Ark-eology

 
     This lesson will focus upon the Account of Noah, the story of the ark and several secondary aspects surrounding the global flood and following.



For a focus on the case for the flood itself go to..
 http://biblesmack.blogspot.com/2014/07/evidence-of-world-wide-global-flood.html
 http://biblesmack.blogspot.com/2013/02/rock-of-ages.html
Also this paper presupposes an ice canopy.

http://biblesmack.blogspot.com/2012/11/lets-put-canopy-back-up-defense-of.html
http://biblesmack.blogspot.com/2012/11/on-facebook-debating-canopy-theory.html
 http://biblesmack.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-fall-of-lucifer-nyc-pt6.html 



The fountains of the great deep
genesis 7:¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. 

  The majority of water which was supplied for the 40 days and nights of rain came from the fountains of the great deep.  Subterranean waters had contained half the earth's water miles below the earth's surface. Here is a good video presentation.
https://youtu.be/MXH1mWafhjY
How long did they have?
Genesis 6: ³ And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years"
Now many argue that this was a limitation upon man's lifespan.  Admittedly it is easy to assume this to be the case.  But after researching this to be the case it appears that this is more likely the timescale till judgement and a period for Noah to build the ark.

Genesis 6: 1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, ² that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. ³ And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. ⁴ There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown."  Obviously this vs is connected with the nephilum incident.  So being connected to an event at a certain time the 120years seems to be the continuation after the event. Also most bible characters of this time outlived the 120 yr life span especially Noah.  Even Moses outlived it centuries later.  And every now and again an individual will be recorded out living 120 though extremely rare these days.

An ark of gopher wood

1. :  a burrowing land tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) of the southern United States; broadly :  any of several related land tortoises —called also gopher tortoise
2. 2 a :  any of a family (Geomyidae) of burrowing rodents of western North America, Central America, and the southern United States that are the size of a large rat and have large cheek pouches opening beside the mouth —called also pocket gopher b :  any of several small ground squirrels (genus Spermophilus) of the prairie region of North America

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gopher
    So from here we see that gopher means to dig out.  Noah likely dug out the center of the wood.
   Also the LXX translates this wood as squared would.  The ancient Jewish Philosopher Philo gives some interesting commentary on this wood.
"(2) Why does he make the ark of squared pieces of wood?(genesis 6:16).
  He does this in the first place, because of the figure of a square, wherever it may be placed, is steady and firm, consisting as it does of right angles, and it is confirmed in a purer and clearer manner by the nature of the human body."
"In the third place a quadrangular piece of wood shows in it's extension nearly every sort imaginable of uneven distinction, inasmuch as its length is greater than its breadth,  and its breadth greater than it's depth." The works of Philo trans. C.D.Yonge pg. 814 "Questions and answers on Genesis II"

 .Genesis 6: ¹⁴ Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch."
 http://www.dictionary.com/browse/pitch
pitch2

1. any of various dark, tenacious, and viscous substances for caulking and paving, consisting of the residue of the distillation of coal tar or wood tar."

 

  Many Skeptics have argued that the size of the ark is beyond that of a regular wooden frame that has no metal or advanced technology to keep it together. However, the wood that we use today is not necessarily the wood that was used for the ark.  The timbers used were made from trees which may have been prepared at creation and probably grew to massive levels.
  We have found evidence of massive trees in the ancient past.
http://naturalhistory.si.edu/highlight/fossil_scale_tree/
 http://naturalhistory.si.edu/highlight/fossil_scale_tree/images/treeandtruck_opt_no_text.jpg




"In June, 2005, the National Museum of Natural History received one of the largest plant fossils ever collected - 3.9 m (13 ft) long and 3.7 m (12 ft) high, and weighing more than 16 tons." 
 This is only a slice of a trunk it is hard to imagine the Height of this species of tree.




“One tree trunk measured 896 feet in length and the upright trunks are so large that they appear from a distance to be great symmetrical columns of natural rock. These federal geologists tell the -story. They have visited this distant valley, which is split by a deep arroyo leading into the Rio Grande.” "According to an article in the Sunday, January 23, 1927 Port Arthur News,"http://greaterancestors.com/ancient-trees-more-than-twice-the-height-of-the-tallest-giant-redwoods/
 
" Fossil trees that approached the heights of today’s tallest redwoods have been found in northern Thailand. The longest petrified log measures 72.2 meters (237 feet), which suggest the original tree towered to more than 100 meters (330 feet) in a wet tropical forest some 800,000 years ago."
 http://news.discovery.com/earth/plants/giant-trees-found-in-thailand-130320.htm
   It is quite rational to think that Noah could have access to these giant trees and thus have wood already stable.


