Noah's Ark

In the book of Genesis, the God is depicted as regretting he'd created such wicked creatures as human beings. He favors Noah and his family but destroys most other living creatures, not just the humans whose wickedness offended him, but all animals and presumably all plants as well. God plans to drown the whole world in a flood. To save himself and other animal species, Noah is directed to build a big boat that will save them from the flood.Noah's ark is the boat built by the Biblical character Noah and his family. At the command of God, according to the story, Noah was to build a boat that could accommodate his extended family and a lot of animals.

In Genesis 6:19-21, it is written:

"And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.

Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.

And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them."

In Genesis 7:2-3, it is written:

"Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.

Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. "

 

Noah's Ark (1846) created by Edward Hicks

For 40 days and 40 nights the rain poured and the sea rose until the Earth was completely covered. Both the Bible and the Koran say that the Ark came to rest on Mount Ararat as the water subsided, and that is where the focus of most Ark-hunters attempts has been.

Several ark sightings on Mt. Ararat occurred during the twentieth century. During a thaw in the summer of 1916, a Russian Imperial Air Force lieutenant flying over Mt. Ararat reported seeing half the hull of some sort of ship poking out above surface of a lake. In 1949 a US Air Force mission photographed an unusual feature 15,500 feet up on the northwestern plateau of Mount Ararat on the other side from the Ahora Gorge. The images appear to show the bow of a ship poking out of a glacier. The phenomenon was given the name the ‘Ararat Anomaly’ and resurfaced in the 1970s when secret military satellites were able to focus on the area from space. A photograph taken in 1972 by the Earth Research Technical Satellite (ERTS) is said to reveal an unusual feature at 14,000 feet on Mt. Ararat. It was reported to be the same size as the Ark.In the 1980s, former NASA astronaut James Irwin participated in expeditions up the mountain, but he found only the remnants of abandoned skis. With the breakup of the former Soviet Union, the archaeology expeditions up the mountain intensified during the 1990s, and the search for Noah’s Ark continues.

Other Ark investigators believe it could be simply an old rock formation, an old fortress, or even a crashed aeroplane. Of course, the only way researchers can gather definite evidence is to be near the site on the ground. But increased tension between Turkey and the area’s Kurdish population has hampered exploration attempts, and the recent instability in nearby Iraq has also added to the region’s pressures. Until a team of archaeological experts can examine the photographed remains firsthand, the mystery of Noah’s Ark will never be solved.

Sources:
100 Strangest Mysteries by Matt Lamy;
Gale Encyclopedia of The Unusual and Unexplained Vol.2 by Brad Steiger and Sherry Hansen Steiger;
http://www.skepdic.com/noahsark.html

Pic Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Noahs_Ark.jpg