creature lived millions of years ago, then they would need to date it another way. But there is the problem. They assume dinosaurs lived millions of years ago (instead of thousands of years ago like the bible says). They ignore evidence that does not fit their preconceived notion.

What would happen if a dinosaur bone were carbon dated? - At Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Scientists dated dinosaur bones using the Carbon dating method. The age they came back with was only a few thousand years old.

The body of a seal that had been dead for 30 years was carbon dated, and the results stated that the seal had died 4,600 years ago! ("The Illustrated Origins Answer Book" by Paul Taylor)

[Cryostatic]

08:32 AM on 05/05/2010

I've spoken to people who subscribe to the young earth theory. IIRC, their theory is that the earth was once mostly surface landmass, and that the water that makes up our oceans once existed in a layer of substrate, and that those massive undersea trenches that circle the world like the seam of a baseball are the areas through which the biblical flood came, and covered the earth. The fossil record was created during this time, very quickly, which in their mind explains such things as polystrate fossils and marine fossils in mountainous areas far inland. As the worldwide continent collapsed, and the dust settled, so to speak, the waters receded from the land, forming the oceans and revealing the continents as we know them today.

While on the surface it sounds almost scientifically plausible, it's ridiculous on several levels. Even if you leave evolution out of the mix, and assume that God created the world and everything on it, it doesn't match up with the story of creation (God creates the waters, then creates land, separate from the waters, God subsequently commands the sea to be full of living things). If there's really no sea at the point before the flood, then there are no sea creatures, and God's a liar. Cue head implosion.

[snoopjohnny]

01:19 PM on 05/05/2010

"Ridiculous on several levels..."....yeah. It's mind-blowing that adults in today's world can speak of these things with conviction. Cultures have been drawn to apocalyptic myths since before Judaism. That the faithful can look at accumulated evidence of a more rational reality and cry "it's all just speculation" is startling in it's narrow-mindedness. But then they naively imitate real science with convoluted fantasy to explain ancient myths as fact. Once you decide the unknown is unacceptable and things are either "true or false"...."right or wrong", you're doomed to rationalize forever. True spirituality (Christian or otherwise) doesn't need elaborate explanation or historical fact.

[Masonx]

11:32 PM on 05/04/2010

Sorry, the entire concept of religion is so full of holes it will never float my boat.

[TexasMike]

05:47 PM on 05/04/2010

When are they going to build the theme park? I mean, how can any self respecting fundamentalist get involved with this without some kind of plan for monetary gain?

I got a kick out of one little blurb from the "documentary", saying to the effect that evolution would be proven untrue if a real ark was found and therefore creationism would be true. Of course, this is illogical because the same scientific toys they use to detect the age of the wood are also used to detect the age of much older bones of early humans and even older dinosaurs. Evolution is a ongoing process which can't be disproved by digging up a supposed boat on some hill in turkey. These people have amazingly simplistic psyches.

[Ipanemagirl]

04:35 PM on 05/04/2010

how can anybody believe that a small boat could even house and feed so many animals for that amount of time. Do you even know how a many species of animals that would include?
How did they capture and manage to round them up into this small boat...cartoons are possible but this is a cute myth, passed on by many generations even before Noah's.

[altro]

01:03 AM on 05/06/2010

Small Boat? 450-500 ft long (1.5+ Football fields length) 75 ft high ( 6 stories tall, casting a 150ft shadow) and 45 ft wide (almost a Football fields width) Weight in excess of 22,000 tons (2,750 african elephants) that's without cargo. 3 levels below deck. Capturing the animals was simple. If you read the Bible's Genesis account you will find that before the fall of Adam and Eve they were given dominion over the animals...They lost that priveledge. However, Noah being a man of faith was probably granted the ability to bring the animals under his subjection to accomplish the task. The balance of man and animal in the future is a promise God has made..i.e. the Bear will lie down withe the lamb and a little boy will be leader of them all.

