the Ark of Noah (Genesis 6-9)

275 BC - Berossus

(A Chaldean priest and historian)

His writings were published about 275 B.C. in Greek buthis work survived only as far as it was quoted by others, notably, Polyhistor (1st Century B.C.), and by Josephus (1st Century A.D.). A few others also quote him as late as the 5th Century A.D. Berossus' account is basically a version of the Babylonian Flood account. He notes that the Ark "...grounded in Armenia some part still remains in the mountains of the Gordyaeans in Armenia, and some get pitch from the ship by scraping off, and use it for amulets."

30 BC - Hieronymous

(The Egyptian)

We are not exactly sure of the exact statements of Hieronymous since his works have not survived. Josephus cites them (among others) as claiming that remains of the Ark are extent.

1st Century AD - Nicholas of Damascus

(Friend and biographer of Herod the Great)

We are not exactly sure of the exact statement of Nicholas since his works have not survived. Josephus cites them (among others) as claiming that remains of the Ark are extent.

Nicholas calls the mountain on which the Ark landed "Baris", and a mountain of that name is not mentioned in any other known literature.

50 AD - Josephus

Josephus was a man of Jewish birth who was loyal to the Roman Empire. He was a man of great intellect and a contemporary of the Apostle Paul. As the official historian of the Jews for the Roman Empire he had access to all the archives and libraries of the day. He mentions the remains of Noah's Ark three times. All are found in the ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.

315? - 403 AD - Epiphanius

( The Bishop of Constantia {formerly Salamis} )

On two occasions he mentions that the Ark landed in the mountains of the Gordians. In fact he says the remains are still shown and that if one looks diligently he can still find the altar of Noah.

Epiphanius gives the name of the mountain as Mt. Lubar. (A name he may have learned from the pseudopigraphical book, "Jubilees")

Epiphanius, Saint (315?-403), Christian prelate and Father of the Church, born in Palestine. He lived in Egypt in his youth and on his return home was ordained a priest. In 335 he founded a monastery near Eleutheropolis, which he directed for 30 years. In 367 he was nominated bishop of Constantia (formerly Salamis) in Cyprus and held that office until his death. He encouraged the growth of monasticism, supported traditional orthodoxy against the heresies of the time, and attended the synods of Antioch (376) and Rome (382). He was, in particular, a zealous antagonist of the Christian writer and teacher Origen. Among his works are the Panarion, a treatise on heresies; the Ancoratus, a polemic against Origen; and the Anacephaloeosis, summaries of theology and ritual. The writings of Epiphanius are a particularly valuable source for the student of the history of theology.

349 - 407 AD - Chrysostom

Chrysostom, Saint John (circa 349-407), Doctor and Father of the early Church, born in Antioch, Syria (now Antakya, Turkey). He studied oratory under the Greek rhetorician Libanius and began his career as an advocate. At the age of 18 he came under the influence of Meletius, bishop of Antioch, who directed him to a monastic school and baptized him soon afterward. After spending six years as a monk in the mountains near Antioch, John was ordained deacon in 381 by Meletius and ordained priest in 386 by Bishop Flavian I, who succeeded Meletius. The eloquence, earnestness, and practical nature of his preaching gained him a reputation as the greatest orator of the early church. In 398 Arcadius, emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, named John patriarch of Constantinople. His preaching against vices excited the hatred of Theophilus (reigned 385-428), patriarch of Alexandria, and of Arcadius's empress, Eudoxia, who banished him from the capital in 403. John was soon recalled, only to be banished again, in 404, to the desert areas of the Taurus Mountains, where he attempted to convert the neighboring Persians and Goths to Christianity. John's followers, called Johnites, refused to recognize his successors both during and after his lifetime; they submitted in 438, when Theodosius II, Eastern Roman emperor, brought the saint's body back to Constantinople and solemnly buried it. The surname Chrysostom (Greek chrysostomos, "golden-mouthed") was first used in the 6th century. John Chrysostom's many works include homilies, epistles, treatises, and liturgies.

4th Century AD - Faustus

In one of the more important works of the early Christian era, Faustus of Byzantium (4th century AD) reports the experiences of a bishop who traveled to the region of "Gortouk" to see the ark. He failed to complete the ascent and an angel of the Lord brought him a piece of the ark as a symbol of his faith. The bishop was reported to have been from the town of Nesbin, a town that today lies in northeastern Syria. The naming of this city is important because it is mentioned again in a later report. Montgomery believes Gortouk to be equivalent to the region of Cortaea of Ptolemy in which the Gordyaean Mountains are located. Faustus (in the 4th century AD) appears to be the first author to use the term "Mount Ararat" as a specific mountain (versus a region) for the resting-place of the ark, which he places in the "Gortouk" region which is probably equivalent to the Gordyaean Mountains.

