According to the Old Testament, Noah's ark wandered for 40 days and nights in the rain that flooded the whole world, and when the water subsided, it landed on Mount Ararat. Thus began the rebirth of humanity.
One of the main mysteries of humanity - the biblical legend of Noah's Ark - remains unsolved today.
According to the Old Testament, God told Noah to make an ark out of gopher wood. The ship wandered for 40 days and nights in the rain that flooded the whole world. When the water subsided, it landed on Mount Ararat near the border of modern Armenia and Turkey. So, from the 27th day of the second month of 601 years from the creation of the world (April 2, 2369 BC), the revival of humanity began.
On top of the mountain
For more than 4 thousand years, the biblical story about the first forced migrant has haunted the minds of people. Back in the early 19th century, residents of the Armenian village of Bayazet told about the case of a shepherd who one spring saw a huge wooden ship. The 1833 Turkish expedition to Ararat confirmed the shepherd's story: its report speaks of a wooden ship's bow protruding from the mud.
In September 1878, the Englishman James Bryce climbed the summit of Ararat alone, making the first ascent without an overnight stay in 24 hours. At an altitude of 4 thousand meters, between blocks of frozen lava, he discovered a wooden beam that reminded him of a fragment of a man-made structure. During the First World War, in August 1916, Russian aviator Vladimir Roskovitsky reported that he saw a blue spot from an airplane - a lake, and on its edge - a skeleton big ship, a quarter frozen in ice.
According to other sources, the ark was seen at the same time by two more Russian military pilots - lieutenants Zabolotsky and Lesin. While making a reconnaissance flight over the mountain range, they spotted a strange object resembling a multi-story raft in the lake at an altitude of 4.3 thousand meters. Their report was delivered to Tsar Nicholas II, who ordered two special military teams to be sent to survey the mountain.
That same summer, both groups climbed Mount Ararat and found a structure that resembled Noah's Ark. The structure was carefully examined, measured, and even wood samples were taken. The material for making the vessel turned out to be oleander. This evergreen tree, native to the Mediterranean, is durable and almost rot-resistant, and was coated with a composition similar to modern varnish. An excellent “preservative” for the ark is also ice, in which the ship is located 11 months a year. Inside, the soldiers found rooms and measured them from largest to smallest.
Having read the report, Nicholas II intended to organize another expedition to launch the ship, but then the Aurora fired.
There is evidence that the ark was seen Soviet pilots during the Second World War. One of them fled to America, where he presented the filmed object to the intelligence services. He may have been the first to photograph Noah's Ark. Then the ship was discovered on Ararat American pilot Ed Davis.
Encouraged by these reports, American historian Aaron Smith, who collected history over many years Noah's Ark out of 80 thousand works in 72 languages of the world, I decided to try my luck on Ararat myself. In 1951, he and 40 companions spent 12 days on the top of the mountain, but the search was unsuccessful. "Even though we found no trace of Noah's Ark, my faith in the biblical account of the flood became even stronger," he later said.
Yerevan researcher Ashot Levonyan discovered a message from French soldier Fernand Navarre. According to Navarra, on June 6, 1955, he found a processed wooden beam in a crevice on the slope of Ararat. An independent examination at 16 universities around the world showed that this is a type of oak, and the age of the beam is about 5 thousand years. However, this was not proof that the found fragment had direct relation to the ark. By the way, another similar fragment is exhibited in the Museum of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin ( spiritual center Armenian Apostolic Church) and appears as a fragment of Noah's Ark.
Classified CIA photographs
Classified US CIA photographs of the slope of Mount Ararat, which may have captured the legendary Noah's Ark, could shed light on the mystery. These photographs were taken back in the 1970s with American spy plane U-2, performing reconnaissance flights over Turkish territory and near the borders Soviet Union. A strange object repeatedly recorded on a snowy mountainside was codenamed “Ararat Anomaly” by the CIA.
University of Richmond (USA) law professor Porter Taylor is convinced that photographs taken by American spy planes confirm the Old Testament story about Flood. According to the scientist, the US intelligence agency has been hiding information about strange object on Ararat for a number of reasons. By disclosing this data, Taylor believes, the CIA would be in serious danger largest operation period" cold war" - reconnaissance flights of spy planes over the territory of the USSR. Meanwhile, according to the scientist, photographs stored in secret dossiers in the archives of the CIA and DIA ( military intelligence), give an almost complete picture of Noah's Ark - 152 meters in length, 25 in height and 15.2 in width. These data coincide with the information given in the Bible.