[Cactusman]

05:11 AM on 05/06/2010

Did you know that there are currently 3 million species described by science to date, and counting? Most zoos cover dozens or hundreds of acres and contain a couple thousand animal species, if that. Yet they all crammed onto an ark?

What about terrestrial plants? Did anyone rescue those from the flood? Without plant life, there's no animal life. How were the plants grown on the ark? There WERE plants on the ark, right? If not, how did they make it past the devastating flooding? How did animals not eat one-another and cause mass extinctions when the pair of hyenas ate the only pair of mule deer being saved?

What about the well-known problem of genetic bottlenecks, when genetic diversity causes inbreeding and disease and mutation problems because the gene pool is too small? Most species cannot survive for more than an additional three or four generations in decent health from too small a gene pool, especially not a single pair. Genetic malfunctions occur within a few generations as parents and siblings backcross with one-another. It's a problem zoos and botanical gardens have to manage extremely diligently with populations of creatures that have dropped to precipitously low levels. Genetic diversity is critical to modern-day biology. Why (and how) were the rules suspended in the diluvium?

But of course you believe the fairy tale, so my arguments aren't going to penetrate and I would be surprised if you respond to this line of inquiry.

[Elk Hunter 1]

06:39 PM on 05/06/2010

He didn't have all the animals.

The unicorns were left out.

Poor guys didn't stand a chance.

[Ipanemagirl]

09:27 PM on 05/06/2010

cute! Let myths be myths....and let lies be lies, and facts be facts.

[snoopjohnny]

04:24 PM on 05/04/2010

The modern day model of Noah's Ark pictured in this piece is very cool. I wonder how big it is? Maybe it could be piloted around the gulf, rescuing seagoing animals in distress. Now that's something Christ might approve of.....this fishy archaeological story, maybe not.

[tssent]

10:03 AM on 05/05/2010

How about another new ark that picks up all the fRights
and also disappears somewhere into history......

[USABrazil]

11:44 AM on 05/07/2010

This ark that you want has it's name... Time...lol

[NOAH57]

01:24 PM on 06/22/2010

Maybe Christ is waiting on you to do what you just said,there is a mission for you.

[lennief]

02:51 PM on 05/04/2010

As far as I have been able to read, no one has mentioned what I believe are the two most intriguing (by modern religious debate) points in the Noah story. One, there were no people on that ark except Noah, his sons and their daughters. By definition, everyone else on Earth drowned. After the ark came to rest, repopulation had to have occurred via incest. So, God has no problem wiht incest - indeed, he caused it. (Because everyone else died, they can't get away with the "they didn't mention women in those days" nonsense. If they arged that they were on the boat, too, and not mentioned, God must favor sex out of wedlock.)
Second, at least one person not on the ark had to have been a new born baby (God committed infanticide) and there was at least one pregnant woman who was not on the ark (God performed an abortion). Seems to me the people who believe in the ark and biblical "fact" can't get around this without invoking miracles that the bible doesn't mention, e.g. God arranged it so no babies were born and no women became pregnant for at least a generation.

[altro]

01:11 AM on 05/06/2010

Life spans were longer, Noah lived about 900 years. The account showed that even after the Flood Noah and his Wife was still siring offspring. His Sons and their 'wives were the passengers...Married Passengers. The fall from perfection means the further from Adam and Eve the Generation's lived shorter lives and had more risk of birth defect. During Noah's Generation they were still able to intermarry without genetic consequence. However it was forbideen for israelites to do so at a later point in the scriptures, also the population was big enough to sustain itself without relative marriage by then.'

[Ipanemagirl]

09:30 PM on 05/06/2010

and you believe this stuff? 900 yrs old , really? still giving birth to babies? Wow , now thats disgusting, even for a myth! :-)

[PWM]

02:54 PM on 04/29/2010

The measurements of this wooden boat are given in the Bible. I challenge any believer to build such a boat using the technology of that time (no iron nails), and see if the boat will float or sink.