560 - 636 AD - Isidore

Isidore of Seville, Saint (circa 560-636), Spanish theologian, archbishop, and encyclopedist, whose most influential work was Etymologiae, a remarkably comprehensive early encyclopedia. He was born in Seville and was educated at a monastery under the supervision of his brother St. Leander, whom he later succeeded as archbishop of Seville. As archbishop, Isidore helped unify the Spanish church by converting the Visigoths, who had completed the conquest of Spain in the 5th century, to orthodox Christianity from Arianism—one of the most divisive heresies in the history of the church. He also presided over a number of important church councils. Most notable among these was the fourth national Council of Toledo (633), which decreed the union of church and state, the establishment of cathedral schools in every diocese, and the standardizaton of liturgical practice.

Chief among Isidore's writings is the Etymologiae, in which he attempted to compile all secular and religious knowledge. Divided into 20 sections, it contains information that Isidore drew from the works of other writers and Latin authorities. The Etymologiae was a favorite textbook for students during the Middle Ages, and it remained for centuries a standard reference book. Isidore's other works include treatises on theology, Scripture, linguistics, science, and history. His Sententiarum Libri Tres (Three Books of Sentences) was the first manual of Christian doctrine and ethics in the Latin Church.

Isidore died in Seville on April 4, 636. He was canonized in 1598 and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1722.

1254 AD - Haithon

(A Armenian King)

QUOTE

"In Armenia there is a very high mountain--the highest in existence--and its name is Ararat. On that mountain Noah's Ark landed after the flood. No one can climb this mountain because of the great quantity of snow on it winter and summer. But at the summit a great black object is always visible, the Ark of Noah."

13th Century A.D. - Marco Polo

While in the company of its residents he was informed that the Ark was still resting on the summit of Mt. Ararat.

1829 A.D. - Dr. Friedrich Parrot

Parrot never did claim to see the Ark himself but he wrote "all the Armenians are firmly persuaded that Noah's ark remains to this very day on the top of Ararat, and that, in order to preservation, no human being is allowed to approach it"

( Journey to Ararat p.162 )

1883 A.D. - Turkish Commisioners

NEWS FROM CONSTANTINOPLE

The original news release from Constantinople has never been located, but possibly the most complete and accurate account of the discovery appeared in the British Prophetic Messenger in the summer of 1883. Quoting as its source the Levant Herald, it read as follows:

" We have received from our correspondent in Trebizond news of the return of the Commissioners appointed by the Turkish Government to inquire into the reported destruction of Mosul, Askak, and Bayazid by avalanches, and to render relief to the distressed villages in the glens of the Ararat ranges, who had suffered so severely from the unusual inclemency of the season.

The expedition was forunate in making a discovery that cannot fail to be of intrest to the whole civilized world, for amoung the vastnesses of one of the glens of Mount Ararat, they came upon a gigantic structure of very dark wood, embedded ot the foot of one of the glaciers, with one end protruding, and which they believe to be none other then the old Ark in which Noah and his family navigated the waters of the deluge. The place where the discovery is made is about five days' journey from Trebizond, in the Department of Van, in Armenia, about four leagues from the Persian frontier.

The Villagers of Bayazid, which was situated about a league away, has seen this strange object for nearly six years, but were deterred by a strong superstitious fear of approaching, as there was a rumor, generally believed, that strang voices were heard within it, and it is said that some, more daring than others, who had approached had seen a spirt of fierce gazing out of a hole or door in the upper portion of the structure.

The Commissioners, accompanied by their personal attendants, proceeded to examine it, the villagers positively refusing even to approach the neighborhood of the glacier in which it was embedded. The way led through a dense forest, and the travelers were obliged to follow the course of a stream, wading sometimes waist high in water which was intensely cold being from hte melting glacier.

At last they were rewared by the sight of a huge dark mass, protruding twenty or thirty feet from the glacier, on the left side of the ravine. They found it was formed of wood not grown in these evevated districts, not nearer than the hot valleys of the Euphrates, where it is known by the natives as "izim," said to be the gopher wood of the Scripture. It was in a good state of preservation, being painted on the outside with a dark brown pigment, and constructed of great strength.

