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Noah's Ark Ararat in eastern Turkey, on the Anatolian coast, not far from the borders with Iran and Armenia, a mountain covered with eternal snow rises.

Its height above sea level is only 5165 meters, which does not allow it to be among the highest mountains in the world, but it is one of the most famous peaks on Earth.

The name of this mountain is Ararat. In the clear air of the early morning, before the clouds cover the peak, and at dusk, when the clouds go away, revealing the mountain appearing against the background of the evening pink or purple sky before the eyes of people, many look at the outline of a huge ship high on the mountain.

Noah's Ark Ararat. The myth of the flood in different legends

Mount Ararat, on the top of which Noah's Ark should be located, is mentioned in the religious traditions of the Babylonian kingdom and Sumerian state, in which instead of Noah the name Ut-Napishtim was given.

In Islamic legends Noah (in Arabic Nuh) and his huge ark-ship are also immortalized, but again without even indicating the place of his stay in the mountains, which is here called Al-Jud (peaks), which means Ararat and two other mountains on territories of the Middle East.

Bible provides us with approximate information about the location of the ark: “... the ark stopped on the Ararat Mountains.”

Travelers for centuries those who made voyages with caravans to Central Asia or back, repeatedly passed near Ararat and then said that they had seen the ark near the top of the mountain, or mysteriously hinted at their intentions to find this ark ship.

They even claimed that from wreckage of the ark amulets were made to protect against illnesses, misfortunes, poisons and unrequited love

Beginning around 1800, groups of mountain climbers with quadrants, altimeters, and later cameras climbed Ararat.

Noah's Ark Ararat search for the ship

These expeditions did not find the true remains of the huge Noah's Ark, but they did find huge ship-like tracks- in the glaciers and near the very top of the mountain we noticed massive columnar formations covered with ice, similar to wooden beams hewn by human hands.

At the same time, the opinion was increasingly established that the ark gradually slid down the mountainside and fell apart into numerous fragments, which were now probably frozen into one of the glaciers covering Ararat.

If you look at Ararat from the surrounding valleys and foothills, then, with a good imagination, it is not difficult to see the hull of a huge ship in the folds of the mountainous terrain, and notice some elongated oval object in the depths of the gorge or a not entirely clear dark rectangular spot in the ice of the glaciers.

However, many explorers who claimed, especially in the last two centuries, that they saw a ship on Ararat, in some cases climbed high into the mountains and found themselves, as they claimed, in close proximity to the ark, most of which was buried under ice.

Legends about an unusually large wooden ship, which has survived entire civilizations over millennia, do not seem absolutely plausible to many.

After all, wood, iron, copper, bricks and other building materials, with the exception of huge rock blocks, are destroyed over time, and how in this case can a wooden ship survive on top? This question can be answered, apparently, only this way: because this ship was frozen in the ice of a glacier.

On the top of Ararat, in the glacier between the two peaks of the mountain, it is cold enough to preserve a ship built from thick logs, which, as mentioned in reports coming from the depths of millennia, “They were thoroughly tarred inside and out.”

In the reports of mountain climbers and airplane pilots about their visual observations of a ship-like object that they noticed on Ararat, they always talk about parts of the ship covered with a solid shell of ice, or about traces within the glacier, reminiscent of the outline of a ship, corresponding to the size of the ark, given in the Bible: “three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.”

Thus, it can be argued that the preservation of the ark mainly depends on climatic conditions.

Approximately every twenty years, exceptionally warm periods occurred in the Ararat mountain range.

In addition, every year in August and early September it is very hot, and it is during these periods that reports appear of traces of a large ship being found on the mountain.

So, when a ship is covered with ice, it cannot weather and rot, like a number of extinct animals known to scientists: Siberian mammoths or saber-tooth tigers and other mammals from the Pleistocene era found in Alaska and northern Canada.

When removed from the ice captivity, they were completely intact, even in their stomachs there was still undigested food.

Since certain areas of the surface of Ararat are covered with snow and ice throughout the year, searchers for the remains of a large ship could not notice them.

If this ship on the mountain is covered with snow and ice all the time, extensive special research is needed.

But it is very difficult to carry them out, because the mountain peak is fraught, according to the residents of the surrounding villages, with a danger for mountain climbers, consisting in the fact that supernatural forces protect Ararat from people’s attempts to find Noah’s Ark.

This “protection” manifests itself in various natural disasters: avalanches, sudden rockfalls, severe hurricanes in the immediate vicinity of the peak.

Unexpected fogs make it impossible for climbers to navigate, so among snow and ice fields and deep gorges they often find their graves in icy, snow-covered bottomless cracks.

In the foothills there are many poisonous snakes, wolf packs are often found, very dangerous wild dogs, bears inhabit large and small caves in which climbers often try to make a halt, and, in addition, Kurdish bandits reappear from time to time.

In addition, by decision of the Turkish authorities, the approaches to the mountain were guarded for a long time by gendarmerie detachments.

Many historical evidence that something similar to a ship was noticed on Ararat belonged to those who visited nearby settlements and cities and admired Ararat from there.

Other observations belong to those who, traveling with caravans to Persia, passed along the Anatolian plateau.

Despite the fact that many of the evidence dates back to ancient times and the Middle Ages, some of them contained details that modern researchers noticed much later.

Beroes, Babylonian chronicler, in 275 BC. e. wrote: “... a ship that sank to the ground in Armenia,” and, in addition, mentioned: “... the resin from the ship was scraped off and amulets were made from it.”

