Chinese Explorers Stand By Claim of Noah's Ark Find In Turkey

1. Chinese explorers stand by
claim of Noah's Ark 몭nd in
Turkey
The Hong Kong-based team rebutted skepticism over
their claims of 몭nding Noah's Ark in Turkey, though they
said further research is needed to prove beyond doubt
that they have located the fabled biblical boat.
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2. April 30, 2010
By Stephen Kurczy, Correspondent
@kurczybeast
BOSTON
Two members of the search team that claims to have found
Noah’s Ark on Mount Ararat in Turkey responded to skepticism
by saying that there is no plausible explanation for what they
found other than it is the fabled biblical boat that weathered a
storm that raged 40 days and 40 nights and flooded the entire
Earth.
Noah's Ark Ministries International (NAMI) held a press
conference April 25 in Hong Kong to present their findings and
say they were “99.9 percent sure” that a wooden structure
found at a 12,000­ft. elevation and dated as 4,800 years old
was Noah’s Ark.
A flood massive enough to float a boat to the top of Mount
Ararat bucks against geologic studies that show no evidence of
a worldwide flood that would also have wiped out all plants,
animals, and most traces of human civilization. Even
prominent fundamentalist Christians who do believe in a
worldwide flood have cast doubt on the latest purported
discovery.
IN PICTURES: Noah's Ark
But members of the Chinese­Turkish team stood by their
finding.
“How can a ship be on a mountain?” Yeung Wing­cheung, one
of six team members who entered the structure on Mount
Ararat last October, told the Monitor today by telephone from

3. Hong Kong.
“The only record of a wooden structure on Mount Ararat is
Noah’s Ark," Clara Wei, the team coordinator, also said today
by telephone from Beijing. "So up to now I believe this is the
most probable explanation. We don’t have another
explanation."
It's not a hoax
While both say more research is necessary, they rebutted critics
who say that the finding was a hoax. NAMI is a subsidiary of
Hong Kong­based Media Evangelism Limited, founded in 1989
to publish multimedia geared toward evangelizing.
“We don’t have anything to hide,” says Mrs. Wei. She says that
massive wooden planks, some 20 meters long, were found in
wooden rooms and hallways buried in the ice atop Mount
Ararat in eastern Turkey. People could not carry such heavy
wood to such a height, nor can vehicles access such a remote
location on the mountain. A video of the exploration shows
team members wearing crampons and trekking through snow
to reach the site.
“You can hire horses to carry bags, but they cannot balance
themselves with 20­meter­long timber,” says Wei, adding that
there was no cultural evidence – such as pottery – that the
structure was a former house or church.
Turkish officials from Agri Province, the location of Mount
Ararat, also attended this week’s press conference in Hong
Kong. Lieutenant governor Murat Güven and Cultural
Ministries Director Muhsin Bulut, both provincial officials,
believe the discovery is likely Noah’s Ark, according to the

4. believe the discovery is likely Noah’s Ark, according to the
announcement posted on the team's website.
“The local government thinks this is Noah’s Ark,” Mr. Yeung
says.
Five-year search
Over the decades, many explorers have hunted for Noah’s Ark
on Mount Ararat, and a number claimed to find the boat.
Russian World War I aviator Vladimir Roskovitsky claimed to
see a large ship resting high on Mount Ararat in 1917. The
astronaut James Irwin led a number of disappointing
expeditions to Mt. Ararat between 1982 and 1986. French
industrialist Fernand Navarra ascended Ararat in 1955,
recovering a piece of oak initially dated 5,000 years old; more
accurate carbon dating later showed it in the range of A.D. 620
to A.D. 90.
However, NAMI claims that their expedition was the first to
invest several years of effort with the locals. Starting in 2004,
NAMI spent several months every year at the mountain
conducting searches while also maintaining contact with local
fixers. What began as a documentary about the legend of
Noah’s Ark turned into their own obsession with finding the
mythic vessel when a local guide by the name of Parasut told
them in mid­2008 that he knew the boat’s location. One team
member, Panda Lee, visited the location that October.
Wei says bad weather prevented NAMI from reaching the site
again until October 2009, this time with a three­person film
crew. They took video and rock and wood samples, which they