It was a good deal broken at the angles being subjected to somewhat rough usage by the moraine during the slow descent of the glacier from the lofty peaks towering away beyond the head of the valley

1908 ? AD - George Hagopian

"He was eight years old, Hagopian said, and it was in the year 1908 [note: another account says the year was 1905 and Hagopian was 10 years old] when his uncle took him up Ararat, past Ahora Gorge, passing the grave of St. Jacob on the way. As the mountain grew more precipitous his uncle carried him on his shoulders until they came to something that looked like a great ship located on a rock ledge over a cliff and partially covered by snow. It had flat openings like windows along the top and a hole in the roof. Hagopian had first thought it was a house made of stone but when his uncle showed him the outline of planks and told him it was made of wood he realized it was the Ark, just like the other people had described it to him. His uncle boosted him up from a rock pile to reach the Ark roof telling him not to be afraid, "because it is a holy ship ..." (and) "the animals and people are not here now. They have all gone away." Hagopian climbed on the roof and knelt down and kissed the surface of the roof which was flat and easy to stand on.

While they stood alongside the Ark his uncle shot into the side of it but the bullets bounced off as if it were made of stone. He then tried to cut off a piece of the wood with a sharp knife and was equally unsuccessful. On this first visit to the Ark they spent two hours there looking at it and eating some of their provisions. When Hagopian returned to his village eager to tell the other boys about his adventure they replied, rather anticlimactically, "Yes, we saw the Ark too."

Hagopian died in 1972. Since he was unable to read maps with any accuracy he was unable to pinpoint on a map of the mountain where it was that he had seen and climbed on the Ark. He consistently told his interrogators that if he could get back to Mount Ararat he could lead a party to the Ark.

1936 AD - Hardwidke Knight

In 1936, A young archaeologist by the name of Hardwick Knight, "made a accidental discovery of huge timbers extending out of the glacial ice and moraine at the 14,000 foot level on the northern slopes." Knight was within a few yards of the western face of the Ahora Gorge. At the time, Knight did not assssociate his find with the possibility of being part of Noah's Ark, but years later in 1967, after an indepth study, Knight became covinced that the find may well have some thing to do with the Ark.

A return trip found the aera coverd with an unusual amount of heavy snow. Knight writes "What I feel is more significant than the area of my previous find, is the area directly above the area which feed the glacial flow. This we found to be a most inaccessible part of the mountain."

1943 AD - Ray Lubeck

Ray Lubeck is an 80-year-old alleged eyewitness to a silent film of 50

Russian soldiers marching past Noah's Ark near the top of Mount Ararat. Ray

was a Machinist Mate 1st Class in the U.S. Navy on Midway Island in 1942. To

keep up the morale of the Navy, Marines, and Air Force stationed on the

island, movies would occasionally be shown. One film clip of between 30

seconds and a couple minutes showed 50 Russian soldiers marching single file

down a ridge and past Noah's Ark. Since the film was silent, black and

white, and older quality, there was an American commentator describing the

scene in English and stating that the Russians were going on a campaign to

fight the Turks although Lubeck did not notice any guns.

Lubeck stated that the dimensions of the ark appeared to be about 75 feet

wide by 50 feet high by several hundred feet long and that it was completely

intact with no damage at that time. He said there was a superstructure that

ran all the way from the front to back and was about 6-8 feet high with a

roof on top that was pointed at about a 20 degree angle. Lubeck stated there

was a keel perhaps 18-24 inches wide that appeared to run under the ship and

up to a point on the bow. The bow was rounded and pointed like a boat not a

barge. There was also a solid railing around the edge of Noah's Ark of wood

that extended up about 3 feet.

He also said that as a machinist, he was used to constantly

looking at blueprints which helped him memorize the dimensions of drawings

better than most people. There were 30 or more people who witnessed the film. Lubeck

only knew one of them and he is already dead.

Lubeck said that he could not believe he was looking at Noah's Ark and the image was burned into

his mind to the point that every boat he sees since then he compares to

Noah's Ark.

1943 AD - Ed Davis

Ed Davis's "Ararat adventure and Ark sighting" as told to Robin Simmons:

(Begin Davis statement)

"Something happened to me in '43 that's haunted me all my life..

I'm in the 363rd Army Corps of Engineers working out of a base in Hamadan (ancient Ekbatan or Ecbatane), Iran. We're building a Way Station into Russia from Turkey. A supply route.

My driver's a young man named Badi Abas. One day while we're at a quarry site loading rock, he points to a distant peak and says, 'Agri Dagh, my home.'

We can see it clearly on the horizon with it's year-round snow cap. 'Mt. Ararat, that's where the Ark landed? I say. He nods.

'My grandfather knows where it is and has gone up there,' he says matter-of-factly. I thought, Boy would I like to see that...

One day in July, his grandfather, Abas-Abas, visits our base and tells Badi the ice on Ararat is melting to where you can see part of the Ark. Badi tells me if I want to see it they will take me there. I had done a favor for their village that put me in good stead with the Abas family. In fact, they now have water, where before they had to walk two miles to get it.