Exactly the same information is given by the Jewish chronicler Josephus, who wrote his works in the first century after the conquest of Judea by the Romans.

He presented a detailed account of Noah and the Flood and wrote, in part:

“One part of the ship can still be found today in Armenia... people there collect resin to make amulets.”

In the late Middle Ages, one of the legends says that the resin was ground into powder, dissolved in liquid and drunk as a medicine to protect against poisoning.

The references of these and other ancient writers to this ship tar are interesting not only because they clearly correspond to certain passages in the book of Genesis, but also because this huge ship turned out to be quite accessible centuries after the Flood, and because it gives a fairly realistic explanation of that the wooden pillars and beams from which the ship was built were well preserved under a layer of eternal ice high on the mountain.

Josephus, in his History of the Jewish War, makes this interesting remark:

“The Armenians call this place the “pier” where the ark remained forever, and show parts of it that have survived to this day.”

Nicholas of Damascus, who wrote the Chronicles of the World in the 1st century after Christ, called Mount Baris:

“...in Armenia there is a high mountain called Baris, on which many fugitives from the global flood found salvation.

There, on the top of this mountain, one man stopped, sailing in an ark, the fragments of which were preserved there for a long time.”

Baris was another name for Mount Ararat, which in Armenia was also called Masis. One of the most famous travelers of the past, Marco Polo, passed near Ararat on his way to China in the last third of the 15th century.

In his book The Travels of the Venetian Marco Polo there is a stunning message about the ark:

“...You should know that in this country of Armenia, on the top of a 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 .

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.”

This description of Mount Ararat remains relevant to this day, with the exception of the statement that no one can climb the mountain.

His most interesting observation is that snow and ice melt the ground and water flows out from under the glacial ice.

It is especially important to note that modern researchers have discovered wooden beams and posts processed by human hands in glacial cracks. The German traveler Adam Olearius visited Ararat at the beginning of the 16th century and in his book

“Journey to Muscovy and Persia” 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 as stone.”

Olearius's remark about the petrification of wood refers to the beams^D that were found above the border of the forest zone and are now located in the Etchmiadzin monastery; they are also similar to individual parts of the ark that were found in our time by the French climber and explorer Fernand Navarre and other travelers.

The Franciscan monk Oderic, who reported his travels to the pope in Avignon in 1316, saw Mount Ararat and wrote about this:

“The people living there told us that no one climbed the mountain, since this probably could not please the Almighty...” The legend that God does not allow people to climb Ararat is still alive.

The glacier on the northwestern slopes of the mountain is named in his honor. Half a century later, essentially, a competition began for the right to be the first to find the remains of Noah's ship. In 1856 "three godless foreigners" hired two guides in Armenia and set off with the goal of "to disprove 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...

In 1876, Lord Bryce, at an altitude of 13 thousand feet (4.3 kilometers), discovered and took a sample from a piece of processed log 4 feet (1.3 meters) long. In 1892, Archdeacon Nuri, along with five accompanying people, observed a “large wooden vessel” near the summit.

True, “his testimony remained unconfirmed. In 1916, during the First World War, the Russian pilot V. Roskovitsky reported in a report that he had observed on the slopes of Ararat from an airplane "lying large ship." Equipped by the Russian government, despite the war, the expedition began searching.

Subsequently, the 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.

In the summer of 1949, two groups of researchers went to the ark at once. The first, consisting of four people led by a pensioner from North Carolina, Dr. Smith, observed only one strange “vision” at the top.

Noah's Ark Ararat

But the second, consisting of Frenchmen, reported that “they saw Noah’s Ark... but not on Mount Ararat,” but on the neighboring peak of Jubel Judi. There, two Turkish journalists subsequently allegedly saw a vessel measuring 500 x 80 x 50 feet (165 x 25 x 15 meters) containing the bones of sea animals.

But three years later, Ricoeur's expedition found nothing of the sort. In 1955, Fernand Navarre managed to find an ancient ship among the ice; from under the ice he removed an L-shaped beam and several planks.

In the USA, the radiocarbon method showed the age of the tree to be 1400 years old; in Bordeaux and Madrid the result was different - 5000 years old!

Following Navarro, John Liby from San Francisco went to Ararat, having recently seen the exact location of the ark in a dream, and... found nothing.

Seventy-year-old “Poor Liby,” as journalists dubbed him, made seven unsuccessful ascents in three years, during one of which he barely managed to escape from a bear throwing stones!

Tom Crotser was one of the last to make five ascents. Returning with his plaque trophy, he exclaimed to 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 at 4000-5000 years...

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.

In parallel with the “land” expeditions, evidence of the ark comes from pilots. In 1943, two American pilots, while flying over Ararat, tried to see something similar to the outline of a large ship from a height of several thousand meters.

Later, flying along the same route, they took with them a photographer who took a photograph that later ended up in the American Air Force newspaper Stars and Stripes.

In the summer of 1953, American oilman George Jefferson Green, flying in a helicopter in the same area, took six very clear photographs from a height of 30 meters of a large ship half buried in the rocks and sliding down a mountain ledge of ice.

Greene subsequently failed to equip an expedition to this place, and when he died nine years later, all the originals of his photographs disappeared.