Stability of the ark
I would encourage the reader to click the link as this demonstrate the mathematical statistics exhaustively fine tuned.

http://creation.com/safety-investigation-of-noahs-ark-in-a-seaway
"In the ship classification rules, a ship should satisfy two kinds of stability criteria: GM for small heel angle, and dynamic stability. We applied the ABS (American Bureau of Shipping)’s rule to all 13 hull forms. The results showed that all hull forms except hull #1 sufficiently satisfied all the requirements. It should be especially noted that the Ark was 13 times more stable than the standard for safety required by the ABS rule."

 

Feeding issues
"Many carnivores, including lions and tigers, can readily manage on a vegetarian diet, and this may have happened on the Ark. See Teeth and Tucker for several modern cases of ‘herbivorous carnivores’. Dogs are considered carnivores, but dogs in some countries actually survive on a primarily vegetarian diet. During many years of working in Thailand, I observed that most pet dogs were fed on table scraps, which meant cooked rice was their staple food, as this was the staple food of their owners. And in Indonesia many dogs are fed mainly on vegetables—see note 5 here. Consider another carnivore, the snake. There is a widespread misconception that snakes can only eat live food, but there are commercial breeders today whose snakes thrive on dry food pellets. So there is no problem with Noah possibly doing the same for carnivores on the Ark—a mixture of grains and legumes would provide all the nutrition needed, including the building blocks for animal protein."
http://creation.com/feeding-carnivores-on-the-ark-and-refuting-an-accusation-of-closet-scientism

"The total number of land-dwelling mammals birds, reptiles, and amphibian species is less than 20,000 or so. The number of "kinds," the Biblical designation, is probably much smaller. For instance, of the 9,000 bird species, approximately 400 are hummingbirds, with only minor differences in color, size, and habitat. Very likely, they all come from only one or a few kinds, thereby dropping the total number."
http://www.icr.org/article/how-could-all-animals-get-board-noahs-ark/

"Therefore, Noah probably stored the food and water near each animal. Even better, drinking water could have been piped into troughs, just as the Chinese have used bamboo pipes for this purpose for thousands of years. The use of some sort of self-feeders, as is commonly done for birds, would have been relatively easy and probably essential. Animals that required special care or diets were uncommon and should not have needed an inordinate amount of time from the handlers. Even animals with the most specialized diets in nature could have been switched to readily sustainable substitute diets. Of course, this assumes that animals with specialized diets today were likewise specialized at the time of the Flood." 
https://answersingenesis.org/noahs-ark/caring-for-the-animals-on-the-ark/

 Flood accounts and the Bible's story
" Yet tales of the Flood spring from many sources. Myriad ancient cultures have their own legends of watery cataclysm and salvation. According to Vedic lore, a fish tells the mythic Indian king Manu of a flood that will wipe out humanity; Manu then builds a ship to withstand the epic rains and is later led to a mountaintop by the same fish. An Aztec story sees a devout couple hide in the hollow of a vast tree with two ears of corn as divine storms drown the wicked of the land. Creation myths from Egypt to Scandinavia involve tidal floods of all sorts of substances — including the blood of deities — purging and remaking the earth.
Flood myths are so universal that the Hungarian psychoanalyst Geza Roheim thought their origins were physiological, not historical"http://time.com/44631/noah-christians-flood-aronofsky/
  The secular world easily spins the evidence so fast that they never consider the most obvious of facts.   If all the world civilizations speak of the flood and most speak of a noah and a vessel.  Then perhaps it is because there was a worldwide flood and there was Noah and the Ark.

Noah was historical
Genesis 5: ²⁸ And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: ²⁹ and he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed. ³⁰ And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters: ³¹ and all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died. ³² And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

1 Chronicles 1: 1 Adam, Sheth, Enosh, ² Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jered, ³ Henoch, Methuselah, Lamech, ⁴ Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

luke 3: ³⁶ which was the son of Cainan, which was the son of Arphaxad, which was the son of Sem, which was the son of Noe, which was the son of Lamech"
As we can see from these Geneologies Noah is not simply meant as a fictitious character.  He is meant as a historical person within a larger family tree. 