Back in December 1997, the American department promised to release secret photographs of the Ararat Anomaly, but it never kept its word.
Modern expeditions
Levonyan was among the members of the international expedition that intended to search for the ark on Ararat in August 2000. It was attended by 27 people from six countries: the USA, Canada, Italy, Norway, Russia and Armenia. In Turkey, citizens of that country had to join the group.
Among the expedition participants there were already conquerors of Ararat. Hamlet Nersesyan from Los Angeles climbed to the top of the mountain in 1986. A chemist from Milan, Angelo Palego, has visited Ararat 15 times since 1985, solely for the purpose of searching for the ark. One day he was joined by the famous climber Reinhold Messner, who single-handedly conquered all 14 eight-thousanders on the planet.
Palego told Levonyan about his findings. In July 1989, at an altitude of 4.3 thousand meters, he came across two deep cracks, running parallel to one another and forming an even rectangle measuring 100 by 26 meters. It was not possible to immediately get to the structure from the glacier. “You have to rappel down there about 200 meters,” said Palego, “and since the glacier melted a lot this year, we will definitely find it this time.”
“And here we are standing at the foot of Ararat. The dazzling white glacier at its top is just a stone’s throw away... But the Turkish authorities at the very last moment, when we were already standing on the mountainside, forbade us to climb without explanation. We are forced to return to Armenia,” - said Levonyan.
Finally, on August 4, 2009, eight Armenian citizens received official permission to climb to the top of the biblical Ararat. “At the age of 50, after 33 years of dreams, seeing Ararat almost every day from Yerevan, I was at the top of this legendary mountain,” recalls Levonyan.
Two years later, he lifted six Muscovites to the top of Ararat. But bad weather and a snowstorm prevented them from enjoying the view from the top of one of the most famous mountains in the world. Over dinner at a motel near the Bayazet fortress, when the Armenian researcher asked the head of the American expedition, Professor Richard, who had been searching for the ark for many years, if they had found anything, he smiled and replied: “No, nothing.”
Is there an ark?
The mystery of the ark still remains unsolved. Perhaps the French archaeologist Andre Parrot was right, who in his book “The Flood and Noah’s Ark,” published in 1953, wrote with irony: “They really look for it and from time to time, as a rule, they find it again. It is, like a magnet, invariably attracts people who do not quite clearly understand the boundary between the legendary and the real.”
So does Noah's Ark exist or not? Believers do not need proof, and skeptics will not be convinced by a thousand proofs.
Hamlet Matevosyan
It would seem a simple matter. The last refuge of the ark is known, where there were “a pair of every creature” - Mount Ararat. Go and see if there is a ship there. But at first it was impossible to do this - climbing the sacred peak was strictly prohibited...
This taboo was broken only in 1829 by the Frenchman Friedrich Parrot.
But during the first ascent, the climber least of all thought about the Flood. But half a century later, essentially, a competition began for the right to be the first to find the remains of Noah’s ship. In 1876, Lord Bryce, at an altitude of 13 thousand feet (4.3 km), discovered and took a sample from a piece of processed log 4 feet (1.3 m) long. In 1892, Archdeacon Nuri, one of the main priests of the Chaldean Church, finally, together with five accompanying people, discovered a “large wooden vessel” near the peak! (English Mechanic magazine, 11/11/1892).
In 1856, “three atheist foreigners” hired two guides in Armenia and set off with the goal of “refusing the existence of the biblical ark.” Only decades later, before his death, one of the guides admitted that “to their surprise they discovered the ark.” At first they tried to destroy it, but they failed because it was too big. Then they swore that they would not tell anyone about their discovery, and they forced their accompanying people to do the same... (Christian Herald magazine, August 1975).
In 1916, the fearless Russian front-line pilot V. Roskovitsky reported in a report that he had observed on the slopes of Ararat (then this area was part of Russian Empire) from an airplane "lying large ship"! Immediately equipped by the tsarist government (despite the war!) the expedition began searching. Subsequently direct participants claimed that they had achieved the goal, photographed and examined in detail... Apparently, this was the first and last official expedition to the ark. But, unfortunately, its results were reliably lost in Petrograd in 1917, and the territory of Greater Ararat was captured by Turkish troops...
In the summer of 1949, two groups of researchers went to the “ark”.