In the late spring or even summer of 1960, American pilots of the 428th Tactical Aviation Squadron, stationed near Ada) in Turkey and under the auspices of NATO, noticed some kind of ship-like structure on the western spur of Ararat. The American captain Schwinghammer wrote about this flight in 1981:

“A huge cargo cart or rectangular boat in a water-filled crevice high up on the mountain was clearly visible.”

Moreover, he claimed that the object was slowly sliding down the slope and should have gotten stuck among mountain ledges and boulders. In 1974, the American organization Earth Research Technical Satellite (ERTS) photographed the mountain spurs of Ararat from a height of 4600 meters.

So, there is a lot of evidence about the existence of the ark. But in order for them to become reliable, it is necessary to find the ark itself

Most likely, Noah's Ark has long since rotted after so many years. There were definitely no glaciers during the flood. And after the flood, Noah and his family needed building materials

“Everything that is on earth will lose life.” When Noah was already 600 years old, and three sons had grown up in his family - Shem, Ham and Japheth, a terrible disaster happened on earth.

By that time there were already a lot of people, and they behaved badly: they deceived, robbed, and killed each other. Only Noah and his family lived honestly and did not do anything wrong before God. And God looked and looked at the bad deeds of people and repented of having created them. He decided to destroy the entire human race, sparing only Noah and his family. The rest of the living creatures on land had to die as well.

God said to Noah, “Make yourself an ark. [something like a ship, but without masts] gopher wood [probably cedar or cypress]; 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 [elbow - about 50 centimeters], its width is fifty cubits, and its height is thirty cubits. And thou shalt make a hole in the ark, and thou shalt bring it down to a cubit at the top, and thou shalt make a door in the ark at the side thereof; arrange lower, second and third housing in it. And behold, I will bring a flood of water upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the spirit of life. [that is, every living creature]. Everything on earth will lose life. But I will make a covenant with you [I will make an alliance] And you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives will go into the ark with you. Also bring into the ark two of every animal and every flesh, so that they may remain alive with you: male and female.

Of birds according to their kinds, and of livestock according to their kinds, of every thing that creeps on the earth according to its kind, of every kind they will come to you, two by one, so that you may live.

Take for yourself all the food that people eat, and gather it for you; and it will be food for you and for them.”

“Of the inhabitants of the earth, only those who were in the ark survived.” Noah built the ark, and seven days before the flood began, God ordered him to begin loading it. When the ark was filled with food and living creatures, Noah and his wife and his sons and their wives entered there, and God closed the door tightly behind them.

Then immediately “the windows of heaven were opened” and streams of water poured out of them onto the earth. The rain continued for forty days and nights. The ark floated, and the water rose higher and higher until it covered the tops of the highest mountains by fifteen cubits. Of the inhabitants of the earth, only those who were in the ark survived.

The water continued to rise for one hundred and fifty days (except for the “windows in the sky,” God opened all the water sources on earth) and only then began to decline. Five months after the flood began, the ark stopped on Mount Ararat. Another forty days passed, and Noah decided to open the window and release the raven. But he didn’t even fly far, but began to circle around the ark, occasionally sitting down on it: only the endless expanse of water was visible around. Then Noah released the dove, but the dove also returned to the window.

Another seven days passed. Noah released the dove again. He returned only in the evening, holding a fresh leaf of an olive tree in his beak. This is how Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. But out of caution, he waited another seven days and again released the dove, which this time did not return. Then Noah released all the inhabitants of the ark, and he himself built an altar from stones on the top of the mountain and offered a sacrifice to God. God felt the pleasant smell of the burning sacrifice and told himself that he would no longer send a flood to the earth to destroy humanity. As a sign that He was establishing a covenant (concluding an alliance) with Noah and his descendants, God placed a rainbow between the cloud and the earth and told Noah that now the rainbow would each time remind of the end of the rain and that after the flood a covenant was made between God and all living beings.

Noah and his sons began to rule the deserted land. They learned to grow grapes and make wine. One day in the summer heat, Noah drank wine and fell asleep naked in his tent. Ham, his youngest son, saw this. This sight seemed very funny to him, and he told his brothers about it. But Shem and Japheth took the clothes, turned away, entered the tent and threw them over their sleeping father. When Noah woke up and learned about what had happened, he cursed Ham and his son Canaan and predicted that their descendants would be slaves to the descendants of Shem.

Noah's offspring. Noah lived another 350 years after the flood and died when he was 950 years old. His descendants gradually populated the entire earth. Japheth became the ancestor of the northern peoples, from Ham came the peoples of Africa, and from Shem came the Semites who lived in Asia. One of the Semitic peoples were the Jews, and the rest of the Bible talks mainly about them.

The Great Flood in the myths of different peoples.

The Lord Jesus Christ became incarnate, walked his way of the cross and was resurrected for the salvation of this world. But he also had an Old Testament prototype, who also had to go through considerable trials for the salvation of mankind - the biblical patriarch Noah.

We present to your attention a selection of ten interesting facts about Noah’s Ark, the Flood and the parallels of this story in the book of Genesis with the events of the New Testament:

1. The most complete history of the Flood is set out in the book of Genesis

It says that the flood was the Lord's retribution for the moral failure of mankind, to which God gave him a second chance through the salvation of the pious Noah and his family. Previously, the Lord shortened the days of people's lives to 120 years (the first people lived almost a thousand).

Noah was instructed to build an Ark and take on it two of every unclean animal and seven of each type of clean animal.