[AAHewetson]

01:30 PM on 05/04/2010

... and house two specimens - one male and one female - of every species of terrestrial animal on the planet.

[TexasMike]

05:57 PM on 05/04/2010

Yeah, I wonder how they got around to different continents to get unique species that exist only on these different continents? Then, if world wide travel was possible then why should we believe that only ONE vessel was built?

[tssent]

10:06 AM on 05/05/2010

Out of curiosity, I've always wondered just how many
species that'd be? 20,000? 50,000? Anyone here
who might have a read on the actual number?

[rambot02]

03:16 PM on 05/04/2010

And how do you repopulate the world with only one breeding pair of each species? Putting aside the question of gene pools (you have a very, very shallow one), how do two impalas make baby impalas before the two lions turn them into lunch?

Anyone who takes this story literally has a black belt in lunacy.

[Ipanemagirl]

04:39 PM on 05/04/2010

I think religion is for people who dont question anything. and dont think much!

[tssent]

10:08 AM on 05/05/2010

Darn, you had to go and ruin such a neat story....

[Peter S.Mulshine]

01:27 PM on 04/29/2010

So if the 4800 yr.old timeline is correct why were American Societies so advanced&Untouched???Why did n't GOD? produce a Bible able to be understood in any language???
Why if Christians talk of the Creator not believe in American Indians beliefs when they also spoke of the "Creator"????

[CarolusMagnus]

01:42 PM on 04/29/2010

It is estimated that the Australian aborignes date back anywhere from 40,000 to 125, 000 years ago, although I read one estimate that pushed it back closer to 200,000 years. So why didn't they
drown out? I think that is because back then god thought the Earth was flat. Ok that was a bad joke but I am using it to make another point. Aquinas denied the possibility of the existence of the anitopdes (ie Australia) because a spherical Earth meant that not everyone would be able to see Christ descending from Heaven at the time of the Second Coming. In other words, you have to believe in a flat Earth to be a true Christian. For further laughs and giggles read the book "Salvation for Sale" about Pat Robertson's CBN. There is a very entertaining part in there about the technical difficulties they expected to have live broadcasting the Lord's return to Earth.

[GoogleMaster]

04:25 PM on 04/29/2010

Darned good question. That geneology thing is a real barn burner. In order for the bible to be true (that detailed geneology from Adam to Jesus), those thousands of years will have to be true. However, all scientific measurements (carbon dating, Quasar distance calculations), etc prove that the earth is billions of years old. There are three possible resolutions to that. Then you have those who will stick with their "Earth is 6000 years old" story because of that geneology.

According to the book, God chose one group of people -- the Israelites -- to communicate with and begin this whole saga. Hence, the bible was written in the languages that they used. That's the Old Testament. In the New Testament, it says that Jesus commanded his group (those diciples) to pass the word along to the rest of the world .. which includes us.

I would imagine that at least one of those book authors (there were many), was not part of this grand conspiracy/fraud. Perhaps it was Luke who really believed in this elaborate ruse. Too bad the other guys left Luke out of the secret. Those guys were good back there I tell ya. I just wonder who the mastermind was. My money is on Moses. Yep. Old Moe. He got us all. I can see him now going, "Uh, how about a giant ship. And a flood that covers the planet. That sounds good. Where's my scroll

[HarmNone]

12:36 PM on 04/29/2010

And there's a bridge in AZ that for sale!

[orkt]

05:22 PM on 05/04/2010

hey, where is that bridge's papers, anyway? I think it is suspicious-looking - kinda foreign.

[TexasMike]

05:59 PM on 05/04/2010

Hmm, steel and concrete from south of the border, smuggled across the desert.

[Cactusman]

05:16 AM on 05/06/2010

I live near the London Bridge! I can sell it to you! Good price for special friend, real silber, good deal today only!