Problems with a local flood and Noah's Ark

     The local flood scenario leaves more irrationality to the story than rationaility.
1. Why build an ark?
 The local flood interpretations get quite bizarre, notice the reasoning here why build an unneeded Ark that was only designed to float, when it could not. 

2. How could a local flood destroy mankind?
Many cultures claim to have an ancient origin.  Typical Christians who adhere to and "Old Earth" model admit to any assertion past the 6,000 year model.  Many cultures have claims of ancient histories, even though they are genealogically unsubstantiated.  Therefore it is consistent to say in a local flood there were aborigines who were not affected and yet ths somehow was judgement upon them even though there must have been no , consequences.


3.  How could Noah's ark float? "In reality, the Hebrew word ma‛al, translated "higher" really means "upward." So, in essence, the text is saying that the flood was 15 cubits (20 feet) deep, in total, not 15 cubits above the mountains. In addition, the Hebrew word har really refers most often to hills rather than mountains."http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/localflood.html
     Now how can the 65ft tall 450ft long Ark Float on 20ft waters???

4. Why would Noah need all those animals?
If there is no concern over the survival of the world, why bring carnivores? Since when is it necessary for man to provide an ecosystem?

5.  Why would Noah need to take birds?
If the earth were only 20-30ft there are trees and mountains of much greater height.

6.    How did the middle east stay flooded 150 days?

7.   How did it rain for 40days and 40 nights?

8. Why did the dove come back the 1st time?

9.  How did a local flood take Noah to Ararat?

 You really have to assume that the story is completely fabricated.



The mighty wind

genesis  8:1 And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged; "
After the fountains of the great deep were opened  huge amounts of heat and friction left the earth.  These geysers would exit the earths atmosphere easily with a natural 20 mile burst propelling out of the 2mile ozone and shattering through the crystalline canopy.  Yet as one of newton's laws of motion states for every action there is a equal and opposite reaction. as the heat exited the earth the the cold ionosphere gases would plummet upon the water soaked earth.  the supplying a cooling mechanism which would balance out the destruction of the earth.









The rainbow

"When sunlight encounters a raindrop, part is reflected but part enters, being refracted at the surface of the raindrop. When this light hits the back of the drop, some of it is reflected off the back. When the internally reflected light reaches the surface again, once more some is internally reflected and some is refracted as it exits the drop. (The light that reflects off the drop, exits from the back, or continues to bounce around inside the drop after the second encounter with the surface, is not relevant to the formation of the primary rainbow.) The overall effect is that part of the incoming light is reflected back over the range of 0° to 42°, with the most intense light at 42°.^[18] This angle is independent of the size of the drop, but does depend on its refractive index. Seawater has a higher refractive index than rain water, so the radius of a "rainbow" in sea spray is smaller than a true rainbow. This is visible to the naked eye by a misalignment of these bows.^[19]
 
The reason the returning light is most intense at about 42° is that this is a turning point – light hitting the outermost ring of the drop gets returned at less than 42°, as does the light hitting the drop nearer to its centre. There is a circular band of light that all gets returned right around 42°. If the sun were a laser emitting parallel, monochromatic rays, then the luminance (brightness) of the bow would tend toward infinity at this angle (ignoring interference effects). (See Caustic (optics).) But since the sun's luminance is finite and its rays are not all parallel (it covers about half a degree of the sky) the luminance does not go to infinity. Furthermore, the amount by which light is refracted depends upon its wavelength, and hence its colour. This effect is called dispersion. Blue light (shorter wavelength) is refracted at a greater angle than red light, but due to the reflection of light rays from the back of the droplet, the blue light emerges from the droplet at a smaller angle to the original incident white light ray than the red light. Due to this angle, blue is seen on the inside of the arc of the primary rainbow, and red on the outside. The result of this is not only to give different colours to different parts of the rainbow, but also to diminish the brightness. (A "rainbow" formed by droplets of a liquid with no dispersion would be white, but brighter than a normal rainbow.)
The light at the back of the raindrop does not undergo total internal reflection, and some light does emerge from the back. However, light coming out the back of the raindrop does not create a rainbow between the observer and the sun because spectra emitted from the back of the raindrop do not have a maximum of intensity, as the other visible rainbows do, and thus the colours blend together rather than forming a rainbow.^[20]
A rainbow does not exist at one particular location. Many rainbows exist; however, only one can be seen depending on the particular observer's viewpoint as droplets of light illuminated by the sun. All raindrops refract and reflect the sunlight in the same way, but only the light from some raindrops reaches the observer's eye. This light is what constitutes the rainbow for that observer. The whole system composed by the sun's rays, the observer's head, and the (spherical) water drops has an axial symmetry around the axis through the observer's head and parallel to the sun's rays. The rainbow is curved because the set of all the raindrops that have the right angle between the observer, the drop, and the sun, lie on a cone pointing at the sun with the observer at the tip. The base of the cone forms a circle at an angle of 40–42° to the line between the observer's head and their shadow but 50% or more of the circle is below the horizon, unless the observer is sufficiently far above the earth's surface to see it all, for example in an aeroplane (see above).^[21][22] Alternatively, an observer with the right vantage point may see the full circle in a fountain or waterfall spray.^{[23]"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow
 