By the time work began on the construction of the ark, Noah was 500 years old and already had three sons. After the construction of the ark, before the flood, Noah was 600 years old. The time from God's announcement of the flood to the completion of the construction of the ark, according to the theological interpretation of Genesis 6:3, was 120 years.

Before the flood, Noah tried to preach repentance to other people, but they did not listen to him. As a result, all of humanity except Noah and his family perished, and Noah, after spending a long time sailing, was saved and immediately offered a thanksgiving sacrifice to God.

2. Dimensions and materials

In the Book of Genesis, God not only gives instructions on the construction of the Ark, but also gives precise instructions regarding its dimensions and construction materials.

The ark was assembled from gopher wood - "resinous wood." According to modern interpreters, they meant all coniferous trees that resist rot well: spruce, pine. cypress, cedar, larch and others.

Numbers in the Bible are given in cubits. This measure of length varies in the number systems of different countries; the Jews of the Second Temple period defined it as 48 centimeters. Thus, the approximate dimensions of the Ark can be calculated.

According to the Bible, the Ark was 300 cubits long, 50 wide and 30 high. Converted to the metric system, it is approximately 144 meters long, 24 meters wide and 8.5 meters high.

Students from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Leicester (UK) carried out calculations and calculated that a ship of this size could support the weight of 70,000 animals.

At the same time, the ark had a completely modern system of ship unsinkability (survivability) with bulkheads and decks: “ make compartments in the ark and coat it with pitch inside and outside... arrange the lower, second and third [dwellings] in it.”

3. How long did the ark last on the voyage?

150 days or five months (or 190 if the 40 days of rain were counted separately). It rained for the first forty days, and the rest of the time the water continued to rise. On the 150th day the ark ended up on the “Ararat Mountains”.

If we add another week of waiting before the rains start and the time until the land completely dries out (133 days), then in total Noah with his family and animals spent 290 days (or 330) in the ark, i.e. a little less than a year.

4. Archaeological data

During excavations, archaeologists deal with stratigraphite - i.e. a description of the so-called “cultural layers” of soil they found.

During excavations of many ancient cities, such as Ur, Kish, Nineveh, Shurrupak and Eridu in Mesopotamia, as well as in other places, a huge (up to 3 meters thick) gap was discovered between the more modern cultural layers and the antediluvian ones, consisting of silt, gyne and sand, indicating a global catastrophe involving water.

5. Geological data

As a hypothesis for what happened, geologists propose a shift of lithospheric plates and, as a consequence, a rise in the waters of the world’s oceans, which is confirmed by the biblical text, which speaks not only about rain. but also “the sources of the great abyss.”

This is confirmed by finds in the form of ancient marine organisms high in the mountains or, conversely, mountain and lowland animals on continental shelves.

Coal and oil also support the flood theory, because... modern data indicate the almost instantaneous conservation in ancient times of a huge number of forests, which became the above-mentioned minerals, which could only happen during a global catastrophe. In addition, many ancient fossils are also found in coal deposits. marine animals.

Finally, animal fossils, which are found in abundance all over the world, indicate that they almost instantly fell into airless soil pockets, where bacteria could not process the remains in a timely manner...

6. Evidence from historians

Ancient historians such as Berossus of Babylon (350-280 BC), Nicholas of Damascus (64 BC - early 1st century AD), Josephus (37-101 AD). according to R. Chr.). as well as the Assyrian cuneiform library, fully or partially confirm the biblical story of the flood.

7. Myths of other nations also speak about him...

The Flood and Noah's Ark are mentioned not only in the canonical books of the Bible, but also in the later apocrypha. For example, in the Book of Enoch. The story of the flood can be found in other books, in the Jewish Haggadah and in Midrash Tanchuma.

The Sumerian myth of Ziusudra and the legend of Nuha from the Koran also echo the biblical narrative, as do the legends of tribes in India, Africa, Australia, North and South America and Europe:

In India, legends about the flood date back to the 6th century BC. and are contained in the religious work of Satapatha Brahman. Indian Noah - Manu, warned about the flood, builds a ship on which he manages to escape. Immediately after the end of the disaster, Manu makes a sacrifice to the gods for his salvation.

The Bhil tribe, living in the jungles of Central India, also talks about the flood; Rama (Noah), who escaped the flood, appears in their story.

According to the legend of the Australian aborigines, many centuries ago a flood hit the earth, in which all but a few people died

Legends about the flood are common among the Bapedi tribe in South Africa, and among a number of tribes in East Africa. In their legends, a certain Tumbanot - the African Noah, was famous for his piety. Therefore, when the gods decided to destroy the sinful world with a flood, they informed him of their intention in advance. They also ordered him to build a ship on which he, his family, and representatives of the entire animal world were to be saved. The flood raged for a long time. Several times Tumbanot released either a dove or a hawk to find out about his end. When the water subsided, he saw a rainbow, signifying the end of God's wrath.

The Indian tribes of the Kaingang, Curruaya, Paumari, Abederi, Catauchi (Brazil), Araucan (Chile), Murato (Ecuador), Macu and Akkawai (Guiana), Incas (Peru), Chiriguano (Bolivia) tell stories about the flood that are almost identical to the Biblical.

In the Mexican province of Michoacan, the legend of the flood has also been preserved. According to the natives, at the beginning of the flood, a certain man named Teuni with his wife and children boarded a large ship, taking with them animals and seeds of various plants in sufficient quantities to re-supply the earth with them after the flood. When the water subsided, the man released the hawk, the bird flew away... finally he released the hummingbird, and the bird returned with a green branch in its beak.

