Not everyone agrees, but we say:
“Noah’s Ark
HAS BEEN FOUND!!!”
Noah’s Ark in LIFE magazine
The very first photo of Ron Wyatt’s Noah’s Ark site appeared in the September 5th, 1960 issue of LIFE magazine. The photo was taken by an ariel reconnaissance airplane in 1959 and caused quite a stir! A group of men from the United States went out to the site, but they came away perplexed about the site because they had expected to easily see evidence of a “giant wooden boat,” not the mud and lava covered ruins that exist out there today! Ron had nothing to do with this 1960 trip — he was only 26 years old when he saw the photo in LIFE magazine.
Seventeen years passed, and Ron Wyatt was still deeply impressed that this site really was the actual remains of Noah’s Ark. Ron made his very first trip out to investigate this site in 1977. Over the next 10 years Ron performed several tests upon the ancient formation, and many people within the Turkish government agreed with Ron’s conclusions: ALL THE EVIDENCE POINTED TO THE FACT THAT THIS WAS THE REMAINS OF A GIANT BOAT ON THE SIDE OF A MOUNTAIN AT 6,300 FEET ABOVE SEA LEVEL, and that meant only one thing:
IT MUST BE NOAH’S ARK!!
Even Turkey’s leading archaeologist, Dr. Ekrem Akurgal — (a professed atheist!) — agreed that it had to be Noah’s Ark !
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The 1986 metal detection tests proved that there was a gridwork of metal throughout the structure! The above photo shows the pattern of the metal, which indicates that this is a manmade structure!
The Noah’s Ark formation and the Visitors Center
In 1987 Ron Wyatt was the guest of honor at the groundbreaking ceremony of the new Visitors Center that the Turks planned to build to overlook the site. This building was completed and opened in 1989, and the government issued tourism brochures and invited the entire world community to “come and see” the remains of Noah’s Ark!
Unfortunately, the ongoing unrest in the area makes travel to this site very dangerous. In 1991 Ron Wyatt and four other men were kidnapped by Kurdish guerrillas for a period of 3 weeks, and they barely escaped with their lives. When Ron returned from this ordeal, he did a 30-minute interview on CNN, and USA Today wrote up the story on September 3, 1991.
A Great Honor!
Ron Wyatt has been the only person in the modern-day history of the nation of Turkey whom has ever been given the official credit for the discovery of Noah’s Ark — THIS WAS AN AWESOME HONOR !
Ron knew he wasn’t the first person to ever see this site, but he was given the credit for “discovering” Noah’s Ark because it was Ron Wyatt who generated the necessary tests on the site to sufficiently prove it was the giant boat of Noah. Unfortunately, the funds were never raised to enable Ron to perform a full scale excavation on the site — Ron had always hoped to do a full scale excavation, but it would have cost $3-4 million. The funds have not yet been presented. Maybe some day this will happen.
Re-contacting LIFE Magazine in 1994
In 1994 after we had opened the museum in Gatlinburg, I wrote to LIFE magazine and I sent them an “update” of what had happened in regard to this site since they ran that old 1960 article — I informed them that Ron was planning another trip to Turkey, and that they really ought to have one of their photographers go along with Ron on this trip, but they were not interested in doing another story. They wrote back and informed me that doing a follow-up on the Noah’s Ark story would not fit into their upcoming publishing schedule — so what did they choose to publish instead? Not too long after this I noticed that LIFE magazine ran their oh-so-important special “Elvis” issue.
<A Very Unique Design for Noah’s Ark
Ron based his design for Noah’s Ark upon: 1) The overall shape of the formation in Turkey, and 2) The subsurface radar scans that revealed that this was an ancient “manmade structure” buried underground at this location. To the best of his knowledge those scans showed Ron that Noah’s Ark had a central keel and 4 other keelsons that ran the entire length of the boat — (this would have added great structural strength to the boat) — and in the radar scans some of those keelsons protruded from the back of the boat, as you can see in these photos below of our museum display of Ron’s 15-foot model of Noah’s Ark.