  Was the rainbow of Noah just regular?
  Genesis 9: 11} And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. ¹² And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: ¹³ I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: ¹⁵ and I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh."

There is divided opinion on this topic as John Gill notes.
"I do set my bow in the cloud,.... Or "I have given", or "have set it" (p); which seems as if it was at that instant set; this is the same we call the "rainbow": and so Horace (q) calls it "arcus pluvius": it is called a "bow", because of its form, being a semicircle, and a "rainbow", because it is seen in a day of rain, and is a sign of it, or of its being quickly over, Ezekiel 1:28 and this appears in a moist dewy cloud, neither very thick nor very thin, and is occasioned by the rays of the sun opposite to it, refracted on it: and this God calls "his bow", not only because made by him, for, notwithstanding the natural causes of it, the cloud and sun, the disposition of these to produce it, such a phenomenon is of God; but also because he appointed it to be a sign and token of his covenant with his creatures; so the Heathen poets (r) call the rainbow the messenger of Juno. It is a question whether there was a rainbow before the flood, and it is not easily answered; both Jews and Christians are divided about it; Saadiah thought there was one; but Aben Ezra disapproves of his opinion, and thinks it was first now made. The greater part of Christian interpreters are of the mind of Saadiah, that it was from the beginning, the natural causes of it, the sun and cloud, being before the flood; and that it was now after it only appointed to be a sign and token of the covenant; but though the natural causes of it did exist before, it does not follow, nor is it to be proved, that there was such a disposition of them to produce such an effect; and it might be so ordered in Providence, that there should not be any, that this might be entirely a new thing, and so a wonderful one, as the word for "token" (s) signifies; and the Greeks calls the rainbow the "daughter of Thaumas" or "Wonder" (t); and be the more fit to be a sign and token of the covenant, that God would no more destroy the earth with water; for otherwise, if this had been what Noah and his sons had been used to see, it can hardly be thought sufficient to take off their fears of a future inundation, which was the end and use it was to serve, as follows:
it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth; that is, between God and the creatures of the earth; or of a promise that God would no more destroy the earth, and cut off the creatures in it by a flood; for though it is a bow, yet without arrows, and is not turned downwards towards the earth, but upwards towards heaven, and so is a token of mercy and kindness, and not of wrath and anger.
(p) "dedi", Montanus; so Ainsworth; "posui", Pisator, Drusius, Buxtorf. (q) De Arte Poetica, ver. 18. (r) Nuntia Junonis varios induta colores Concipit Iris aquas--------- Ovid. Metamorph. l. 1. Fab. 7. (s) "signum, tam nudum, quam prodigiosum", Buxtorf. (t) Plato in Theaeeteto, Plutarch. de Placit, Philosoph. 3, 4. Apollodor. Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 5."http://biblehub.com/commentaries/gill/genesis/9.htm
  However, the idea of natural clouds and storms always pointing to God note inducing a flood before the flood ever hit the earth is ridiculous.  Earlier scripture points to the earth not raining before the flood.
Genesis 2: ⁵ and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. ⁶ But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground."
  Also the token of the rainbow is for not just humanity but all life.
genesis 9:¹³ I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth."
  Therefore with the bow being covenant with all the earth and all the earth had been covered in rain, it is natural too assume that the rainbow was a global rainbow.
This global rainbow is the natural by-product of the destruction of a crystaline canopy.  The great deep fountain jets had hit and spread across the canopy.  The -300Celsius psace would collect water frozen into ice and it would clump and fall back into the atmosphere.  these drops would produce prism of rainbows all over the globe for all the earth to see. 

