Researchers claim stunning new evidence — subsurface tunnels, ancient support beams, and soil packed with three times the organic matter of surrounding land — may prove that Noah’s Ark lies buried in the mountains of Turkey.

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Soil samples near Mt. Ararat show differences in a boat-shaped ground formation that point to the presence of rotting wood.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Scientists are getting closer to proving a Turkish find discovered in the 1990s is the Biblical Noah’s ark, with soil samples consistent with the presence of rotting wood, the UK newspaper The Sun reported on Sunday.

Dr. Memet Salih Bayraktutan, a Turkish geologist, collected 22 samples from inside and just outside the possible structure at the Durupinar site last year.

An analysis at Ataturk University showed that the soil from inside had a lower pH, more potassium and a higher percentage of organic matter than the outside.

“These changes are consistent with rotting wood,” American researcher Andrew Jones, who has been studying the site since the 1990s, told The Sun.

According to the Biblical account, God commanded Noah to make the ark out of cypress beams.

A second finding that the experts say indicates an artificial construction is that the grass inside turns lighter and yellower in the fall than in the surrounding area.

These soil tests, said Jones, “suggest this formation isn’t simply part of the surrounding mud flow – it’s a distinct object.”

In 2019, the research team used ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to scan the boat-shaped formation made of limonite, an iron ore, at the Durupinar site some 30 km south of Mt. Ararat, whose dimensions strongly correlate with the measurements cited in Genesis for the most famous ark in history.

The patterns unveiled by the GPR surveys appear to resemble rooms, possibly underneath a deck-like platform.

In a second study of the scans, another geophysicist said that he saw “a long hallway which opened up into a large central space,” The Sun reported.

The scientific group wants to uncover more proof by drilling into the open cavities that lie some 20 feet below the surface to slip in a camera that could “help us confirm whether the right angles and geometric patterns we see on the GPR scans are man-made structures or just natural formations,” Jones said.

They are not moving too fast, however, due to the ground conditions.

“The location lies in an active earth flow with harsh winters, so protecting the area is our top priority,” said Jones.

“Over the next few years,” he noted, “our Turkish university partners will conduct [more] non-destructive tests,” taking additional soil samples and conducting supplementary scans.

“Only after we gather enough evidence and have a proper preservation plan in place will we consider excavating,” he concluded.

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“This is not what you would expect to see if this site is just a solid block of rock or an accumulation of random debris from a mudflow,” said one researcher.

By Josh Plank, World Israel News

Researchers studying a boat-shaped formation in the mountains of Turkey have announced plans to conduct archaeological excavations at the site after new data suggests that the formation could be a man-made structure that appears to match the biblical description of Noah’s ark.

According to the researchers, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys conducted at the “Durupinar site” in 2019 by Oregon-based Topa 3D show parallel lines and angular shapes, which are “strong indications of man-made construction,” between 8 and 20 feet below the surface.

“This is not what you would expect to see if this site is just a solid block of rock or an accumulation of random debris from a mudflow,” said Andrew Jones, a native of California who has been studying the site since the 1990s and now lives in Turkey to continue his investigations.

“But they are what you would expect to see if this is a man-made boat matching the biblical requirements of Noah’s ark,” he said.

In a statement released last month, the research group said the patterns unveiled by the GPR surveys appear to resemble rooms, possibly underneath a deck-like platform.

“I knew that the scientific consensus was that the Durupinar site is a geological oddity. Before learning about these scans, it seemed like those who continued to argue in favor of the Durupinar site just couldn’t accept the truth and let it go,” said Ryan Mauro, president of the Doubting Thomas Research Foundation.

“It’s a whole new ballgame now. Those judgments dismissing the site were made decades ago and based on limited data compared to what we have now,” he said.

Jones and Mauro, along with a team of Turkish scientists led by Dr. Fethi Ahmet Yuksel, are hoping to perform further scans of the site, collect core drilling samples, and ultimately conduct archaeological excavations to determine what really lies beneath the mysterious formation.

The group has already obtained a permit to begin their investigation and launched a website, NoahsArkScans.com, to increase public awareness and raise the necessary funds.

In 1959, a Turkish army captain named Ilhan Durupinar first noticed the boat-shaped formation in aerial photographs collected by the Turkish military.

According the biblical book of Genesis, Noah’s ark came to rest on the “mountains of Ararat” after the great flood. The Durupinar site is located in the foothills of the Akyayla Mountain, about 32 kilometers (20 miles) south of the summit of Mount Ararat.

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Organizer say the tower exhibit will help visitors understand “how genetics research and the Bibile confirm the origin of all people groups around the world.”

By Associated Press

A Bible-themed attraction in Kentucky that features a 510-foot-long (155-meter-long) wooden Noah’s ark is planning to begin fundraising for an expansion.

The Ark Encounter said Wednesday that it would take about three years to research, plan and build a “Tower of Babel” attraction on the park’s grounds in Williamstown, Kentucky.

A release from the Ark Encounter park said the new attraction will “tackle the racism issue” by helping visitors “understand how genetics research and the Bible confirm the origin of all people groups around the world.” No other details were given on the Babel attraction or what it might look like.

Answers in Genesis, the ministry behind the ark, raised private funds to construct and open the massive wooden attraction in 2016. The group preaches a strict interpretation of the Earth’s creation in the Bible.

The group also founded The Creation Museum, which asserts that dinosaurs walked the earth just a few thousand years ago, millions of years after scientists say they went extinct. That facility is just south of Cincinnati in Boone County, Kentucky.