The first, of 4 missionaries led by a pensioner from North Carolina Dr. Smith, observed only one strange “vision” at the top (“Mond”, 09/24/1949). But the second, consisting of Frenchmen, reported that “they saw Noah’s Ark... but not on Mount Ararat,” but on neighboring peak Jubel-Judi southeast of Sevan (France Soir, 08/31/1949). True, according to local legends, visions in the form of a ghost ship covered with a layer of mud were often observed near this place. There, two Turkish journalists subsequently allegedly saw a ship (or ghost?) measuring 500 x 80 x 50 feet (165 x 25 x 15 m) with the bones of sea animals and Noah's grave nearby. However, after 3 years, Ricoeur's expedition did not find anything like this.
In the cold summer of 1953, American oilman George Jefferson Green, flying by helicopter in the same area, from a height of 30 meters took 6 very clear photographs of a large ship half sunk in rocks and ice sliding down a mountain ledge. Greene subsequently failed to equip an expedition to this place, and 9 years after his death, all the original photographs disappeared... But photographs appeared in the press with clearly visible outlines of the ship, taken from Space! (Daily Telegraph, 09/13/1965).
In 1955, Fernand Navarre manages to find among the ice ancient ship, from under the ice he pulled out an L-shaped beam and several sheathing boards. After 14 years, he repeated his attempt with the help of the American organization Search and brought several more boards. Conducted in the USA radiocarbon dating determined the age of the tree at 1400 years, in Bordeaux and Madrid the result was different - 5000 years! (F. Navarre. Noah’s Ark: I touched it, 1956, 1974).
Following him, John Liby from San Francisco, who shortly before saw the exact location of the ark in a dream, goes to Ararat, and... finds nothing. Seventy-year-old “poor Libi,” as journalists dubbed him, made 7 unsuccessful ascents in 3 years, during one of which he barely managed to escape from a bear throwing stones! The owner of the hotel in Dugobayazit at the foot of Ararat, Farhettin Kolan, participated as a guide in several dozen expeditions. But the champion among the “ark lovers” is rightfully Eril Cummings, who has made 31 ascents since 1961!
Tom Crotser was one of the last to make his 5 ascents. Returning with his trophy board, he exclaimed in front of the press: “Yes, there are 70 thousand tons of this wood, I swear on my head!” Once again, radiocarbon dating showed the age of the boards to be 4000-5000 years old (San Francisco Examiner, June 29, 1974).
The history of all expeditions (official ones at least) ends in 1974. It was then that the Turkish government, having placed monitoring posts along the border line on Ararat, closed the area to all visits. Now there due to warming international situation Voices for lifting this ban are increasingly heard. So we can only hope that the ancient ship preserved in the ice will not crumble while waiting for new explorers.
However, the description in the Bible of the Great Flood, which lasted about a year 5 thousand years ago, is far from the only mention of this disaster. An earlier Assyrian myth recorded in clay tablets, tells about Gilgamesh, who escaped in an ark with various animals and arrived after the end of the 7-day flood, strong wind and rainfall to Mount Nitzir (400 m high) in Mesopotamia. By the way, many details coincide in the accounts of the stories of the floods: in order to find out whether the earth appeared from under the water, Noah released a raven and twice a dove; Utnapishtim - dove and swallow. The methods of building arks were also similar. By the way, similar stories are also found among the aborigines of South and North America, in Africa and Asia.
Wyatt's Research
Anesthesiologist Ronald Eldon Wyatt devoted himself entirely to the search and research of the remains of the biblical Noah's Ark.
Since 1977, he has organized several expeditions to Turkey and created the Wyatt Archeological Research organization to popularize this research.
Wyatt proved that this ship is the work of man, and is thus the legendary ark Nov. The scientist also did a tremendous amount of work: he collected a lot of evidence, took photographs and videos of the work carried out, and in authoritative scientific laboratories analyzed the samples taken.
From 1977 to 1987, Ronald made 18 expeditions to the location of the ark. And as a result of this, Wyatt concluded - Noah’s Ark has been found!
Remains of the Ark
In 1978, an earthquake occurred in Turkey, which led to the collapse of the soil that hid the ship. Thus, the fossilized remains of the ship ended up on the surface. Around the entire ark one could notice depressions that resembled disintegrating rib beams (frames). The horizontal deck support beams were also visible. The length of the ship is 157 meters (515 feet).
