Mount Ararat: No parking

NOAH’S ARK didn’t necessarily land on Mount Ararat, an extinct volcano in eastern Turkey.

The Bible says Noah’s barge landed in the “mountains of Ararat,” a range large enough to cover Kansas.

For the past 200 years, however, explorers have targeted Mount Ararat partly because it’s the highest mountain in the range.

Some claim to have seen the ark.

One French explorer, Fernand Navarra, carried home a five-foot (two-meter) log of hand-cut timber he said he found 13,000 feet (about 4,000 meters) up the mountain. Carbon tests dated the wood to a max of 1,200 years ago. Some speculate the wood may have been part of a monument built by Crusader-era monks, intended for visiting pilgrims.

In the third century BC, a Babylonian priest named Berossos said some people in the area claimed to know where Noah’s ark was. He said some even wore charms made from the ship’s waterproofing material, asphalt-like tar found in tar pits.

“The ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.” Genesis 8:4
• Highest mountain in Ararat range
• Elevation: 16,945 feet (5,165 meters)

From Illustrated Bible Dictionary, by Stephen M Miller, published by Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Used by permission.

Noah’s Ark, the 3-minute video

 

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