So I go to my commanding officer and ask for a leave. He says, 'It's dangerous, you'll get killed.' I tell him how much I want to go. He says, 'I can give you R&R in Teheran and you could take the long way. I stock up on extra gasoline, oil and tires.

A few days later, we get up early and Badi Abas and I drive down along the border as far as Casbeen until we get to a his little village (this was the settlement I had helped get water). We spend the night there.

At dawn the next day, we reach the foothills of Ararat and arrive at another primitive village. Abas tells me the name of the village means "Where Noah Planted The Vine." I see grape vines so big at their trunk you can't reach around them. Very, very old.

Abas says they have a cave filled with artifacts that came from the ark. They find them strewn in a canyon below the ark, collect them to keep from outsiders who, they think, would profane them. It's all sacred to them. That night, they show me the artifacts. Oil lamps, clay vats, old style tools, things like that. I see a cage-like door, maybe thirty by forty inches, made of woven branches. It's hard as stone, looks petrified. It has a hand-carved lock or latch on it. I could even see the wood grain.

We sleep. At first light, we put on mountain clothes and they bring up a string of horses. I leave with seven male members of the Abas family and we ride -- seems like an awful long time.

Finally we come to a hidden cave deep in the foothills of Greater Ararat. They say it's where T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia) hid when he was doing reconnaissance. There's a huge pot of hot food waiting for us.

We eat and then climb back on our horses and continue riding higher on the narrow trail. They tell me we're going through the 'Back Door.' It's a secret route used by smugglers or bandits.

Along the way, they point out a pair of human legs sticking out of the ice and tell me he shouldn't have been up there. I believe them.

I don't know how the horses are able to follow the route. In some places you can tell we were riding along a high cliff but most of the time it's hard to see because of the rain and fog. A freezing wind is blowing and it feels like it's going right through me. Soon, Abas tells me to be quiet because we're at a place where Russian sentries, stationed below, might here us.

We ride in silence for the rest of the day. Sometimes they'd communicate in their own private code by short whistles.

Eventually we run out of trail. Someone from the Abas family is waiting for us, takes our horses and we are roped together and climb on foot much higher to another cave. I can't tell where we are. The rain never lets up...

After three days of climbing we come to the last cave. Inside, there's strange writing, it looked beautiful and old, on the rock walls and a kind of natural rock bed or outcropping near the back of the cavern. Another pot of food is waiting for us. Everything's prepared for my visit by the Abas family. It rains hard all night.

The next morning we get up and wait. The rain lets up and we walk along a narrow trail behind a dangerous outcropping called 'Doomsday Rock'. I guess it's called that because it's a place you could easily die. and many have. Some not of their own doing. We doubled back around behind the imposing rock formation and come to a ledge. We are enveloped by fog.

Suddenly the fog lifts and the sun breaks through a hole in the clouds. It's a very mystical sight as the light shimmers on the wet canyon. My Moslem friends pray to Allah. They speak quietly and are very subdued...

After they finish praying, Badi Abas points down into a kind of horseshoe crevasse and says, 'That's Noah's Ark.' But I can't see anything. Everything's the same color and texture. Then I see it -- a huge, rectangular, man-made structure partly covered by a talas of ice and rock, lying on its side. At least a hundred feet are clearly visible. I can even see inside it, into the end where it's been broken off, timbers are sticking out, kind of twisted and gnarled, water's cascading out from under it.

Abas points down the canyon and I can make out another portion of it. I can see how the two pieces were once joined -- the torn timbers kind of match.

They told me the Ark is broken into three of four big pieces. Inside the broken end of the biggest piece, I can see at least three floors and Abas says there's a living space near the top with forty-eight rooms. He says there are cages inside as small as my hand, others big enough to hold a family of elephants.

I can see what looks like remains of partitions and walkways inside the bigger piece. I really want to touch it -- it's hard to explain the feeling. Abas says we can go down on ropes in the morning. It begins to rain and we go back to the cave...

Next morning when we get up, it's snowing. It had snowed all night and it's at least belt deep on me. I can't see anything down in the canyon. The Ark is no longer visible. Abas says, 'We have to leave, it's too dangerous.'

It takes five days to get off the mountain and back to my base. I smell so bad when I get back, they burn my clothes. And no one seems interested in what I saw, so I quit talking about it. But I dream about it every night for twenty years.

There's something up there..."

(End Davis statement)

1944 AD - Vince Will

Vince Will was with the 3356 Signal Installation Battalion attached to the Army Air Force. He was a co-pilot of a C-47 cargo plane

that flew over Mt. Ararat (Agri Dagi). Vince describes the Ark resting on a ledge with a large drop-off.

Three floors were seen with prominent central alley-way through a hole in its side.