In Knoxville, Tennessee, mineral analysis was carried out on soil samples taken near the ark. Samples taken from the crack showed 4.95% carbon content, indicating that there was once living matter– rotted or petrified wood.
The earthquake caused the object to split from bow to stern, allowing scientists to sample ark materials from any depth from the ark's crack.
In 1986 it was applied new method research – surface radar scanning. Ronald Wyatt and Richard Rives did a mini-excavation of the ark. They cleared a section of the ship that was badly damaged. There were rib beams (frames). After removing the soil hiding the ark, they saw a difference in color between the darker soil and the lighter beams. This process was filmed.
lava flow
There are suggestions that during the volcanic eruption the ark moved in a lava flow, and it did this sideways down the mountainside. This lava sank the ship. They split the ark, pressing it against a huge limestone ledge. As a result, the entire ark was engulfed in lava. The theory was confirmed by scans that showed a void along the entire length of the hull.
Ron found “strange stones” located in the lowest compartment of the ark, in its severed part. He assumed it was the ship's ballast material. As a result of the ship splitting, large number the ballast fell out, and the other part remained inside.
The material that was used as ballast did not turn out to be ordinary stone, but looked like waste from metallurgical production. Later tests confirmed that the ballast was not of natural origin.
Metal rivets
Soil samples inside the ark showed high iron content. The Turkish authorities refused to allow excavations to take place. So in 1985, Ron Wyatt, Dave Fussold and John Baumgardner performed a deep penetration metal detector survey. The result was simply amazing! The metal detectors responded in a very orderly manner. Stones were placed in these places, then connected with tape. This was visible internal structure ship.
Metal detectors also discovered thousands of metal rivets that were used to fasten the wooden structure of the ship. This suggests that both wooden and metal parts were used in the construction of the ark. Titanium alloys were found in the samples. Titanium is known as a metal that has enormous strength, light weight and high resistance to corrosion. And, what is most interesting, man mastered the metallurgical production of titanium only in 1936!
Stone anchors
In 1977, during the first expedition in the area where the ark was located, very large stones were discovered. They were similar in shape and design to anchor stones that were found by archaeologists in the Mediterranean. But the stones Ron found were much larger!
This is a type of floating anchor that is constantly found at the bottom of the Mediterranean and other seas. They were often used on ships in ancient times to keep the ship perpendicular to oncoming waves and stable.
Deck wood
The Turkish authorities recognized the research results of Ronald Wyatt and his team. On June 20, 1987, the official opening of “Noah’s Ark” took place. The event was attended by officials and journalists.
After the ceremony, the Governor asked Wyatt to scan the site. Unexpectedly, Ronald noted a specific reading after several passes with the radar. They began to dig at the place and an object about 45 cm long was discovered, which was called “deck wood”.
Journalists filmed the wood excavation process and later showed it on television in Turkey. The sample was taken to the USA for research. Laboratory analysis of the wood was performed at the Galbray Laboratory in Knoxville, Tennessee. The entire analysis process was filmed.
The analysis results showed that this sample was former organic matter. In addition, this wood lacked annual layers, which usually occur when nutrition changes during the changing seasons. This can be explained by the peculiarities of the climate before the flood. The Bible records that after the flood, the Lord said, “Nevermore, throughout all the days of the earth, sowing and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will not cease” (Genesis 8:22).
Root Aramaic word, which is similar in meaning to Hebrew word“gopher wood” means laminated wood (layers of wood slabs are glued together to one another, thereby providing additional strength). After examining the section, it became obvious that this part of the deck was definitely laminated wood.
Resin was used as glue, the remains of which have survived to this day in fossilized form. Thus, the joining method that Noah used to build the ark involved gluing three separate layers of wood together for strength.
Without much publicity
Why is this discovery kept silent? After all, there is obvious evidence. We can conclude that the world does not want to admit that the ark was actually found, thereby having to admit that the Bible, the Word of God, speaks the truth. Therefore, we need to live differently.
One Australian film crew visited the place where the ark was found. But she did not film the results of metal detector research that was carried out before their eyes. They preferred to film what they believed would serve to discredit the discovery of the ark.
You can deny the truth, but this will not make it cease to exist... and sooner or later you will still have to reckon with it...
“First of all, know that in last days there will appear insolent scoffers, walking according to their own lusts
and saying: Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers began to die, from the beginning of creation, everything remains the same.