The days of Peleg


Genesis 10: ²⁵ And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan.
  Now some have argued that Peleg was simply a time when the nations divided,  however the time of Peleg would be well after the the curse of languages at the tower of Babel.  As etymology of the name peleg reveals a division by water.  Creation science advocates have long argued that the ice age was connected to the time of the flood, in which case, the melting of the glaciers would have divided the land by raising the water levels.  

Mt. Ararat?
Genesis 8: ⁴ And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat."
   It is very important for us to note that the Ark rested on the mountains and not mountain.   The post flood geography is not the same as the current geography.   We can expect that the ice age and division of the lands by water had a great dealto do with this.  Also the current Mt. Ararat is volcanic and that would imply that it was post-flood.  While it is still quite possible that the Ark still rest on Mt. Ararat.  The Bible does not declare this to be necessary.


Where did the ark go?
 We have to understand that in this day and age, the method of archaeology has no ability to prove the certainty of the existence of Noah's Ark even if Noah's Ark were standing right in front of them!
Why is this so?
A: Because we don't know what people did with it. It is quite possible that the ark was chopped up and used for housing.  especially since the post flood world would take time to regenerate.
B. Because the Ark was built 4,000 years ago it could have decayed to nothing, especially if it were torn apart.
C. Because natural disasters such as lightning or volcanoes could have burned it up.
D. Because the mountains of Ararat may have been destroyed or reshaped in the days of Peleg and/or the post flood ice age.

anchor stones?
http://www.bethlehemstarsequel.com/images/anchor%20stone.jpg

 

 
There are several anchor stones resting inland near Ararat that local people claim to be the anchor stones of Noah's ark. One stone with 8 crosses carved into it to mark the fact that the 8 survivors (Noah and his family) had used the stones for the Ark.

Josephus:“ the ark rested on the top of a certain mountain in Armenia ... However, the Armenians call this place, αποβατηριον 'The Place of Descent'; for the ark being saved in that place, its remains are shown there by the inhabitants to this day. Now all the writers of barbarian histories make mention of this flood, and of this ark; among whom is Berossus. For when he is describing the circumstances of the flood, he goes on thus: "It is said there is still some part of this ship in Armenia, at the mountain of the Cordyaeans; and that some people carry off pieces of the bitumen, which they take away, and use chiefly as amulets for the averting of mischiefs." Hieronymus the Egyptian also, who wrote the Phoenician Antiquities, and Mnaseas, and a great many more, make mention of the same. Nay, Nicolaus of Damascus, in his ninety-sixth book, hath a particular relation about them; where he speaks thus: "There is a great mountain in Armenia, over Minyas, called Baris, upon which it is reported that many who fled at the time of the Deluge were saved; and that one who was carried in an ark came on shore upon the top of it; and that the remains of the timber were a great while preserved. This might be the man about whom Moses the legislator of the Jews wrote." (I.3.5-6, trans. William Whiston)
"Using ancient Babylonian records and texts that are lost to us, Berossus published the Babyloniaca (hereafter, History of Babylonia) in three books some time around 290–278 BC, by the patronage^[3] of the Macedonian/Seleucid king Antiochus I Soter (during the third year of his reign, according to Diodorus Siculus^[4]). Certain astrological fragments recorded by Pliny the Elder, Censorinus, Flavius Josephus, and Marcus Vitruvius Pollio are also attributed to Berossus, but are of unknown provenance, or indeed are uncertain as to where they might fit into his History. Vitruvius credits him with the invention of the semi-circular sundial hollowed out of a cubical block.^[5] A statue of him was erected in Athens, perhaps attesting to his fame and scholarship as historian and astronomer-astrologer."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berossus
   So here we have testimony from a secular historical figure that the ark is indeed on the mountain in Armenia.