1945 AD - aka Caleb

( Told by Ararat Explorer Chuck Aaron )

Caleb told me (Chuck Aaron) that about 1945 he was loadmaster on a U.S. Air Force C-47 (DC-3) cargo airplane. While based in England he made many trips into Turkey to re-supply military bases. On one of his trips he had to go to eastern Turkey to drop some supplies. After they dropped off the supplies, the pilot said to the crew ( four people in all ), "Let's fly over Mt. Ararat and see if we can see Noah's Ark." Sure enough, Caleb told me details of the mountain that he would not know if he had not been there. He told me that they saw Noah's Ark COMPLETE, not broken up, and he described it as a long, dark, wooden barge made of logs.

He said it was lying in a north to south position, and it looked like it was half-sunken in the ice. It was on the west and north side of the mountain at around 15,000 feet. Two passes were made by it. The sight mesmerized everyone on the aircraft.

He said over and over again how positive they all were that it was Noah's Ark! The sky was clear, and the view of the ark was perfect leaving no doubt in any of their minds that it was the ark.

1946 AD - Charlie McCallen

Charlie claims to have seen a newsreel that contained film footage of Noah's Ark sometime between July 4, 1946 & Late 1947 in a Jackson Tennessee movie theater. He claims that the length of the newsreel that preceded the movie he went to see was 30 - 60 seconds.

Charlie was 100% sure that the newsreel stated that Major Bong took the film from his plane although it did not show Bong in the newsreel. ( note that Ark researcher Rex Geissler has contacted Major Bongs' wife and in the 2 and some odd years they were together he never once mentioned to her seeing or filming Noah's Ark )

Charlie was 75% sure that the newsreel was narrated by Lowell Thomas which would indicate Fox Movietone News. ( Fox has been contacted and claims to have no such newsreel footage. Remember he was not totally sure on the narrator ) ( Paramount , Passe, Hearst, & Universal still need to be checked out. Not to mention Military film records )

Charlie is 100% sure that the structure was man-made.

Charlie is 100% sure that the object was Noah's Ark.

Charlie say's that the structure was kind of square shaped and that the front and top were broken which allowed many rooms to be viewed from both above and in the end of the alleged ark. The room looked almost square.

There were two to three levels. The wood was charcoal black in color.

The view of the purported ark was almost like that of the Ed Davis sketch. ( see picture section )

1948 AD - Shakru Arsent

Shukru Asena, a 69-year-old farmer who owned large acreage in the Eastern

Turkey frontier district, announced the Reshit story to the Associated Press

in 1948.

Turk Reports 'Ship' Atop Mt. Ararat

By Edwin B. Greenwald

ISTANBUL, Nov. 13 (AP)—The petrified remains of an object which peasants

insist resembles a ship has been found high up Mt. Ararat, biblical landing

place of Noah's ark.

Apparently hidden for centuries, it came to light last summer when unusually

warm weather melted away an ancient mantle of snow and ice. While various

persons from time to time, have reported seeing objects resembling a "house"

or a "ship" on the mountain, Turks who have seen this new find purport it to

be the only object which actually could be taken as the remains of a ship.

Shukru Asena, 69-year-old farmer who owns large acreage in that far off

eastern frontier district, told about he discovery in and unheralded visit

to the Associated Press bureau here [Istanbul[. This is his story:

Early in September a Kurdish farmer named Reshit was about two-thirds of the

way up the 16,969-foot peak when he came upon an object he had never seen

before, although he had been up the mountain many times. He moved around it

and then climbed higher to examine it from above. There, Reshit said it was

the prow of a ship protruding into a canyon down which tons of melting ice

and snow had been gushing for more than two months. The prow was almost

entirely revealed, but the rest of the object still was covered. The contour

of the earth, Reshit said, indicated the invisible part of the object was

shaped like a ship. The prow, he added, was about the size of a house.

Reshit climbed down to it and with his dagger tried to beak off a piece of

the bow. It was so hard it would not break. It was blackened with age.

Reshit insisted it was not a simple rock formation.

"I know a ship when I see one," he said. "This is a ship."

He spread the word among little villages at the base of the mountain and

peasants began climbing up its northern slope to see the weird thing he had

found. Each who came back said it was a ship.

An expedition from America last summer was reported coming to see if it

could find remains of the ark preserved in the ice atop Mt. Ararat, but no

one in that eastern area has reported any foreign visitors.

(In Annapolis, Md, Frederick Avery, model ship maker for the naval academy

museum who was to have been a member of the American expedition, said the

trip had been "called off for the time being."

Avery said that the "international situation and fighting in that area" had

complicated plans and that the expedition could not get clearance and get

ready in time. Mt. Ararat is frozen 10 months of the year. August and

September are the only two months of thaw.)