The Montagnais, Cherokees, Pima, Delaware, Solto, Tinne, Papago, Akagchemey, Luiseño, Cree, and Mandan tribes also tell of a flood in which one man was saved by sailing to a mountain in the west by boat. The Mandans had an annual holiday with a special ritual in memory of the end of the flood. The ceremony was timed to coincide with the time when the willow leaves on the river banks fully bloomed, because “the branch brought by the bird was willow.”

The tales of the flood are recorded in the Prose Edda, the epic monument of the ancient Irish, by the poet Snorri Sturluson. During the disaster, only Bergelmir with his wife and children escaped by boarding the ark. Similar legends are preserved among the inhabitants of Wales, Friesland and Scandinavia.

8. Where is the ark now?

The Bible says: “And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat” (Gen. 8:4).

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 attribute the formation to natural causes. Research on site is difficult because the area, located near the Armenian-Turkish border, is a closed military zone.

Another potential location for the ark is Tendyurek, an area about 30 kilometers south of Ararat. In 1957, the American Life magazine published photographs taken in the area from an airplane. Turkish army captain Ilham Durupinar, looking through aerial photographs, discovered interesting formations that resembled a ship in shape, 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, he came to the conclusion that this formation is nothing more than Noah’s Ark. As with the Ararat Anomaly, professional archaeologists do not take these claims seriously.

In the Biblical Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Ephron, in the article “Ararat” it is written that nothing indicates that Noah’s ark landed specifically on the modern Mount Ararat and it is indicated that “Ararat is the name of an area in the north of Assyria (2 Kings 19:37; Isa 37 :38), presumably referring to Urartu, mentioned in cuneiform texts, an ancient country near Lake Van.”

Modern researchers are also inclined to the version that the Bible refers to Urartu. Soviet orientalist Ilya Shifman wrote that the vocalization “Ararat” was first attested in the Septuagint, a translation of the Old Testament into Greek from the 3rd-2nd centuries BC. In the Qumran scrolls the spelling “wrrt” is found, suggesting the vowel “Urarat”.

9. Armenians have their own piece of the ark, brought by an angel

According to legend, one of the holy fathers of the Armenian Church, Hakob Mtsbnetsi, made attempts to climb Ararat back in the 4th century, but every time he fell asleep along the way and woke up at the foot of the mountain. After another attempt, an angel appeared to Hakob and told him to stop searching for the ark, in return for which he promised to bring a fragment of the relic. A piece of Noah's Ark given to Saint Hakob is still in the Etchmiadzin Cathedral.

10. Rainbow - as a symbol of the covenant

After the flood, God promised never again to destroy the human race through it and blessed Noah, his descendants and everything on earth. As a sign of his promise, God gave people such an atmospheric phenomenon as a rainbow - a symbol of his Covenant with people.

“And God said, This is the sign of the covenant that I establish between Me and you and every living soul that is with you, throughout all generations forever: I have set My rainbow in the cloud, that it may be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.” Gen. 9:12-13).

Andrey Szegeda

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How many years did Noah take to build the ark?

Question asked by Pavel

Pavel asked us the following question: « Many preachers or authors of Christian books say that Noah took 120 years to build the ark. But the Bible does not indicate how many years the construction of the ark took. So where did this figure come from? Thank you in advance».

The figure of 120 years is taken from the sixth chapter of Genesis: Genesis 6:3 « And the Lord said: My Spirit will not forever be despised by men; because they are flesh; let their days be a hundred and twenty years " The following story is told about Noah and the building of the ark.

What are these 120 years that the Lord speaks of?
If we assume that we are talking about reducing the age of people to 120 years, then this assumption is easily refuted by subsequent chapters. After all, if you look at Noah’s age, he lived six hundred years before the flood: Genesis 7:11-13 « In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the sources of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of heaven were opened; and rain fell on the earth for forty days and forty nights. On that very day Noah entered into the ark, and Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and his three sons' wives with them." After the flood, Noah lived another 350 years: Genesis 9:28 « And Noah lived after the flood three hundred fifty years ", and died at the age of 950: Genesis 9:29 « And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died" This figure is far greater than the 120 years recorded in Genesis 6:3.

One might argue that perhaps this limitation does not apply to the righteous Noah. A logical assumption. Let's leave Noah and look at his descendants: from Shem to Abraham.

We know the following about the age of Noah's descendants:

