About how for many years scientists have searched for Noah’s Ark on Mount Ararat. About what was able to be discovered, and how often we take what is desired for the actual.
In the 19th century, the English poet and freedom fighter George Byron rightly spoke about Armenia: “There is no other country on the globe that would be so saturated with wonders as the land of the Armenians”. The same thought was expressed in the 20th century by the famous American artist, writer, and public figure Rockwell Kent: “Armenia is a country of wonders… If asked where on our planet you can meet more miracles, I would first of all name Armenia… One cannot but be amazed that such monuments and such people can be found in such a small corner of the world that can become an adornment and pride of the entire world. Thrice be praised the Armenian land, the cradle of talents, the cradle of great achievements.”
For the Armenians themselves, busy fighting for existence in a blockade from hostile neighbors, it is not always obvious how wonderful and amazingly beautiful our country is, as it is perceived by insightful foreigners. To see this for yourself, you need to look at it with fresh eyes, not clouded by the usual everyday perception. Usually, this is possible when returning to the homeland after a long absence, or in the company of foreigners, seeing everything for the first time and sincerely expressing their impressions. They take home the most wonderful impressions, which are remembered for a long time. And this applies not only to our country, but also to the entire historical Armenia, of which it is a fragment. The same wonders can be revealed to an inquisitive foreigner in Western Armenia, but there already arises the question of what conclusions he will make and announce to the world.
From the Bible, everyone knows that Armenia was the place of salvation and the rebirth of humanity during the Flood, or rather, as we would say now, global changes that occurred last time. Noah’s Ark is usually sought on Ararat. Some claim to have found it, in completely different places, others find nothing and state that it is not there, and it is necessary to look elsewhere.
Another hypothetical place of the ark is in the vicinity of the stratovolcano Tendurek, about 30 kilometers south of Mount Ararat (39°26′26″N 44°14′04″E). In 1957, photographs were published that were taken from the air by Turkish army pilot Captain Ilham Durupinar. The image has unclear formations with a total length of 157 m, reminiscent of the remains of a ship. But the expedition of American and Turkish scientists that soon went there could not find evidence of the object’s artificial origin and interest in it over time faded.
American anesthesiologist Ron Wyatt, a great fan of Biblical archaeology, saw these photos, decided that this was Noah’s Ark, and in 1977 found in the mountains near Ararat the place photographed by the Turkish pilot. The huge boat-like formation was surrounded by something resembling clay walls, which Wyatt declared to be wooden remnants of the Ark. He handed a sample of the rock to geology professor Larry Collins, who concluded that it was a sample of clay and had nothing to do with petrified wood. After this, it has been accepted among scientists that all of Wyatt’s statements and conclusions are erroneous. Despite this, Ron Wyatt continued his trips and research. He remained fanatically certain until the end of his life that he had found Noah’s Ark and created a non-profit organization “Wyatt’s Archaeological Research”. Ron was able to take a large number of samples, which, as he claimed, were from metal parts. If Noah built the ship according to the dimensions given in the Bible, Ron believed that he used metal parts along with wooden ones. He was not bothered by, or perhaps he did not know from history, that ancient societies began to build fairly large ships more than 40 meters long only when sufficiently developed civilizations of Egypt, Greece, and Rome appeared. That is, when there was already ancient production. Like many believers, Ron believed that one man with his sons could build a ship 150 meters long. For comparison, the length of the Titanic is 270 m.
And since engineering specialists claimed that a ship of such a size, if it is made of wood, will simply fall apart on big waves, and can withstand only if there is a metal frame, then it means, it was necessary to find the remains of parts made of metal.
Interestingly, the material that Ron believed was the ballast of the ship was not ordinary stone, but consisted of 31.44% manganese, 41.95% titanium, 11.33% iron, and among other things – 7.19% aluminum. This already resembles a joke about a schoolboy who made four spelling mistakes in a word of 3 letters. Titanium is a refractory metal, proven cases of its discovery or use in ancient times are virtually unknown. Titanium, as an element, was discovered by Englishman William Gregor in 1791. And the process of its industrial production became known only in 1938 thanks to the works of Luxembourg metallurgist William Justin Kroll. In the mid-20th century, it began to be used in alloys to create supersonic jet aircraft, since at high speeds the usual duralumin material would simply have melted.
As for aluminum, it was discovered by Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted in 1825, and since 1856 it has been produced by electrolysis. There are only a few cases of finding aluminum in the composition of artifacts of Ancient China and Rome, and they still remain mysteries of history. But to assume that old Noah, not only was an engineer – the builder of gigantic ships unreachable even by ancient standards, but also produced refractory alloys and extracted aluminum by electrolysis, that’s too much. And why would he need aluminum if he was building an ark, not an airplane?
Externally, this “ballast” material resembled waste from metallurgical production. This led to the idea to survey the place with metal detectors, and in 1985 Ron Wyatt surveyed the area using metal detectors from “White’s Electronics”, discovering many samples that responded to the detectors as “wrought iron”. And in 1991, structures resembling rivets with a washer underneath them were found, also with aluminum and titanium content. Soon large stone “anchors” of Noah’s Ark were found, with crosses engraved on them. The Turks, of course, didn’t say that these were traces of the local native Christian inhabitants. And Ron himself, even though he certainly remembered where he was, did not dare to say anything about Armenia and Armenians out loud. It’s possible that he too was warned, like others, that in such a case he would simply not be allowed to research.
