Noah's Ark expedition planned for summer

[pritchke]

Is it the Ark? I have heard several stories of this object on the mountain. One recent story said that he has been there after being lost in a blizzard and took refuge in its ruins (PBS). What if it is an ancient ship? Geologists have said that there is evidence of a flood in Mesopotamia in Sumerian times, and it would not be possible for a ship to make landfall at an altitude as high as Mount Ararat. What if it is a ship? Would it mean that flood waters were that high or higher? Remember the wood while old could be preserved by the snow and ice that it is buried in. Should be interesting no matter what they find, could be scary as well if it is the ark.

WASHINGTON (AP) - An expedition is being planned for this summer to the upper reaches of Turkey's Mount Ararat where organizers hope to prove an object nestled amid the snow and ice is Noah's Ark.

A joint U.S.-Turkish team of 10 explorers plans to make the arduous trek up Turkey's tallest mountain, at 5,430 metres, from July 15 to August 15, subject to the approval of the Turkish government, said Daniel McGivern, president of Shamrock-The Trinity Corporation of Honolulu, Hawaii.

The goal: to enter what they believe to be a mammoth structure some 14 metres high, 23 metres wide and up to 137 metres long that was exposed in part by last summer's heat wave in Europe.

"We are not excavating it. We are not taking any artifacts. We're going to photograph it and, God willing, you're all going to see it," McGivern said.

Explorers have long searched for an ark on the high slopes of Mount Ararat, where the biblical account of the Great Flood places it.

In 1957, Turkish air force pilots spotted a boat-shaped formation in Agri province. The government did not pursue the sighting, however. The entire area, including Mount Ararat, was off limits to foreigners because of Soviet complaints that explorers were U.S. spies.

That ban was lifted in 1982, and since then teams of explorers have visited the area but have been unable to substantiate any claim of an ark.

McGivern and Ahmet Ali Arslan, a Turkish mountain climber who grew up in a town near Mount Ararat, say satellite photos have helped them pinpoint a more exact location. Arslan will be leading the expedition.

The biblical account in the Book of Genesis says that after the great deluge, the ark came to rest on the mountain with Noah's family and a cargo of male and female pairs of every kind of animal.

Geologists say even though there is evidence of a flood in Mesopotamia in Sumerian times, it is not possible for a ship to make landfall at an altitude as high as Mount Ararat.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Science/...437309-ap.html

[ 04-27-2004, 10:55 AM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

[Timber Loftis]

Geologists say even though there is evidence of a flood in Mesopotamia in Sumerian times, it is not possible for a ship to make landfall at an altitude as high as Mount Ararat.

Makes sense to me. I mean, something that high up could only have been deposited during a submerging of the entire continent -- which happened, but not as recently as the Sumerian times.