Those who think this way do not know that in the beginning, by the word of God, the heavens and the earth were made of water and by water:
therefore the world of that time perished, being drowned by water.
And the present heavens and earth, contained by the same Word, are reserved for fire for the day of judgment and destruction of wicked men.
One thing should not be hidden from you, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
The Lord is not slack in fulfilling his promise, as some count slackness; but he is patient with us, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Ararat (Masis in Armenian) is a volcanic massif consisting of two extinct volcanoes: Greater Ararat and Little Ararat. The distance between these two volcanoes is 11 km. The height of Greater Ararat above sea level is 5165 meters, the distance of the mountain from the foot to the top is 4365 meters. Greater Ararat from 4250 meters and above is covered with eternal snow. The height of Little Ararat above sea level is 3927 meters.
Big and Small Ararat:
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Ararat Valley:
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It is unknown when Ararat erupted last time. Scientists suggest that this could have happened in the 3rd millennium BC. In some sources you can find information that the eruption of Ararat took place in 1840 and was accompanied by an earthquake, as a result of which the monastery of St. Jacob and the village of Arguri, located on the mountain, were destroyed. Since then there have been no permanent settlements on Ararat. However, in 1840 the eruption was phreatic, i.e. it occurred under the groundwater level and there was no ejection of lava from the crater of the volcano.
Historically, Ararat belonged to the Armenian people, however, as a result of the war between Armenia and Turkey in 1920 and the Moscow Treaty between the USSR and Turkey, Ararat became part of Turkey.
Khor Virap Monastery in Armenia with Ararat in the background:
View of Ararat from Yerevan, the capital of Armenia:
Now Ararat is separated from Armenia by 32 km. Despite this, Ararat is depicted on the coat of arms of Armenia.
In response to the protest of the Turkish government against the fact that the coat of arms of the Armenian SSR depicts Ararat, which is not part of Armenia, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR Georgy Chicherin replied: “The flag of Turkey depicts a crescent, but the Moon is not part of Turkey.”
If you look closely at the coat of arms of Armenia, you can see Noah’s ark on the top of Ararat, which, according to the Bible, stopped “in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat” (Genesis, chapter 8).
The belief that Noah's Ark remains on the top of Ararat to this day is reflected in Josephus, who wrote in the first century AD: “One part of the ship can still be found today in Armenia.<...>There people collect resin to make amulets.<...>The Armenians call this place the “pier” where the ark remained forever, and show the preserved today parts of it." Marco Polo, who drove past Mount Ararat in the 15th century, wrote: "You should know that in this country of Armenia, on the top high mountain“Noah’s Ark rests, covered with eternal snow, and no one can climb there, to the top, especially since the snow never melts, and new snowfalls add to the thickness of the snow cover.”
The belief that the peak of Ararat was inaccessible to man existed even after Professor University of Dorpat Johann Friedrich Parrott conquered the top of Ararat, which at that time was part of the Russian Empire. Two of the Armenians who accompanied Parrott claimed after the ascent that they had climbed greater height, but not to the top.
Climbing Mount Great Ararat:
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In the summer of 1916, Russian lieutenant Roskovitsky discovered Noah’s Ark on the top of Ararat, almost completely frozen into the ice of the lake. The Ark was carefully measured, drawings of its main structural parts, it was photographed completely and in parts. However, soon a revolution began in Russia and the documents of Roskovitsky’s expedition were lost.
This was not the only time Noah's Ark or traces of its presence were discovered on Ararat. For example, in 1974, the Americans took photographs of Ararat from an altitude of 4600 meters. The photographs, taken with multiple magnifications, clearly showed an object lying in one of the clefts of the mountain, very similar in shape and size to the ark.
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Despite numerous evidence, Noah's Ark on Ararat still remains semi-mythical. At the same time, in 1959, thirty kilometers from Ararat, an ark was discovered, the size of which coincided with the biblical one. It is possible that this is the real Noah’s Ark, and not the one that people are looking for in vain on the top of Greater Ararat.
Humanity has been struggling with the mystery of the wooden skeleton of a ship lying high on the mountainside for more than one millennium. The first evidence of the discovery of Noah's Ark appeared long before the birth of Christ. In the era of Christianity, the historian Josephus Flavius wrote about this in his work “Jewish Antiquities.” In 1840, a Turkish expedition discovered a wooden frame protruding from a glacier on Mount Ararat.