But in addition to all this, what Ron considered petrified wood of “Noah’s Ark”, had another unique characteristic – it lacked annual rings that occur due to changes in nutrition depending on the season. Ron’s supporters easily and simply explained this problem, just by the specifics of the antediluvian climate. They said, there was no rain then, so there are no rings. As evidence, they cited a quote from the book of Genesis that in those times there was no field shrub or any field grass on earth, “which had not yet grown, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground, but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.” (Gen.2;5-6). But what does the time of the Flood have to do with it at all? Can anyone believe that Noah began building his ark even before the appearance of humanity, grass, and shrubs? Such far-fetched explanations cannot be arguments even among amateur researchers. And in science, this kind of evidence will not be taken seriously by anyone. But the events took an even more “miraculous” turn.
On June 20, 1987, the Turkish government acknowledged Wyatt’s research results, and in the presence of officials and journalists, the official opening of the “Noah’s Ark” tourist center and museum took place near the nearby town of Nasar. In the end, Ron declared to the whole world that he had found the Ark, many believed him, and he filmed and distributed a movie about it, and so on.
After such a list of “miracles”, the question arises: what was it all about? What did all these amateur enthusiasts discover, could it really seem to anyone to be the remnants of Noah’s Ark? Moreover, found not on Ararat. And despite the fact that several Arks of Noah have been discovered on Ararat itself in different parts of the mountain. But the question of how many Arks Noah actually built or how many Noahs there were in different parts of the Earth is too big even for one separate article. So now let’s try to figure out what Ron Wyatt really discovered.
1. The first and simplest answer, of course, starts with the “anchors”. If Ron had visited Eastern Armenia and seen at least the ancient complex of Karahunj, then according to his logic he would have had to conclude that it is a whole shipyard or parking lot for many ancient ships of Noah’s time. But for us Armenians, it’s clear that these are just stones with a hole drilled in the top. In this case, it doesn’t matter for what, for observing the stars or for fastening something, as some skeptical archaeologists believe. But definitely not anchors. And the sea was here so long ago that it is unknown whether there could have been people or not.
2. As for what Ron believed was the ship’s ballast and consisted of manganese, titanium, iron and so on, it could well have been the waste of ancient metallurgical production. Of course, except for titanium and aluminum, which were most likely either identified erroneously or were part of minerals. Researchers are aware of similar finds in different countries. For example, in Egypt, on the Giza plateau next to the pyramids. In Metsamor in 1965, during excavations led by geologist Koryun Mkrtchyan, copper smelting slag was found on the territory of the mound, which confirmed the presence of an ancient copper and bronze smelting complex here.
3. Stone shapes resembling “rivets with a washer”. In the Armenian Highlands, stones contain impurities of metal oxides. Therefore, if scanned with metal detectors, they can show anything. In the summer of 2012, a geological exploration team from Russia, the largest and one of the oldest in the Russian Federation, the East-Bosporus Archaeological Expedition of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, came to Armenia.
They worked using the “Eye” georadar. On some near-surface objects, such as burial mounds, cemeteries, etc., the survey results were good and proved useful for archaeologists. However, the specialists themselves said that great depth and precise determination of metals underground are not available. They also told about another difficulty of working in our area.
In general, there are many minerals in the mountains, which are compounds of metals and non-metals with oxygen. They are called oxides and hydroxides of aluminum, manganese, titanium, chromium, etc. For example: corundum, diaspore, boehmite, hydroargillite, bauxite, spinel – oxides and hydroxides of aluminum. Hematite, magnetite, goethite, lepidocrocite, limonite, rutile, ilmenite, chromite – oxides and hydroxides of iron, oxides of titanium and chromium. It is not difficult to understand that if you inspect such places with metal detectors, you can “discover” not only “rivets with a washer”, but anything at all.
4. And finally, this formation itself, which was declared “Noah’s Ark” and even opened a museum nearby. There are quite a few believing people in the world who are engaged in archaeology. In 2009, the Institute of Archaeology at the main Adventist educational institution, Andrews University, sent an expedition to the places of Ron Wyatt’s discoveries. Its results were announced at a presentation held at the Biblical conference in December 2009 and outlined in the article “Ron Wyatt’s Archaeology: Sensation or Misunderstanding?” Here is a quote: “Ron Wyatt believes that Noah’s Ark was discovered by him. But there are many such formations, as a result of seismic activity, in the Ararat mountains”.
It’s unfortunate, of course, that so much energy, resources, time, and enthusiasm was spent investigating not the real wonders that abound throughout the territory of historic Armenia, but illusory ones. This site could well have been a Neolithic settlement or an ancient metallurgical complex, like in Shengavit or Metsamor. Someday this will be clarified.
And today, many people believe that Ron Wyatt discovered Noah’s Ark. The words from the New Testament “According to your faith be it unto you” are, as the greatest psychologist of the 20th century Carl Gustav Jung would have said, a formula that the laws of the psyche are just as real for the inner world as the laws of physics are for the outer world. Therefore, everyone can believe in anything. And even open a museum. But for truly great discoveries, important for humanity, a higher level of competence and objectivity is needed, that is, real research, not wishful thinking.
As for the legend of Noah’s Ark itself, behind this symbol of salvation lies such a huge layer of real information and discoveries that whole books can be written about it and new films made. Which will be done over time.
by Armen Petrosyan
Translated by Vigen Avetisyan
