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Whatever happened to the oldest recorded wooden
boat in the world?
According to the Old Testament, Noah's Ark was left high and dry, on "the mountains of Ararat", after the great flood of
forty days had subsided.
Great Ararat, (5,137 m/16,854 ft), and Little Ararat (3,914 m/12,840 ft) are situated in the extreme East of Turkey near the borders
with Armenia and Iran. At between
1,525 metres (5000 feet) and 3,355 metres (11,000 feet) there are only sparse grasses and lichens growing and trees are non existent.
One imagines that anything unusual there would be immediately apparent to the
eye.
Great Ararat was first climbed in modern times in 1829, with the vague intention of finding some evidence of the
Ark. Nothing was found but the expedition heralded the arrival of many more climbers to the mountain in search of the remains of the
Ark.
In 1840 on July the 2nd there was an earthquake in the region of the mountain that was so violent that the resulting avalanche buried a village and a convent on its lower slopes.
In 1949, an American expedition ascended the mountain in the summer, in the hope of finding the elusive
ship. After all, it was supposed to be over 500 feet long and, even if wrecked, they
believed that there should be huge timbers wedged in crags and crevices. They returned
disappointed.
In 2000, an expedition was mounted and reported finding timbers on the mountain that members
of the expedition believe are part of the Ark.
If you are a 'doubting Thomas', I would just remind you of the story of Heinrich Schlieman
, who read Homer's legendary story of the Illiad as a boy. All his life,
Schlieman firmly believed that Troy existed and was determined to find it.
Schlieman worked for thirty years to build a fortune with which to finance his quest to find the lost
city, meanwhile studying the Illiad and learning languages. In the late
1870s, using the Illiad as his guide, he set out to prove the existence of Troy.
Not only did he find it but he also unearthed what he called 'King Priams'
treasure, consisting of substantial amounts of gold, jewellery and ivory.
If the Ark is found, I don't suppose there will be much in, or around, it. Bearing in mind
its cargo, that might be all to the good...
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