Despite the difficulties, the researchers approached it and saw a gigantic ship, the dimensions of which coincided with those indicated in the biblical text - 300 cubits in length, 50 in width and 30 in height, i.e. 150 by 25 by 15 meters. The vessel is brown.
In 1893, the archdeacon of the Nestorian Church Nurri, after climbing Mount Ararat, declared that he had seen Noah's Ark. According to him, the ship is made of thick dark brown boards. Having measured the ship, Nurri came to the conclusion that its dimensions were consistent with those indicated in the Bible. Returning to America, he organized a society to raise funds for the expedition, after which the Ark, as a biblical shrine, was to be delivered to Chicago. But the Turkish government did not give permission to remove the ship from the country.
In 1916, a group of Russian aviators were based at a temporary airfield about 25 miles northwest of Mount Ararat. On one of the usual August days, plane number seven was lifted into the air, specially converted for high-altitude tests, which were assigned to captain Vladimir Roskovitsky and his partner. While flying around the top, they saw the gigantic outlines of a ship. Even one of the door leaves was visible. The size of the vessel was simply amazing: the size of a city block! The base was informed about Nakhodka, but in response the aviators heard loud and prolonged laughter. Then there was a second flight, after which the information was sent to the government in St. Petersburg. Tsar Nicholas II, being a pious man, equipped two detachments of soldiers with orders to climb the mountain. Fifty men attacked one slope, while a group of one hundred climbed the other. It took two weeks of hard work to overcome the gorges at the base of the mountain, and about a month passed before the soldiers reached the Ark and saw it. They complied detailed measurements, drawings, and also took many photographs. The report stated that the entire structure was covered with a substance similar to wax or resin, and the wood from which it was made belonged to the cypress family. All materials were sent to Russia, but the outbreak had already broken out there. February revolution, and they disappeared without a trace into its pool. Some of the officers who participated in the expedition left the country after 1917. Several people successfully settled in the United States, and Roskovitsky himself became a preacher in the states.
Kurds living in this area claim that in 1948, during an earthquake, the ship was literally squeezed out of the ground. At that moment the surroundings were illuminated bright light, and the body of the Ark was divided into two parts by a piece of rock. Now the structure rises above the ground by about 2 meters. Summer 1953 American entrepreneur George Green took 6 clear photographs from a helicopter of a large ship half buried in the ice.
On July 6, 1955, climber Fernand Navarra and his fifteen-year-old son Gabriel climbed Mount Ararat, found Noah's Ark and told the world about this discovery. Some time later, photographs appeared in the press in which the outline of the ship was clearly visible.
Attempts to climb Mount Ararat were made until 1974, but were unsuccessful. Türkiye then declared the area closed, citing the presence of observation posts along the border line there.
Many scientists argue that it is necessary to build, bit by bit, the absolutely exact route of the Russian expedition of 1916, since only a photograph remains of it, which is authentic documentary evidence existence of Noah's Ark.
There is a legend that Noah's Ark cannot be seen or touched. He will appear to people only before the end of the world. The legend itself is associated with the ascent of the mountain by the monk Jacob, who tried to climb Ararat for several days in a row. But every time I woke up in the morning, I found that I was in the same place where I started my journey. One day, an angel appeared to him in a dream and gave him a piece of the ship’s hull. He said that the ark will be revealed to people only when God himself wishes it. All this could be called fiction, if only. Not a piece of paneling! It remained with the monk, and now the relic is kept in the city of Etchmiadzin in Armenia. By the way, in 1766, Catholicos of All Armenians Simeon Yerevasitsi donated a piece of it to Catherine II, thereby expressing gratitude to the Russian Empress for her concern for the Armenian people.
Message Turkish authorities the discovery of powerful brown beams on Ararat, which formed something like the skeleton of a giant ship, first appeared in print in 1883. Later, one American newspaper wrote that local residents They know the wreckage well, but are afraid to approach it, because they once saw a terrible ghost looking out of the window on board. This message can be taken in different ways; Let's just say that one of the emigrated officers who participated in the 1916 ascent, in an interview he gave in New York, said: “It was very cold and scary there. The soldiers fervently crossed themselves and prayed fervently when they saw the ark and realized that this is what it is." If you believe him, the expedition found out that interior spaces the ships were divided into compartments, and on the plank floor there were traces of rust from iron bars - perhaps from animal cages.