• Son of Noah - Sim lived on earth for about 600 years: Genesis 11:10-11 « Here is Shem's genealogy: Sim was a hundred years old and he begat Arphaxad, two years after the flood; by birth of Arphaxad Shem lived five hundred years and begat sons and daughters».
• Son of Shem - Arfaksad lived on earth 438 years: Genesis 11:12-13 « Arphaxad lived thirty five years old and gave birth to Sal. After the birth of Sala, Arfaksad lived four hundred three ».
• Son of Arphaxad - Sala lived on earth 430 years: Genesis 11:14-15 « Sala lived thirty years and begat Eber. Born Ever Sala lived four hundred and three years and fathered sons and daughters».
• Son of Sala - Ever lived on earth 464 years: Genesis 11:16-17 « Ever lived thirty four years and begat Peleg. After the birth of Peleg, Eber lived four hundred thirty years old and gave birth to sons and daughters».
• Son of Eber - Peleg lived on earth 239 years: Genesis 11:18-19 « Peleg lived thirty years and gave birth to Raghava. After the birth of Raghav, Peleg lived two hundred nine years old and gave birth to sons and daughters».
• Son of Peleg - Raghav lived on earth 239 years: Genesis 11:20-21 « Raghav lived thirty two years and gave birth to Serukh. After Serukh's birth, Raghav lived two hundred seven years and begat sons and daughters».
• Raghav's son - Seruh lived on earth for 230 years: Genesis 11:22-23 « Serukh lived thirty years and begat Nahor. After the birth of Nahor, Serukh lived two hundred years and begat sons and daughters».
• Son of Serukh - Nahor lived on earth 148 years: Genesis 11:24-25 « Nahor lived twenty nine years old and begat Terah. After the birth of Terah, Nahor lived one hundred and nineteen years old and gave birth to sons and daughters».
• Son of Nahor - Farrah lived on earth for 205 years: Genesis 11:32 « And the days of Terah's life were two hundred five years old, and Terah died in Haran».
• Son of Terah - Abraham lived on earth for 175 years: Genesis 25:7 « The days of Abraham's life that he lived were one hundred seventy five years ».

It is not difficult to notice the reduction in human life expectancy after the Flood. However, it does not reach 120 years of age.

Over the years, human life expectancy has decreased to 70-80 years. King Solomon once said: Psalm 89:10 « Days of our years - seventy years, and with greater strength - eighty years old; and their best time is labor and illness, for they pass quickly, and we fly.”. The age of 70-80 years also does not meet the 120 year limit set in Genesis 6:3.

All this suggests that the 120 years spoken of in Genesis 6:3 is not a limitation on human lifespan, but something else. Namely, this is the time that the Lord God gave to humanity before the Flood.
Notice exactly what the Lord said: Genesis 6:3 « And the Lord said: My Spirit will not forever be despised by men; because they are flesh; let their days be a hundred and twenty years».
The Lord God was greatly saddened by the total corruption and corruption of humanity: Genesis 6:5-7 « And the Lord saw that the wickedness of men was great on earth, and that every thought of the thoughts of their hearts was evil continually; and the Lord repented that he had created man on earth, and grieved in His heart. And the Lord said: I will destroy from the face of the earth man whom I have created, from man to beast, and the creeping thing and the fowl of the air I will destroy, for I have repented that I created them." God was offended that man neglected his Creator, and He decided to put an end to such neglect: “ And the Lord said: My Spirit will not forever be despised by men.» ( Genesis 6:3a). Therefore, God determined the time - 120 years - before destroying all life from the face of the earth.
From the very beginning, the Lord initiated Noah into his plans, giving him the command to build the ark: Genesis 6:12-18 « And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had perverted its way on earth. And God said to Noah: The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with evildoings 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. And behold, I will bring a flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the spirit of life under the heavens; everything on earth will lose life. But I will establish My covenant with you, and you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives will go into the ark with you.».
Considering this factor, the size of the ark and the number of years determined by God before the Flood, we can conclude that Noah took 120 years to build the ark.

The editors of Noah's Ark publish Mark Milgram's material about the “rescue operation” of Noah during the Flood. The author of the article has been researching the events described in the Bible for many years and presents his version of Noah’s voyage.

Where did Noah's Ark sail to? The first book of the Bible, Genesis, details the story of a man named Noah (a 10th generation descendant of Adam) who built the Ark and saved himself, his family and animals during the flood. He settled in Armenia and became the progenitor of humanity, at least of its white race, primarily the Armenians.

There are many omissions and inconsistencies in this description that cast doubt on the authenticity of the story itself. But you need to read the Bible very, very carefully, since every word, every statement in the book has a deep meaning, which is not always clear to us. Despite centuries of experience in studying the Bible, it is inexhaustible.

Using engineering expertise, I have attempted, in the light of extensive research and scholarly commentary, to clarify the major episodes of this story. The resulting assumptions represent a scientific and technical hypothesis confirming the authenticity of the Noahic epic. Let's look at the main components of this version.

There was a flood

American scientists from Washington and Northwestern universities and their English colleagues from the University of Manchester discovered huge reservoirs of water at depths of 90-1500 km.

Many scientists believe that there actually was a flood, and more than one. A catastrophic eruption of hot salty water with steam could have occurred from the underground reservoirs of the earth, the level of the World Ocean rose, and a downpour poured from the condensed steam, which, quite likely, lasted 40 days and 40 nights. These natural disasters led to the Great Flood. And then the water went back... Nowadays, so-called “black smokers” are increasingly being found on the ocean floor - strange holes from which water gushes out at a temperature of 400 degrees.

American science fiction writer Isaac Asimov in his book “In the Beginning” writes: “On the northeastern coast of the Persian Gulf there is a junction of giant tectonic plates of the earth’s crust, so it is likely that their shift caused an earthquake and the accompanying tidal waves that swept the shore bay." St. Petersburg scientist Anatoly Akopyants reports the same thing: “Noah’s ship sailed up the Euphrates to Ararat. It was driven by a surge wave caused by an unknown natural disaster in the Persian Gulf region adjacent to Mesopotamia approximately 4.5 thousand years ago, which reversed the flow of the Euphrates River.”