5. then sent to a university in Tehran, Iran – she declined to
reveal which one – for radiocarbon dating. This showed the
wood to be 4,800 years old, Wei says. The team then spent
several months speaking with Turkish officials and researchers
before holding this week’s press conference in Hong Kong,
which set off a firestorm of media reports on major outlets such
as Fox News and Good Morning America.
Team member who quit
Initially, prominent ark­hunter Randall Price, an evangelical
Christian and professor at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.,
was also a member of the team. He quit, however, over doubts
about Parasut’s honesty, and has since concluded that the site
is an elaborate "hoax." Mr. Price has questioned why Parasut
and NAMI refuse to reveal the location of the finding.
Yeung and Wei say that this could open the site to pillaging.
While ark­hunting has become an industry of sorts in
southeastern Turkey, with a number of locals on hand to show
visitors where to find the ark, Wei insists their guide is
trustworthy and only wants to bring attention to his discovery
on the mountain.
“He thinks we have the power to bring this to the world. He
knows we can do that for him,” she says.
Wei and Yeung both declined the reveal the amount of money
NAMI spent searching for the ark. Yeung said it came from
private donors in Hong Kong and Australia.
Open to interpretation

6. Creationists, like many of those searching for the ark, have long
sought evidence of Noah's Ark to reaffirm their belief that God
created the world in seven days and judges the wicked, as when
the world was destroyed in a flood that spared only Noah and
his family.
“If Noah built a real solid boat just like you or I could build a
solid boat, and traveled over a stormy sea just like you or I
could travel over a stormy sea, and landed on solid ground just
like you or I could land on solid ground, if all that could be
affirmed, it would also affirm the moral theories that they’re
interested in,” says Christopher Toumey, an anthropology
professor at the University of South Carolina.
The story of an ancient flood is more ancient than Genesis, says
Professor Toumey. A passage from the Sumerian epic
Gilgamesh, among the world's oldest known literature, tells of a
man named Ziusudra surviving a great flood. The Babylonian
version of that story says Utnapishtum survives the flood. The
plot was reworked and the name again changed, this time to
Noah, in the version in the book of Genesis.
As such, Toumey says the discovery of Noah's Ark may not
necessarily prove useful to evangelical Christians.
“Obviously they want it to affirm the story of Noah. It could just
as easily affirm the story of Ziusudra or Utnapishtum,” Toumey
told the Monitor.
Investigation continues
Turkey’s culture minister this week ordered a probe into how

7. NAMI brought pieces of the wood sampled from Turkey to
China.
“How did these objects get there [to Hong Kong] and under
whose authority were the officials present there? We are
investigating this,” Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul
Günay said, according to local newspaper Today’s Zaman. At
the same time he welcomed the finding and said it could boost
tourism.
The next step in the discovery, says Wei, is to coordinate with
scientists, researchers, and the Turkish government to conduct
further studies on the site.
Mrs. Wei says she is 99.9 percent sure they have found Noah’s
Ark.
“We need scientists to give us another 0.1 percent.”
[Editor's note: The original article was unclear regarding
how long Noah's Ark was afloat. According to the Book of
Genesis chapters 7 and 8, a storm raged for 40 days and 40
nights, and Noah's Ark floated on the flood waters for about
five months before coming to rest "on the mountains of
Ararat." Noah, his family, and two of every animal remained
inside the boat for about 13 months total.]
IN PICTURES: Noah's Ark
Further reading:
Doubt cast on Noah's ark found in Turkey
Noah's Ark discovered. Again.
Natural history, Bible­style
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•

8. Related stories
Doubt cast on Noah's ark found in Turkey
Noah's Ark discovered. Again.
Natural history, Bible­style
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