The Ark Encounter’s expansion plans also include an indoor model of “what Jerusalem may have looked like in the time of Christ.”

The Ark Encounter said attendance is picking up after the pandemic lull in 2020, with up to 7,000 visitors on Saturdays, according to the news release.

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A Dutch carpenter intends to sail his rebuilt Noah’s Ark to Israel. 

By Joseph Wolkin, World Israel News

This isn’t Noah, son of Lamech. It’s not even Evan Almighty from the Hollywood film.

But Dutch carpenter and master builder Johan Huibers plans to sail his life’s masterpiece, a replica Noah’s Ark, to Israel.

“I love the county, I love the people,” Huibers said. “They don’t obey, they do what they want, they drive like mad, shove while waiting in line and don’t listen to anyone. Just like me,” he said of Israelis.

Huibers didn’t reveal the exact date he plans to set sail for Israel. He still needs about about $1.3 million to make the trip from the Krimpen aan de Ijssel docks in the Netherlands to the Holy Land.

One problem: The ark doesn’t have an engine. So he’ll need to rent tugboats to bring it to Israel.

Huibers followed the instructions in the Torah in building his replica. The ship has five decks and is 410-feet long.

“I wanted children to come here and feel the texture of the wood, see the nails and see that what is written in the book is true,” he said.

The idea came to Huibers 25 years ago when he was reading the story of Noah and the flood to his children. But when he first tried to build the ark, it was only half the size of the Biblical measurements. That wasn’t due to a lack of effort, but rather Holland’s difficult canals.

“I wanted to spread God’s word in the Netherlands,” he said.

Huibers enlisted a teams of amateur carpenters, who didn’t have formal training, making his feat all the more remarkable.

The Ark was initially a huge tourist attraction. It had a petting zoo and could fit up to 5,000 people. However, the city where it is docked closed it down, claiming safety reasons.

Huibers disputes this, saying his creation is not only safe, but is insured and has modern fire extinguishing equipment.

The Ark “is meant to educate, a reminder that our world is changing, will continue to change, as we see now because of global warming, rising sea levels, fires,” Huibers said.

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Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis, the ministry that built the massive 510 foot-long, $100 million ark in Kentucky, said the project is based on the biblical story of Noah and will stand as proof that the stories of the Bible are true.

A 510-foot-long, $100 million Noah’s ark attraction built by Christians opened in Kentucky this week.

Since its announcement in 2010, the ark project has rankled opponents who say the attraction will be detrimental to science education and shouldn’t have won state tax incentives.

“I believe this is going to be one of the greatest Christian outreaches of this era in history,” said Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis, the ministry that built the ark.

Ham said the massive ark, based on the biblical story of Noah who got an end-of-the-world warning from God about a massive flood, will stand as proof that the stories of the Bible are true.

“People are going to come from all over the world,” Ham said to thousands of visitors in front of the ark.

Ham’s group has estimated it will draw 2 million visitors in its first year, putting it on par with some of the big-ticket attractions in nearby Cincinnati.

The group says the ark is built based on dimensions in the Bible. Inside are museum-style exhibits: displays of Noah’s family along with rows of cages containing animal replicas, including dinosaurs.

The group believes that God created everything about 6,000 years ago — man, dinosaur and everything else — so dinosaurs still would’ve been around at the time of Noah’s flood. Scientists say dinosaurs died out about 65 million years before man appeared.

An ark opponent who leads an atheist group called the Tri-State Freethinkers said the religious theme park will be unlike any other in the nation because of its rejection of science.

“Basically, this boat is a church raising scientifically illiterate children and lying to them about science,” said Jim Helton, who lives about a half-hour from the ark.

Ham said the total cost of the ark surpassed $100 million, a far cry from a few years ago, when fundraising for the boat was sluggish and much larger theme park plans had to be scaled back.

Millions of people first learned about plans for the ark during a debate on evolution between TV’s Bill Nye “the Science Guy” and Ham in early 2014.

A few weeks later, a local bond issuance infused tens of millions of dollars into struggling fundraising efforts. And earlier this year, a federal judge ruled the ark could receive a Kentucky sales tax incentive worth up to $18 million while giving a strict religious test to its employees.

Months later, the tax incentive ruling still has some opponents of the boat scratching their heads.

“It’s a clear violation of separation of church and state. What they’re doing is utterly ridiculous and anywhere else, I don’t think it would be allowed,” Helton said.

The court ruled in January that Kentucky officials could not impose requirements on the ark that were not applied to other applicants for the tax incentive, which rebates a portion of the sales tax collected by the ark. That cleared the way for the group to seek out only Christians to fill its labor force. New applicants will be required to sign a statement saying they’re Christian and “profess Christ as their savior.”

When Ham was asked about the tax incentive, he drew loud cheers when he proclaimed no taxpayer money was used to build the ark.

As much of a boon as the $18 million tax break would be, Bill Nye’s agreeing to debate Ham may have helped turn the tide of years of sluggish fundraising.

Nye, a high-profile science advocate and former TV personality, debated Ham on evolution and drew a huge online audience. Nye later said he didn’t realize the attention it would draw and said he was “heartbroken and sickened for the Commonwealth of Kentucky.”

The video of the debate posted by Answers in Genesis on YouTube has 5.4 million views.

About three weeks after the debate, Ham announced that a bond offering from the city of Williamstown had raised $62 million for the project, and a few months later Answers in Genesis was breaking ground at the site of the ark.

By: AP

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