[Archport] Noah's Ark Found? Turkey Expedition Planned for Summer

[Graca Cravinho <graca@hermite.cii.fc.ul.pt>]

Title: Noah's Ark Found? Turkey Expedition Planned for Summer

>
> National Geographic
> News
>
> Noah's Ark Found? Turkey Expedition Planned for
> Summer
>
> http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/04/0427_040427_noahsark.html
> Hillary Mayell
> for
> National Geographic News
> April 27, 2004
> Satellite pictures taken last summer of Mount Ararat
> in Turkey may reveal the final resting place of Noah's ark, according
> to Daniel McGivern, the businessman and Christian activist behind a
> planned summer 2004 expedition to investigate the site.
>
> "We're telling people we're 98 percent sure," said McGivern,
> a member of the Hawaii Christian Coalition. "In one image we saw
> the beams, saw the wood. I'm convinced that the excavation of the
> object and the results of tests run on any collected samples will
> prove that it is Noah's ark. "
> McGivern wrote a list in his Bible more than 20 years
> ago of ten great projects. Finding Noah's ark was at the top of his
> list.
>
> McGivern began his quest in earnest in 1995, when the publication of a
> book on the topic moved him to arrange for satellite images to be
> taken of Mount Ararat.
>
> Attempts to take satellite images in previous years had been foiled by
> clouds, unavailability of imaging equipment, and lack of image
> resolution. But the attempts had helped pinpoint the location. In the
> summer of 2003, everything came together.
>
> "Last year was the hottest summer in Europe since 1500; more than
> 21,000 people died of the heat wave," McGivern said. "The
> summer melt was far more extensive than it has been in
> years."
>
> DigitalGlobe, a commercial satellite-imagery company, confirmed that
> they took the images that McGivern is using.
>
> An international team of archaeologists, forensic scientists,
> geologists, glaciologists, and others is being recruited to
> investigate the site sometime between July 15 and August 15.
>
> Ahmet Arslan, a professor in Turkey who has climbed the mountain 50
> times in 40 years, will lead the expedition. Arslan reported an
> eyewitness sighting of the ark and took a photograph in 1989 from
> about 220 yards (200 meters) away. However, he couldn't get any
> closer, and the picture is not definitive.
>
> "We hope to assemble what we're calling the Dream Team,"
> Arslan said. "The slopes are very, very harsh and dangerous on
> the northern face-it is extremely challenging, mentally and
> physically."
>
> Noah's Ark
>
> The story of Noah's ark is told in the Book of Genesis. It says God
> saw how corrupt the Earth had become and decided to "bring
> floodwaters on the Earth to destroy all life under the heavens."
> God is said to have told Noah, an honorable man, to build an ark 450
> feet (137 meters) long, 75 feet (23 meters) wide, and 45 feet (14
> meters) high, and fill it with two of every species on the Earth. It
> reportedly rained for 40 days and 40 nights. After about seven months,
> the waters receded, and the ark came to rest, according to the
> Bible.
>
> Three major world religions-Christianity, Judaism, and Islam-believe
> in Noah and his ark. Reports of ark sightings have been numerous.
> Witnesses often describe an old wooden structure sticking out of the
> snow and ice near the summit of Mount Ararat.
>
> Despite the numerous sightings and rumors-of pictures taken by the CIA
> and locked in vaults, of lost photographs taken by a Russian
> expedition at the behest of Tsar Nicholas Alexander in 1918-no
> scientific evidence of the ark has emerged.
>
> "On the one hand, I'm hopeful. On the other hand, I'm very
> skeptical" of the validity of the satellite images, said Rex
> Geissler, president of ArcImaging (Archaeological Imaging Research
> Consortium). "There is no publicly available picture that readily
> shows a man-made object that has any clarity whatsoever ? Some of
> the photos are outright misrepresentations, non-scientific, and do not
> prove anything.
>
> "We think that with the hundreds of explorers who have visited
> the region, if the ark was jutting out of the ice, it would be
> obvious."
>
> ArcImaging was the first organization to receive permission from the
> Turkish government to survey the mountain since 1981. The
> archaeological research organization conducted a preliminary
> investigation of the icecap using ground-penetrating radar in
> 2001.
> The Search Continues
>
> The Bible states that Noah landed in the region of the ancient kingdom
> Urartu. Mount Ararat (its name probably a corrupted version of Urartu)
> has been the focus of those seeking the ark because it-at 17,000 feet
> (5,165 meters)-is the highest point in the area.
>
> A volcanic mountain, Ararat is covered by an icecap from 14,000 feet
> (4,300 meters) to 17,000 feet (5,200 meters). The icecap is about 17
> square miles (44 square kilometers) in size and is as deep as 300 feet
> (90 meters).
>
> Known to locals as Agri Dagi-Turkish for "mountain of pain"-
> Ararat is not easy to access. Located in eastern Turkey-close to the
> borders of Armenia and Iran, and only 150 miles (240 kilometers) from
> Iraq-the region is politically volatile and often dangerous. Much of
> the region is part of a military zone, and getting permission to
> explore it is extremely difficult.
>
> The ArcImaging team hopes to visit the region to continue their
> mapping of the icecap this summer.
>
> McGivern is optimistic his group will also be on the face of the
> mountain this summer. He and Arslan met last week with the Turkish
> ambassador to the U.S. Arslan, who at one time worked in the Turkish
> prime minister's office, plans to meet with the prime minister next
> week.
> "The ark is broken into a minimum of three
> pieces, up to six, from a huge earthquake that occurred in 1840. But
> it's been miraculously preserved. The satellite imagery shows vertical
> beams, and one horizontal beam," McGivern
> said.