One of the most reputed possible modern sightings of Noah's Ark is title the "Ararat Anomaly"

"In 1974, during a private meeting with William Colby, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency(CIA), I asked if he was aware of the claimed sightings of Noah's Ark.  He said He was not.  After summarizing several "sightings." I stated that a dangerous and expensive search for an object with profound international importance, could be done safely and cheaply with technology Colby controlled.  Perhaps the CIA already had information in it's files that could help in this search.
  Weeks later, I was contacted by a man I will call H.S.  He said that Director Colby asked him to see if any information could be provided.  In our discussions, H.S. asked many questions.  About a year later called to say his work was completed and to invite me to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. In His office, H.S. said he had examined all photography of the Mt. Ararat region.  He could not be sure if the object he was seeing was the Ark or a rock.  I asked H.S if, after studying the information on the various claimed sightings, he thought the ark on Ararat.  He said "Yes," I asked why, because no photographs clearly showed the Ark. H.S. responded, "There is too much smoke for there not to be fire."" pg. 45 Walt Brown  In the Beginning Compelling evidence for creation and the flood.  One may wonder why Dr. Brown had such access with the CIA, however it should be noted that Dr. Brown is also Col. Brown and a retire military professor.
"The anomaly is located on the northwest corner of the Western Plateau of Mount Ararat (approximately 39°42′10″N 44°16′30″ECoordinates: 39°42′10″N 44°16′30″E) at about 15,500 ft (4,724 m), some 2.2 km (1.4 mi) west of the 16,854 ft (5,137 m) summit, on the edge of what appears from the photographs to be a steep downward slope. It was first filmed during a U.S. Air Force aerial reconnaissance mission in 1949 — the Ararat massif sits on the former Turkish/Soviet border, and was thus an area of military interest — and was accordingly given a classification of "secret" as were subsequent photographs taken in 1956, 1973, 1976, 1990 and 1992, by aircraft and satellites.
Six frames from the 1949 footage were released under the Freedom of Information Act to Porcher Taylor, a professor at the University of Richmond in Virginia, and a scholar at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies specializing in satellite intelligence and diplomacy, in 1995.  A joint research project was later established between Insight Magazine and Space Imaging (now GeoEye), using the IKONOS satellite. IKONOS captured the anomaly on August 5 and September 13, 2000. GeoEye has constructed a computerized video of the imagery it captured of the anomaly. The structure appears at approximately halfway through the video. A controversial "bird's eye view" satellite image, taken by IKONOS later in 2003 for the same research project, was released to the public in 2006.^[3]  The Mount Ararat area also has been imaged by France's SPOT satellite in September 1989, Landsat in the 1970s and NASA's Space shuttle in 1994, as well as military satellite images captured by the CIA's KH-9 (Keyhole 9) in 1973 and KH-11 (Keyhole 11) in 1976 and 1990–1992. The Defense Intelligence Agency believes the anomaly shows "linear facades in the glacial ice underlying more recently accumulated ice and snow."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ararat_anomaly
  What is intriguing about this location is the fact that it has been so heavily guarded for so long by communist groups dedicated to the eradication of religion. Could this be because of the authenticity of this find?  Could it be too late to know?

What about Ron Wyatt's Location?
 
  The majority of the creationist community has rejected Ron Wyatt's location for the Ark for several basic reasons.
1. Similar dimples in the geography of the region are found all over.
2.The rock around the edges is not wood.
3. The location is not on a mountain
4. the borders are too long
     Sure it may be possible for the ark to have landed there.  But only in the sense that you never know history without a witness.




Could the mountains really have had been covered in water?
 This picture of Mt. Everest was posted in an explicitly uniformitarian evolutionary publication.  http://climbing.about.com/od/Mount-Everest/a/Geology-Of-Mount-Everest.htm

"Crinoid fossils and other marine fossils have been found on top of almost every mountain range on earth. In fact, crinoid fossils have even been found at the summit of Mount Everest, the highest point on earth. This 1967 article from Geological Magazine entitled "The Highest Fossils in the World" explains that some of the first successful expeditions (by the Swiss in 1956 and Americans in 1963; the first confirmed successful attempt to reach the summit was of course that of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953) to the summit of Everest brought back geological samples which contained fossilized crinoids."http://mathisencorollary.blogspot.com/2012/03/crinoids-on-mount-everest.html
   So even at the highest altitudes we find evidence of sea life. So the great flood is quite plausible.


What is hiding in the mountain? 
"At the end of the flood, Noah left the Ark and descended from Mt Ararat to an area now called Nakhichevan.

In this area today the land remains abundant in alkaline soil due to the salty flood waters that once covered the earth. The area is a sacred ground, because the father of mankind settled and later died there.

To commemorate the Great Flood, each year on the same day Noah would order his sons, who were also residents of Nakhichevan, to splash water on each other. On the same day, in memory of the dove that had brought Noah an olive leaf (to signify that land was clear of water); they released doves into the sky at the same time they splashed each other.