TELLS OF FINDING ARK—Shukru Asena, bushy-mustached farmer from eastern

Turkey, said that startled peasants had found the petrified remains of a

ship high up Mt. Ararat, Biblical landing place of Noah's ark. It was

brought to light by extraordinarily heavy thaws that washed away the

"ship's" ancient mask of ice and snow. Here Shukru Asena points out the

location of Ararat on a map.

1953 - 1955 AD - William Todd

At age 27, William Todd, was a Photographer's Mate Chief who joined the U.S. Navy on June 24th 1944 and retired after 21 years in 1965. The Navy Hydrographic Office from Washington, D.C. and Army Map Service combined with the Turkish Air Force in Diyarbakir to give the first accurate mapping of Turkey working. Todd's account is another aerial sighting with some amazing claims about photographing the ark but without any photographs. Note that 1953 was the same summer that George Greene claimed to see the ark.

My U.S. Navy unit V.J. 61 was attached to the Turkish Air Force in both Ismir and Diyarbakir, Turkey. In Diyarbakir the dust and flies tested the spirit as the summer temperatures reached 120 degrees. We were flying U.S. Naval AJ2P photographic-configured Savage aircraft. Our coverage was three 6-inch focal length aerial cameras, mounted in a trimetrogon mounting to ensure vertical 30-degree oblique. This is a standard configuration for horizon to horizon coverage. We had a 6-inch focal length in the prime vertical gyro stabilized mount. Our other prime vertical was a 12-inch focal length in a static mount. The aircraft was the

steadiest platform that the Armed Forces had at that time. Along with the navigation I was also one of two camera repairmen on the detachment. Our mapping altitude was 30,000 feet (true altitude) and remained the same for four years to get a 1:30,000 ratio. I won't go in detail about confirming "true altitude" over "indicated altitude" at this time, but I will add that daily flights must use true altitude or the flight lines will not match when laid as a mosaic. In order to re-set their altimeters perfectly, we would fly our AJ2P aircraft over the Black Sea otherwise our true altitude was typically off some.

Between 1951 and 1955, the Navy was in charge of mapping the entire nation of Turkey because most of Turkey's maps were outdated and incorrect. We mapped over the borders up to 250 miles. Since there were no markings on our aircraft because we didn't want the U.S.S.R. or Iran to know that we were U.S. airplanes, it was dangerous to fly into other countries' airspace but we did it anyway.

That afternoon we spotted the anomaly while we were descending to Diyarbakir. It was interesting and we had plenty of fuel, so we descended and took a long look-see. When we flew over the summit, we noticed an object above the gorge (their maps did not have the name Ahora on it at that time) sticking out of the ice at a true altitude of 14,500 to 16,000 feet. The very thought of the ark would have been ridiculous, as there was no reason to believe that it existed to modern times. But there appeared this structure lying on a little shelf protruding from ice and snow. At the base were snow patches and large to small rocks. The upper part had me additions that looked like a railing or a roof that was in extreme disrepair. The color was about the same as the ground.

We witnessed the structure from about 2,000 feet above the object. However, once it was spotted, we flew around the mountain numerous times along the side of the object. It was a rectangular, slate-colored boat that we all claimed was Noah's Ark.

The object appeared to be of huge size and was filled with ice and snow. In this anomaly it looked like a craft of some sort. The ground around the structure was broken up and ice was all around the area. As a Naval Chief Petty Officer, it did not look like a typical boat and was completely out of place. It appeared more like a barge.

I shot one roll of aerial film 400 feet long by 9 inches wide. Since we want ed to use all the film, we had to make a number of passes. We proceeded to Diyarbakir where I personally processed the film and made prints. In the Navy it's said if you need to do something of extreme importance, "Process it yourself." Otherwise, some else invariably causes a mishap and ruins the film.

Windows on top of the structure ran all the way from the ice to the bow. About 35 feet of the structure was sticking out of the ice. Since we were professional photographers, we measured the photos to determine the width and length of the object using the formula Scale = Focal Length / (12 * Altitude). It turned out to be exactly 75 feet wide by 45 feet high using an 18-inch cubit. When we found that it precisely matched Genesis, we were running around with chills down their back.

I noted that the Tigris River was running high that year because of the extreme heat melting snow in the mountains. After a few months, I gave my photos to my Baptist minister (perhaps named Grant?) in Sanford, Florida who kept them and then died. Later attempts to get them back were never successful. The Naval Photographic Science Center Archives in Washington D.C. should have the negatives but claim that they could not find them. We gave four or five copies of the pictures to all of our crew. The whole squadron of six mapping planes was abuzz about Noah's Ark and everyday some plane "accidentally" went by Ararat to see it. You practically needed a control tower around Ararat that summer. After seeing the photos, we were convinced that the structure was Noah's Ark.

