{"id":626,"date":"2008-03-10T00:35:46","date_gmt":"2008-03-10T00:35:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/doxacommunications.com\/kolbe\/the-explorers-of-ararat\/"},"modified":"2008-03-10T00:35:46","modified_gmt":"2008-03-10T00:35:46","slug":"the-explorers-of-ararat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/the-explorers-of-ararat\/","title":{"rendered":"The Explorers of Ararat"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Explorers of Ararat - <\/em>And the Search for Noah's Ark
\nB. J. Corbin, Editor
\nGreat Commission Illustrated Books, 1999, 482 pages
\n$24.95
\nAvailable from: Great Commission Illustrated Books<\/a><\/p>\n

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This book is a compilation of various stories from 13 men who have explored Mt. Ararat in search of Noah's Ark: John McIntosh, Elfred Lee, Bob Stuplich, Dr. Don Shockey, Dr. Charles Willis, Robin Simmons, Bill Crouse, Robert Garbe, Chuck Aaron, Dr. John Morris, Ray Anderson, Richard Bright, and B. J. Corbin.\u00a0 Each man wrote a chapter telling his own story.\u00a0 The editor, B. J. Corbin, packaged them together with many photos and other information regarding the ark in hopes that someday it will be conclusively found.<\/p>\n

The Bible says that the ark rested upon the mountains of Armenia, or Ararat.\u00a0 It does not say that it rested on Mt. Ararat, but only somewhere in a mountainous region near Armenia.\u00a0 This generally would describe the ancient kingdom of Urartu, which covers parts of south-eastern Turkey, south-western Armenia and north-western Iran.\u00a0 The book cites many historic sources other than the Bible which describe the flood, the ark, and its location.<\/p>\n

One of the explorers, Bill Crouse, is convinced that the ark is not, in fact, on Mt. Ararat.\u00a0 He believes that the more likely location, based on historic references, is Mt. Cudi which is on the southern border of Turkey where Iraq meets Syria.\u00a0 There is a stone structure on top of that mountain called the \"Ship of the Prophet Noah\" which is thought by some to contain the relics of the ark.<\/p>\n

Most of the support for Mt. Ararat being the resting place of the ark comes from medieval legends and modern-day eyewitness sightings.\u00a0 Many of these are documented in the book.\u00a0 Although a number of people claim to have seen the ark on Mt. Ararat, it is difficult to reconcile all of their stories, and no clear photographs of the ark are known to exist.<\/p>\n

One of the more detailed eyewitness accounts comes from an Armenian named George Hagopian who claims that as a boy he climbed up Mt. Ararat with his uncle twice in the early 1900's and saw the ark.\u00a0 He says that he even walked on top of the ark and looked inside the openings.\u00a0 Another account comes from an American named Ed Davis who claims he was taken to Ararat to see the ark in 1943, when he was stationed in Iran with the military.\u00a0 Unfortunately, neither man knew exactly where he was when viewing the ark.<\/p>\n

Several eyewitness stories come from pilots who claim to have seen the ark, or a dark object, while flying over Ararat on military missions.\u00a0 Although the stories are similar, they do not all agree on the precise location of the ark.\u00a0 Ed Davis claims that the ark was in several pieces when he saw it which could account for the different descriptions.<\/p>\n

Chuck Aaron flew a helicopter around Mt. Ararat back in the 1980's looking for the ark.\u00a0 He was able to fly over many of the locations where the ark has supposedly been sighted.\u00a0 This was during a warm period when much of the ice cap on the mountain had melted back.\u00a0 According to some of the locals, the ark is only visible during years with warm summers.\u00a0 Even though the weather was clear, offering excellent views, Mr. Aaron was not able to locate any object which he could identify as the ark.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most promising story comes from Robin Simmons.\u00a0 He asked a remote-sensing specialist, George Stephen III, to look at Mt. Ararat with a satellite to search for the ark.\u00a0 Mr. Stephen was able to locate what he describes as two man-made objects near the summit of Ararat.\u00a0 The objects were about 1000 feet apart and covered in snow when he detected them.<\/p>\n

Mr. Simmons then went to Ararat and was able to get a Turkish man to go to the area indicated by the satellite and photograph what appeared to him to be the ark.\u00a0 The photograph is in the book but it is not clear that what is in the picture is indeed the ark.<\/p>\n

Throughout the book difficulties in climbing Mt. Ararat are described.\u00a0 The mountain itself is not easy to climb since it is a volcano and the rocks are not stable.\u00a0 The weather is also known for being unpredictable and storms break out with little notice.\u00a0 The political situation in this area is tense since the Kurds consider it to be their homeland and do not want to be subject to the Turkish government.\u00a0 So getting permission to climb in the area or fly over the mountain has been difficult.\u00a0 Ever since the war with Iraq in 1991, it has been nearly impossible.<\/p>\n

The Explorers of Ararat<\/em> is a must-read for anyone interested in the search for Noah's ark.\u00a0 The difficulties, frustrations, and motivations of the explorers are revealed in their accounts, but each one considers it a privilege to have been able to explore Mt. Ararat.<\/p>\n

Eric Bermingham
\nFebruary, 2008 \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 The Explorers of Ararat – And the Search for Noah’s Ark B. J. Corbin, Editor Great Commission Illustrated Books, 1999, 482 pages $24.95 Available from: Great Commission Illustrated Books …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[83,84,85,86],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kolbecenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}