On 20 June,
1987, the Turkish Government established the new Noah’s Ark National Park. This
followed a Government commission which confirmed the 10 years of research work
on the site by an American, Ronald Wyatt and his colleagues.
The site was first brought to their attention in
the late 1950s after a high altitude aerial survey photograph revealed a
boat-shaped structure in the mountains of the Ararat region.
Although initially dismissed by some, Ron Wyatt
and others undertook extensive investigative work on the site for nearly a
decade.
Employing such methods as subsurface interface
radar scanning, metal detection surveys, core-drilling, etc, the results were
spectacular. Buried at an altitude of 6,300 feet was the physical remains of a
man-made structure, which appeared to be the remains of an enormous ship.
After examining the data collected on the site, Professor Dr. Ekrem Akurgal,
considered by many to be “The Dean of Turkish Archaeologists’ stated “... it is
a ship, an ancient ship... It must be preserved”...
Wyatt’s results led to serious interest by
Turkish scientists and archaeologists, and ultimately a high-level Government
commission was convened to consider all the evidence gathered. The official
conclusion was the site did indeed contain the remains of the legendary ark of
Noah. As a result, a new National Park was established.
Naturally, the conclusion of the Turkish
Government has been resisted by some in academic circles, for the implications
of this discovery are very far-reaching. However the evidence is abundant, and
consistently points to this site as being the remains of the Biblical Noah’s
Ark, an object for which so many have searched.