Near Mount Ararat, it seems that time has stopped and now Noah will set foot on earth with his children and household and begin a new life on Earth. And the ark will be covered with snow and ice, and it will remain in people’s memory as the first rescue ship.
Humanity will probably never know whether the events described were in the Bible or not. Most of what happened is unproven, and we can only guess where Eden, Sodom and Gomorrah and Noah's Ark were.
It is the Ark that has attracted the attention of mankind for almost three thousand years. Was he there, or is it just a fairy tale?
“And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually; and the Lord repented that he had created man on earth, and was grieved in His heart. (Gen.6:5,6)
But in those days there lived a man who was righteous and blameless in his generation, pleasing to the Lord, and his name was Noah. And God said to Noah, “I have brought the end of all flesh before Me, for the earth is filled with evil deeds from them; and behold, I will destroy them from the earth.
Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make compartments in the ark and coat it with pitch inside and outside. And make it this way: the length of the ark is three hundred cubits; its breadth is fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. And thou shalt make a hole in the ark, and thou shalt make it a cubit at the top, and thou shalt make a door into the ark at the side thereof; arrange lower, second and third housing in it. (Gen.6:13-16).”
Noah did everything as God commanded him. At the end of the construction, God told Noah to enter the ark with his sons and his wife, and with his sons’ wives, and also bring two of all the animals into the ark so that they would survive.
And take for yourself all the food that you need for yourself and for the animals. After which the ark was shut by God.
After seven days (in the second month, on the seventeenth day), rain fell on the earth, and the flood continued on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and the waters multiplied, and lifted up the ark, and it rose above the earth and floated on the surface of the waters.
“And the waters on the earth increased exceedingly, so that all the high mountains that were under the whole heaven were covered” (Gen. 7:19) And every creature that was on the surface of the earth lost its life, only Noah remained and what was with him in the ark .
The water increased on earth for one hundred and fifty days, after which it began to decrease. “And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. The water continually decreased until the tenth month; on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains appeared” (Gen. 8:4,5). By the first day next year the water on earth has dried up; and Noah opened the roof of the ark, and in the second month, by the twenty-seventh day, the earth was dry.
And God said to Noah: Come out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons, and your sons' wives with you; bring all the animals with you<…>And I will no longer strike all living things<…>And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth... (Gen. 8:15-9:1).
This is what is told in the Book of Genesis, the first Book of the Old Testament. Then the Muslims appropriated the Ark and Noah, renaming it Nuha and “specifying” the stopping place - near Nakhichevan. Even though Old Testament considered the history of the Jewish people, in the Book of Genesis there is no hint of the nationality of the patriarch Noah.
The ancient Jewish historian of the 1st century AD Josephus writes in detail about Noah, the Flood and the ark: “One part of the ship can still be found today in the mountains of Armenia - there people collect resin to make amulets.”
A somewhat unexpected version of this story is given by another author of the 1st century AD, Nicholas of Damascus, in his Chronicle of the World. According to him, “in Armenia there is a high mountain called Baris, on which many fugitives from the Flood found salvation.
There, on the top of this mountain, one man stopped, sailing in an ark, the fragments of which were preserved there on for a long time" Baris, or Masis, are the ancient Armenian names for Mount Ararat.
Meanwhile, according to Armenian historiography, one of the saints of the AAC, St. Hakob Mtsbnetsi, who wanted to find the ark, made many attempts to climb Ararat. But every time, according to legend, he fell asleep halfway and woke up at the foot.
The story tells how one day, during another attempt, an angel supposedly appears to him in a dream and asks him not to try to find the ark anymore, but promises to give him a piece of the wooden lining of the ship.
The legend says that upon waking up, St. Hakob discovers a fragment of the ark nearby and brings it to Etchmiadzin (Vagharshapat), where this fragment is kept to this day. At the place where, according to legend, the fragment was discovered, the monastery of St. Hakob was later erected, and the Akhor gorge on the north-eastern slope of the mountain also became known as the gorge of St. Hakob. This legend is an adaptation of an earlier legend that featured Mount Judi (peak in Arabic).
Several expeditions visited those places in the 19th and 20th centuries, and although none of them discovered the ark, many of the explorers claimed to have seen something that looked like a huge boat.
In 1955, the French industrialist and explorer Fernand Navarra undertook an expedition to Ararat, from which he brought back the remains of a board, broken off, according to him, from a wooden frame, presumably the Ark.
Some of the studies carried out partially confirmed the age of the tree at 5,000 years, but all of them were highly subjective and variable.