It is quite possible that this super-earthquake was provoked by one of the largest planetary catastrophes - the fall of a large celestial body to the surface of the Earth, which occurred just 4300-4500 years ago. Most likely, this giant meteorite split into several fragments before falling, and they reached the Earth in different parts of it. A global catastrophe occurred, which is mentioned in various legends.

One fragment of a celestial body could have fallen in the Mediterranean Sea off the southern coast of today's Israel, the other in the Persian Gulf or somewhere near it. In this place there are just junctions of large tectonic faults, under which there are huge volumes of hot salty water. As a result, a cosmogenic tsunami first arose (it is being studied by specialists from the Holocene Impact Working Group), which was “superimposed” by the release of water from the Earth’s underground reservoirs, which created such a super-catastrophic phenomenon called a flood.

The resulting surge wave, coming from the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf, picked up Noah's Ark and carried it to the Ararat Mountains. Simple arithmetic calculations show that during the flood, the speed of the surge current (conditionally equal to the average swimming speed of the Ark) was approximately 5.5 km per day, the average rate of rise in the water level was approximately 18 m per day, or 0.75 meters per hour. Such relatively low speeds caused the Ark to sail quite calmly.

Not a ship, but rafts

According to the “technical specifications” given by Providence, Noah was ordered to build an Ark 138 meters long, 23 meters wide and 14 meters high. At the same time, Noah did not at all need a ship with a control system (keel, rudders, sails, etc.) and navigation, which was very complex both in construction and in sailing. The specific design of the Ark is not described in the Bible; most likely, it was difficult for the authors to do this. Difficulties also arose with the translation of the term “tevah” used, which seems to mean “chest” or “box”. By the way, the wicker basket in which the baby Moses was found was also called “tevah.” In Latin and English translations they used the word “ark”, which means “box”, in Slavic - the word “ark”.

I came to the conclusion that Noah’s Ark is not a long “box”, and not a ship in the modern sense, but a floating craft of a unique design. Its base is made up of separate rafts connected to each other by flexible connections (a towing option is also quite possible). They are a chain of 6 square rafts, each 23 meters long and wide, with a total length of the structure of 138 meters (in the original - 300 cubits). Each raft has a three-story room, sealed on all sides except the bottom, 18 - 20 meters long and 6 - 16 meters wide, secured on the sides with inclined logs connected at the top and bottom, which forms a triangular section, resistant to external influences (winds). , waves) structure with a total height of 14 meters.

It is much easier to build such a structure than a ship, and, most importantly, it is ideal for drifting. The raft is practically unsinkable. All water entering from outside leaves through the cracks in the bottom. If Thor Heyerdahl successfully completed a sea voyage on a raft, then why couldn’t Noah have accomplished it even earlier, especially since he was not faced with the task of sailing somewhere in particular, the main thing was to wait and survive. By the way, Heyerdahl in 1947 sailed 8,000 km in 101 days on a steerable raft, Ziganshin in 1960 traveled 2,800 km in 49 days on an uncontrollable barge without food and water, Nansen’s ship “Fram” drifted in the ice of the Arctic at the end of the 19th century 3 years and covered a distance of more than 3,000 kilometers, Papanin’s expedition in 1937 covered 2,500 kilometers on a drifting ice floe in 274 days, and Noah’s Ark sailed 1,200 kilometers in a drifting mode in 218 days (average speed 5.5 km/day).

It is quite possible that in order to simplify the conditions for keeping animals and to eliminate possible conflicts between people, Noah and his sons split up: 2 rafts were occupied by Ham, 2 rafts by Shem, Noah and his youngest son Japheth sailed on the remaining 2 rafts.

Construction site – megalith area of ​​Rujm el-Khiri

To prepare and carry out the construction of such a large object as the Ark, as well as for collecting and keeping domestic animals and wild animals, a fairly large and relatively flat surface is required, which at the same time must be located near the source of timber, as well as at a sufficient altitude above sea level and with a less hot climate.

Such a place was found. Perhaps Noah and his family lived there. This is an area of ​​the Golan Heights next to a man-made megalith called Rujm el-Hiri (“wild cat stone rampart”) in Arabic. The megalith consists of several concentric rings with a mound in the center, composed of large basalt boulders. Its outer diameter is 160 m and is comparable to the length of the Ark. The megalith was built before Noah and has survived to this day, although it has been significantly destroyed. Its purpose is still unclear. Next to it, Israeli archaeologists found the habitation of an ancient man - a dugout. In Armenia, near the city of Sisian, there is also a similar ancient monument - the Zorats-Karer (Karahunj) megalith, built around the same time as Rujm el-Khiri. According to one version, Karahunj was an ancient cosmodrome.

With the absolute altitude of the Rujm el-Khiri megalith area approximately 1000 m above sea level (as well as Yerevan), the destructive wave of a supertsunami from the fall of a celestial body could pass below, the Ark was picked up and carried to the Ararat Mountains by a calmer flow of water from the depths of the Earth.

At the same time, other options for the construction site of the Ark are not excluded, including in Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia).