Was Noah’s Ark shaped like a “Barge”?
There are 2 types of “arks” mentioned in the Bible — one of them is Noah’s Ark, and the other is the Ark of the Covenant — both use the word “ark.” The Ark of the Covenant was an oblong box-shaped ark — so many people have assumed that Noah’s “ark” should also be a “box-shaped ark,” like a big barge. But in the Hebrew there were 2 DIFFERENT WORDS used for “ark” — When speaking of an oblong box, like the Ark of the Covenant, the Hebrew word is ‘aron (meaning “box” or “chest”). However, for Noah’s “Ark” a DIFFERENT HEBREW WORD WAS CAREFULLY CHOSEN: tebah. It is only used twice, once in Genesis 6 (for Noah’s “Ark”), and in Exodus 2:3 (for the “ark” into which baby Moses was placed).
The Hebrew word “tebah” is from an Egyptian word, “tebet,” designating LARGE SEAWORTHY SHIPS used for the transport of obelisks, and also processional barques for carrying sacred statues on the Nile. Below is an actual Egyptian “tebet” = ark ! Please notice that the front and back of the boat is POINTED . . .
Was Noah’s Ark shaped like a barge? We would have to say “No” — and below is a picture I drew of what would happen to a 515-foot long “barge” in the most violent storm that has ever hit this planet — the twisting torque of the huge waves and violent seas would have caused a “barge” shaped boat to RIP ITSELF APART, thus killing everyone on board Noah’s Ark!!!
There is no doubt about it, and scientific studies have proved it — a “barge” shaped boat is the LEAST sea-worthy type of sea-going vessel that there is, and there is NO WAY that God would tell Noah to build a “‘aron” that would break apart in the Flood and kill everyone who was onboard! God had Noah build a “tebah”!
The Giant Anchor Stones
A dozen giant drogue stones have been located in the area leading up to the Noah’s Ark formation. Several of them have been located in the nearby “Village of the Eight,” which is an obvious reference to the 8 people who went onto Noah’s Ark — Ron was impressed that these giant anchor stones were probably attached to those protruding keelsons, and the stones would have hung down into the water and helped tremendously to stabilize the boat as it was tossed about in the most violent storm that has ever hit this planet! BELOW: One of the best examples of the giant anchor stones, and how they might have been attached to the rear of Noah’s Ark!
BELOW: These two photos show Ron taking his 15-foot Noah’s Ark model out to a lake in Nashville to “float the boat” — and footage of this is included on my Special Video #1.
BELOW: This is the one and only photo I have of what the boat model looked like as it was being constructed — (the photo was so dark that I had to outline Randy Osborn, Sandra and myself so that you could see us standing there) —
BELOW: It was an honor to spend 2 1/2 years managing this absolutely wonderful museum that was located inside the old Gatlinburg Passion Play Complex!
The 2 Editions of Ron’s NOAH’S ARK Book
BELOW: This was the cover of the 1st edition of the Discovered: NOAH’S ARK book — Ron did the layout, and it was a very simple cover that showed people what the site looked like both “before” and “after” the Ark was covered up by the ancient mud and lava flow.
BELOW: This is the cover of the 2nd edition of the book — it was the publisher’s idea to hire an artist to do an “Indiana Jones” style portrait of Ron on the new cover of the book. He hoped to be able to increase the marketability of the book. This was NOT Ron’s idea, but after it was done Ron went out and got himself one of the distinctive Indiana Jones hats, and Ron decided to have a little fun posing for articles and interviews as “Indiana Wyatt” — (who says that Christians always have to be “dead serious” and can’t have a little fun in this world?)
OOPS!