Currently, one of the main places where, according to seekers, the ark rests is the Ararat anomaly. The anomaly is an object of unknown nature protruding from the snow on the northwestern slope of Mount Ararat, 2200 meters from the peak.
Scientists with access to the images explain the formation natural causes. Research on site is difficult because the area, located near the Armenian-Turkish border, is a military closed zone and access is limited.
Another potential location for the ark is Tendyurek, an area about 30 kilometers south of Ararat. In 1957 in American magazine Life published photographs taken in the area from an airplane.
Captain Turkish army Ilham Durupinar, looking through aerial photographs, discovered interesting formations, shaped like a ship, and sent them to the magazine. The article caught the eye of Ron Wyatt, an American anesthesiologist, who decided to study this phenomenon. After several expeditions I came to the conclusion that this education- nothing more than Noah's Ark.
In October 2009, scientists visited and filmed what they claim are the remains of the legendary Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat. Archaeological find was achieved during a joint expedition of scientists from Turkey and Hong Kong.
Ancient and medieval authors wrote about the ark, including a Flemish traveler, a monk and a diplomat, an ambassador to the court Mongol Khan in the 13th century, Billem Rubruk and the famous Venetian traveler of the 13th-14th centuries, Marco Polo. He passed by Ararat on his way to China.
In the “Book of the Diversity of the World...”, which includes stories written down by the great traveler, Armenia is also mentioned: “You should know that in this country of Armenia, on the top of a high mountain, rests Noah’s Ark, covered with eternal snow, and no one can go there , climb to the top, especially since the snow never melts, and new snowfalls add to the thickness of the snow cover.
However, its lower layers melt, and the resulting streams and rivers, flowing into the valley, thoroughly moisten the surrounding area, on which a rich grass cover grows, attracting in the summer numerous herds of herbivorous large and small animals from all over the area.”
The inaccessibility of the ancient shrine for inspection was told in 1316 to the head of the Catholic Church, who was at that time in Avignon, by a monk of the Franciscan order, Oderich: “The people living there told us that no one climbed the mountain, since this probably could not have happened.” please the Almighty."
Conflicting information and the inaccessibility of these areas, even in our time, involuntarily force us to listen more carefully to these words of the medieval monk. A German traveler also mentions the Ararat relic early XVI century Adam Olearius.
In their travel notes“Journey to Muscovy and Persia” he wrote: “The Armenians and Persians believe that on the mentioned mountain there are still fragments of the ark, which over time have become hard and durable, like stone.”
According to legends, the remains of Noah's Ark are still located on Mount Ararat among eternal ice. Starting from the first half of the 19th century centuries, the search for the ark began to be carried out more actively.
The path to the famous mountain was paved by the French climber Friedrich Parrott, however, he went there for sporting purposes, and the search for the ark was not part of his task. A glacier on the northwestern slopes of the mountain was named in honor of the climber.
The inability to reach the summit of Ararat was, according to James Bryce, “almost part of the creed” of the Armenian Church. Two of the Armenians accompanying Parrott claimed after the ascent that they had climbed to a great height, but not to the top. A similar story happened with another conqueror of Ararat, Abikh, in 1845.
A group of Englishmen climbing the mountain in 1856 received assurances from the Kurds and Turks that the peak was inaccessible. According to Bryce, in 1876, no one living within sight of Ararat (except perhaps some well-educated Russian official in Yerevan) doubted that no one had set foot on the top of the mountain since Noah.
After climbing Ararat, Bryce visited Etchmiadzin, where he was introduced to the archimandrite who ruled it. During the conversation, Bryce said that he had climbed Mt. The translator said to the archimandrite: “This Englishman says that he was on the top of Masis.” He answered with a smile: “No, this cannot be. Nobody has ever been there. This is impossible".
We all love fairy tales, especially those that may one day be true. Noah's Ark really existed - maybe not as it was later portrayed.
But he landed precisely on the Ararat Mountains, that is, on the Greater and Lesser Masis. There is something mystical about this mountain - separated by a 12-kilometer saddle, from a distance it looks like two peaks standing next to each other. And who knows what other secrets, besides the Ark, lie under a huge layer of ice...
Attention, if you find that the video is missing for some reason, this happens when you search for an entity neighboring Armenia, just type the name of the video into the YouTube search, the video will definitely be in another place.
The Mystery of Noah's Ark