Timber and device

It is possible that when constructing the Ark, Noah used existing experience in the construction of rafts, about which little is known today, and he significantly improved the design. Noah's rafts were built from solid Lebanese cedar logs, which, compared to other types of local timber, has the lowest density (specific gravity) - up to 400 kg / cubic meter. m in a dried state - with a height of up to 50 m and a trunk diameter of up to 2.5 m. In the Bible, the term “gopher” was used as the name of the tree, but no one took it upon themselves to translate it. However, based on the practical suitability of the wood available for the construction of rafts, the most suitable local tree is Lebanese cedar. The logs were sanded, dried and tarred. By the way, the balsa that Heyerdahl used is much lighter, only 160 kg/cu. m, and modern pine, as the closest analogue of cedar, has a density of 500 kg/cu. m, which should be taken into account when calculating the carrying capacity and seaworthiness of rafts.

On the rafts, in accordance with the “technical specifications” of Providence, sealed rectangular rooms were built, tied on the sides and fastened at the top with long logs, which gave the entire structure a triangular shape, the most stable during the various vicissitudes of a long sea voyage. At the same time, flexible connections between the rafts gave the Ark the necessary resistance to waves and kept it from destruction.

Other options for constructing rafts are also possible.

Living conditions

As you know, God forbade Noah to leave the Ark, which in the case of a completely sealed “box” or ship makes the removal of human and animal waste very difficult. From this point of view, the raft allows them to be removed through cracks or through special holes in the bottom. According to Heyerdahl's observation, water never flows from bottom to top.

In addition, ventilation of one raft is much more effective than the entire long “box”. Although in this matter everything is not so simple. For effective ventilation you need 2 holes - bottom and top. The Bible indicates only one thing - at the top. Therefore, if the Ark is a “box” or ship sealed on all sides, then it is impossible to create a lower hole in it, and therefore ventilation, but if it is a raft, then it is possible.

End of the voyage

Noah's family and animals arrived safely at the end of the flood (218 days later) in the Ararat Mountains region. The surge current “delivered” them, in my opinion, to Aragats, Ararat remained aside. Big Ararat (Masis) is too high, steep, rocky and inaccessible.

This is the most likely scenario. When the water began to subside and a distant current appeared, the whole family was separated. Ham with his family and some of the animals sailed on two rafts to Mount Little Ararat (or Ararat), but from the other, southern side. He became the progenitor of the Afro-Asian family of peoples. Traces of his raft, in my opinion, should be looked for in this territory, most likely in areas between isohypses of 2000 - 2500 m, most suitable for mooring: gentle slopes, a fairly large plateau, etc.

The second son, Shem, with his two rafts went to Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia) and became the progenitor of the Semitic group of peoples.

This scenario explains how both brothers got there after the flood. Within the framework of this hypothesis, other options for the settlement of Hama and Sima are also possible.

On Aragats

The issue of the arrival of any floating vessel to the shore is not an easy one. The shore must have certain characteristics, that is, it must be convenient for landing. A ship with a draft of 3 - 4 meters closer than 100 meters to the shore will not be suitable in any case. How to transfer animals to shore? The raft can come close to the shore, but the topography of the shore should be fairly flat. There are known cases of tragic deaths of people who tried to land on ocean rafts and crashed on reefs and rocks.

Therefore, I believe that Noah himself and his youngest son Japheth, on two rafts, exactly a year after the start of the flood, landed on Mount Aragats, on the territory of the modern Armenian Republic, in the area of ​​Lake Kari (at an altitude of approximately 3200 - 3500 m above sea level). Here God showed a rainbow as a sign of Noah’s completion of a difficult journey, as a symbol of the Eternal Covenant between God and people. Then the families of Noah and Japheth with their animals descended to the Ararat Valley, to warmer places, similar in relief and climate to their homeland (Interfluve or Israel), becoming the ancestors of the Armenians and northwestern (Indo-European) peoples. Noah founded the settlement of Yerevan, lived another 350 years and died at the age of 950.

As part of a survey expedition, I was on this southern slope of Aragats in the summer of 1965 and I can say that this area is very suitable both for “landing” a raft and for further movement of people and animals on foot. A fairly gentle slope without rocks, an abundance of streams and rivers with melt water due to the fact that the lava “cover” of Aragats is predominantly waterproof and surface water flow predominates on the mountain slopes.

The slopes of Ararat, on the contrary, are steep, there is no water on them, since the rocks that make up the mountain are “cracked” basalts and melt water immediately leaves the glaciers, forming mainly underground drains. By the way, they are the main source of water for the large artesian water basin under the Ararat Valley. In addition, the descent on foot from Ararat would be much more difficult than from Aragats. Therefore, I think that Providence directed Noah’s Ark for landing precisely to Aragats, to an area with the most convenient mooring conditions and a relatively simple route of descent to the Ararat Valley.

Hypothesis requires proof

The above is only preliminary considerations, a diagram, a hypothesis that requires proof.

There can be three proofs. The first, most accessible, is to find any traces of the Ark on Aragats in the area of ​​Lake Kari, including at its bottom. The second is the discovery of any traces of the Ark (the rafts of Ham) on the southern slope of the Ararat mountain range, which is very problematic. Third, the most costly, but the most realistic, is the construction and practical water testing of a copy of Noah’s raft.

Each element of the “new” design of the Ark, each episode of this biblical story deserves comprehensive research and calculations, excavations, and full-scale modeling. Including research and development of textual studies, source studies, theology, as well as shipbuilding, geological, archaeological, geographical, oceanological and climatic. Computer modeling of the Ark's design and its testing are needed. The ethical aspect of Noah's feat and covenants also needs modern understanding. I support the idea of ​​​​establishing a monument to Noah and his Ark in Yerevan.

Mark Milgram, mining engineer