Others in my group who were eyewitnesses included an Uncle Joe Gorsky (a retired U.S. Naval pilot and commander of Russian decent who spent time in Guam), Ensign Glacow (navigator who later flew for United Airlines and supposedly found several million dollars of gold in the Amazon River mud), Mr. Trent and Mr. Finkbiner who were stationed for a time in Sanford, Florida. I have lost track of them all. I am confident that the set of photos still exist if we could just track them down. I highly regret my having given them to my minister.

Although I have read Bill Shea's articles and have conversed with James Irwin, Barry Setterfield, and John McIntosh, I have attempted to write this without being influenced by their views.

1956 - 1957 AD - Herb Knee

dear michael..i wanted to add some info for you..i read the account of the

person who saw a newsreel of the ark in Jackson Tennessee also saw a

newsreel of the ark..when i was 7 or 8 years old which would have made it

about 1956 or 1957..i went to the oldham movie theater on the square in

Winchester Tennessee on a Saturday morning to see a movie....back then all

the movies had a newsreel and a cartoon before the movie..there was a short

black and white newsreel that showed the ark..there was an old man and a

young boy in the film..reminds me very much of Hagopian and his uncle..and

it very well could have been them..they walked around and on the surface of

the ark..someone else either shot the film or the camera had an automatic

setting on it..but it must have been someone else because cameras didn't have

that technology back then..the pictures clearly showed the ark..the ark is

definitely there..no doubt about it..anyway..the newsreel was very short..i

dont remember exactly how long..maybe 2 minutes or so..i will never forget

it..i hope someday to go to the mountain to see the ark for myself..if you

know of anyone planning an expedition please let me know..i definitely want

to go..thanks...herb knee...Murfreesboro Tennessee

1968 AD - Air Force Master Sergeant E8

A retired Air Force Master Sergeant E8 who spent over 28 years in the

Air Force and flew over 28,000 hours (approximately three entire years in

the air. He was in the Air Force from 1958 to 1986 and was a Load Master

(weight and balancing expert for airplanes). He was normally stationed at

Travis Air Force Base although he had multi-year stints in Vietnam (7

years), Taiwan, and the Philippines. He flew all over the world many times.

On this flight around 1964, he began from Diyarbakir, Turkey. In Diyarbakir,

it was incredibly hot. In the air, it was a beautiful day without clouds. He

stated that after leaving Diyarbakir in a C-130 transport, they flew within

1/2 mile of Mount Ararat. The seven member crew was talking about Mount

Ararat on the radio. As they approached Ararat and circled around it, he

guessed that they were flying at about 15,000 feet above sealevel. Several

of the crew including himself saw what looked like a dark-colored log

sitting on the mountain at the edge of a drop-off and with a rising

light-colored area behind it. His eyes focused on this log and as the plane

came closer, he said that it was obviously a man-made, cigar-shaped boat

sitting high on the mountain. He estimated that the boat was 3/4 of the way

up the mountain. He claimed that the boat was obviously man-made, had a

smooth surface and looked like a flat barge. When he was shown Elfred Lee's

drawings of the Russian video which Ray Lubeck saw in WWII, the well-built

Air Force Master Sergeant (now a supervisor for a California government

agency) was visibly shaken and said that the picture is almost exactly what

he saw although from his angle and distance, he did not notice a

super-structure. Guessing at the length and width from the distance, he

guessed the flat boat (like a barge in the Northeast US) was 150 feet long

by 20-25 feet wide. He said that the mountain and terrain was barren with no

trees so he could do nothing but guess at the dimensions.

Interestingly, at least two (if not more) crew members witnessed the

man-made boat on the same flight. The other alleged eyewitnesses are still

alive, he is in contact with them and he is checking to see if they want to

make a comment on what they saw. He also said that there is a chance they

might have taken a photo of the alleged boat.

1968 AD - David Duckworth

The following are notes of a story recently retold to me by David Duckworth, who was about 18 when he worked as a volunteer at the Smithsonian Institution when something extroardinary may have happened. The current whereabouts of "Al Merrick" (sp?) are unknown. If he's still alive, we would like to locate him and give him an opportunity to, perhaps, set the record straight.

- Robin Simmons

(Begin Duckworth's statement)

"In the fall of 1968 a friend and I were employed in the vertebrate paleontology section of the Smithsonian Institution under the direction of Robert Geist and Al Merrick (sp?).

"After we had been there about a month, several crates were delivered to our section which seemed to cause quite a bit of interest among the directors.