It appears that the artist who did this cover art made a little “mistake” — just above Ron’s name on the lower portion of the book we see the pairs of animals walking along: There are 2 giraffes, 2 elephants, 2 camels, 2 lions, and 2 anteaters. WAIT A MINUTE! Let’s take a closer look at those 2 lions . . .
Hmmmmmmmm — it looks like BOTH of those lions have a lion’s mane! But female lions DON’T have a mane — OOPS! The illustrator accidentally drew 2 male lions going onto the Ark!!! Oh yes, I pointed this out to Ron back in 1991 or so — oh well, these things happen.
ABOVE: Allen Roberts was with Ron in 1991 when the Kurdish guerillas kidnapped their group and held them hostage for 3 weeks — when the ordeal was over, Mr. Roberts returned to Australia and wrote this book. It was published in England in 1994, and is currently out of print.
Here’s a photo that shows that Ron did not always wear the Indiana Jones hat — he had other hats that he would wear! Why did he wear them? Around 1995-1996 Ron developed skin cancer on a spot on his forehead — he had the cancer operated on and removed, but he always had to be careful when he was outdoors in the sun!
Order Ron Wyatt’s Video Today !
Ron Wyatt’s 2-hour Noah’s Ark DVD is available from WYATT ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH — contact their museum at (931)293-4745 or call toll-free 1-877-992-8865 !
News from Turkey
The Visitors Center is being repaired and fixed up, and tour groups are going out there right now on a fairly regular basis! To see more photos of recent trips to the site, go to Kevin Fisher’s website:
www.arkdiscovery.com
Above: These are 2 photos of what the Visitors Center looks like now — it got a new paint job!
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UPDATE — Ron Wyatt mentioned in the October 27, 2000 edition of The International JERUSALEM POST newspaper!
No, Ron was not on the front page — (someday!) — Ron was mentioned in David Shamah’s “Caught in the Web” column on page 17, and here is Ron’s section of the article:
So! Even the people in Israel are hearing about Ron’s discoveries!
TURKISH TOURISM LITERATURE
Below: Ron Wyatt’s Noah’s Ark site has been promoted in a number of Turkish tourism brochures ever since 1989 back when the Visitors Center was completed, and we have posted samples of them in our museums, but this one was just recently sent to us by one of Ron’s supporters — he found this book in a Goodwill store! APA Publications published “Insight Guides: TURKEY” in 1995, an extensive 373-page tourism promotional book — on page 310 they published this photo of the streamers being laid out on surface of the Noah’s Ark formation!
The text that accompanies the photo: “The search for Noah’s Ark has been a growth business ever since the French nobleman Pitton de Tournefort first scaled the mountain in 1707. In recent years search activity has increased with several dozen groups attempting the feat each year. A large number of pieces of rotten timber and indefinite shapes sighted under the ice cap have, thus far, been unable to provide conclusive evidence of any boat on the mountain. In recent years, the former astronaut James Irwin has initiated several efforts to vindicate the Bible, despite the periodic obstruction of skeptical Turkish officials. Turkish opinion regards the Ark-raiders, in general, with much suspicion — their general consensus is that the “arkologists” are either sick, suborning the Kurds, or CIA types engaging in setting up devilish devices against the Soviet Union. For those simply interested in climbling the peak, formalities are long, and best dealt with through local adventure travel agencies like Trek Travel well in advance. For those who want to see the “Ark” without climbing the mountain, another group of Bible-pushers say they have found the world’s first ocean liner in the hills around Terceker. Others say it is a big clump of mud. Spot the Ark in the picture.”
As we have always stated, we would like to see a FULL-SCALE EXCAVATION done on this site so that all of this can be settled “once and for all”!
A list of websites that discuss this discovery of Noah’s Ark:
www.arkdiscovery.com
(c) 2000-2017, Jim Pinkoski. Jim’s photos and text on this web page are the protected private property of Jim Pinkoski. It is offered freely for your review on this web site, however, any reproduction of further use of any text or images contained in this material must be done only with prior written consent of Jim Pinkoski.