"So they went ahead and opened 'em, up and took out several artifacts like old wood and some old style tools and things like that. And they had some photographs, which I went over and looked at, arranged on a table which had been taken from a balloon, they told me. Showing a ship like object down in some ice.

"So I took a look at them, and talked some, and I was told it was Noah's Ark. And I looked at the artifacts and that was the general impression I got at the time -- that they'd found it.

"Later, a friend and I were going to lunch and we passed the loading dock on our way to the cafeteria and we saw a couple crates marked: "MT ARARAT -- National Geographic / Smithsonian Expedition." And that's what everybody was talking about for three or four days. That's all you heard -- was about this thing they found, you know, Noah's Ark, they'd identified! There was quite a bit of excitement about it.

"After about five days, though, it started changing a little bit. They didn't talk anymore. They started taking the stuff out. The questions we'd ask, they just kind of ignore us, and finally they pretty well came out and told everybody to just keep their mouth shut. Because they were having some problems at the time with some 'religious' groups.

"After some of my comments were published in Violet Cummings' book Has Anyone Really Seen Noah's Ark? I was visited at work by two men who identified themselves as FBI agents (even though I was called Daryl Davis in her book). They told me my statements were making waves at the Smithsonian. And that I had been somewhere where I shouldn't have and seen something that didn't concern me. They didn't threaten me, exactly.

"Later I phoned Al Merrick (sp?) and asked him if he remembered me. He said he didn't. When I described him as the guy who often wore a little red bow tie and pedaled his three-speed bike to work, he suddenly remembered me. I asked him some questions about all that stuff from Ararat and the Ark. He said, 'You know, I really can't talk about it,' and kind of laughed."

(End Duckworth's statement)

1969 -70 AD - Lt. Col. Walter D. Hunter

(Memo from Walt Brown follows)

Memorandum of Phone Conversation with Lt. Col. Walter D. Hunter 24 June 1975

About 5 or 6 years ago, Lieutenant Colonel Walter Hunter saw two photos of what allegedly was Noah's Ark. These photos (either 5" x 7" or 8" x 11") were in the possession of "two guys" who were standing in Base Operations at Beale Air Force Base in California.

An object in the photos, which looked like a boat, was encased in a glacier on an unrecognizable mountain. Lt. Col. Hunter did not know who took the photos or where they were taken but felt that they probably were taken from a U-2 aircraft. He thought they had been taken in November but did not say why. He also recalled that the photos were oblique shots. In further describing the photo(s) he said:

"It looked like a glacier with an object buried in it [which was] obviously underneath ice. The photo had red caliper marks on it which were used in determining its length of 450 feet. It [the object] was pointed on both ends . . . They [the photos] had no edges on them, they just had been run off on photo paper. . . . The first photo was a 'pan shot' of a large glacier."

Lt. Col. Hunter described this experience in Base Operations as a "passing thing," lasting no more than the minutes while he filed his flight plan. When I asked how he would recommend tracing these photos, he said that the only thing he could think of was to see if the Unit Historian at Beale Air Force Base could find them in his files.

(end Walt Brown memo)

1992 - 93 AD - Rolando Reyna

Rolando Reyna and his dad saw a Mexico City TV Station (KMEX 34) on a

Saturday night News program from 7PM-8PM in 1992/1993 show a color Turkish

military film with green tint. The shaky film from a helicopter with a

gunner hanging out the side showed a three-deck structure sticking 15 feet

out of the ice with long broken timbers lying below it in the snow. Jacob

Sadludsoski was the leading Newscaster in Mexico City and is bald and wears

one of those headset muffler across his bald head making him look peculiar

on the News Report show. His dad died in 1994 so that's why he thinks it was

only a year or two earlier. Rolando said that it was the

first time Noah's Ark had been sighted in so many years. The report was

about 35-45 seconds long and they circled around the structure. Ice had

fallen off and showed a big square box hanging in the air with 15 feet

sticking out. It was dark in color like real dark brown. There were three

helicopters that had their shadows over the width of the ark to help

determin the entire width. The structure was too dark to see inside. There

were logs down the ravine, two long ones and a bunch of chunks (a'la George

Stephen's debris, etc.) There was snow inside the ravine but not on the

edges of the mountain. It was on the north side of Ararat. The gunner

handing out the helicopter had a an American 50-caliber machine gun (Rolando

loves guns) with a muzzle flash (which is not American but they add them in

foreign countries). Rolando thought it was strange that the gunner did not

have his headgear on which would permit communication between the pilot and

the gunner. Roland said that he and his dad thought that the structure was

100% manmade. Since the film is color, it

appears to be recent (probably 80's or early 90's vintage) and as such

should be much easier to find than films from the 1940s/1950s.

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