It is indicated in the Old Armenian Calendar that this was done in the month of Navasard (August). In this month the residents of Nakhichevan also showed respect and celebrated the goddess of love, beauty and water—‘Astghik’, who beautified herself with roses.
Therefore on that special day in August, the residents unified the three rituals—they would splash each other with water; release doves and also throw rose petals at each other, in respect to Astghik.

This special day of celebration is what Armenians call Vardavar (Rose Festival), which still happens to this day in Armenia. Many visitors to Armenia are taken by surprise when on a particular day in August the locals happily splash buckets of water at each other, usually in the most unexpected places. They follow this by releasing doves and spreading rose petals. Along with this fun festival there comes a peaceful time when mutual grievances are forgotten.

It is said that the people who end the day having been splashed with water, are cleansed of dirt and corruption. That, along with doves flying and rose petals strewn, the people’s faces are transformed."https://araratour.com/vardavar-festival/

 "Although now a Christian tradition, Vardavar's history dates back to pagan times. The ancient festival is traditionally associated with the goddess Astghik, who was the goddess of water, beauty, love and fertility. The festivities associated with this religious observance of Astghik were named “Vartavar” because Armenians offered her roses as a celebration (vart means "rose" in Armenian and var mean "rise"), this is why it was celebrated in the harvest time."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vardavar

    An interesting point to be made is how easily the pagan and christian meaning to the rituals integrated.  point to the possibility that the ritual may indeed have pointed back to an actual event.

" Vahagn, the god of fire, was a perfect being, except for his explosive temper. Even his birth was brought about a cosmic shake of the universe. The gods rejoiced the day he was born—they gave him many gifts. Astghik, the goddess of love, beauty and water, kissed Vahagn’s forehead and tied the Cross of War, woven from stars to his hand, that way the power of the fire god would last forever. Mihr, god of light, harmony and advice, gave Vahagn a heavy mace, made from a thousand and one suns. The new god especially liked that gift—he loved flying across the sky like a fiery whirlwind, brandishing his mace.

One day Vahagn propelled his mace and then, as usual, he went to look for it. He searched planet after planet for his mace and eventually found it on Earth, stuck above a valley. As he got closer to the mace he saw how the sun was gleaming on the spikes, which were surrounded lush greenery—he was transfixed the beauty of what was before him.

“It’s so beautiful here! This is the right mountain and valley!” said Astghik, approaching from behind.

“We were wondering how to find a good place for the earthly god to be born!” said Tir, the god of literature, science and art.

The gods had been traveling across the world to find a place where the cradle of the first earthly god could rest. They decided that this would be his place of birth and that his name would be Hayk. Vahagn was assigned the task of keeping light and warmth over the cradle and he did so with the sun. They called the place Ararat, and it was so beautiful that even the gods went down and walked among the beautiful landscape."https://araratour.com/the-legend-of-mount-ararat-birth/
  Could the ark be likened to an alien space craft? Certainly not in our modern minds.  But what would ancient people think of a giant vessel on top of a mountain? Notice how they gave messianic qualities to the god of the mountain. Could the Ark be the cradle? Yet also we see that this myth is after the volcanic eruption.  So the Armenian people may be in the dark as to the area before the flood.
https://youtu.be/yfqPdG7n8pA

In Williamstown KY "The ARK Encounter"  will be the first model correctly to scale of Noah's Ark.

https://arkencounter.com/


Hebrews 11: ⁷ By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
1Peter 3:¹⁸ For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: ¹⁹ by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; ²⁰ which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. ²¹ The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: 
 

In conclusion, the account of Noah's Ark is a historical narrative. it provides us scientific details to a scientifically feasible scenario.  Ancient history has dozens of witnesses to this story as a real event. It even has the possibility of having survived the passage of time.
So what is standing in the way of believing this story to be factual?
  Many would say faith, but this is not quite accurate. There is something far more intense than faith. If Noah's story is true then there has to be a God.  How else could Noah known of the flood?  Who could else could have caused this calamity?
If' Noah's Story is true then God has to be sovereign to Judge mankind. No longer is God to be a senile Old man hovering in the heavens with no care of what goes on here on the earth.
If Noah's story is true then God has to have wrath stored up to reap vengeance upon mankind.   Therefore we should fear God and seek to follow His word.
At this point So many unbeliever's have turned away.  Hoping that denial would turn away the horrors of Judgement.  Yet they have ignored the final implication.
If Noah's account is true then God saved mankind.  Noah is our ancestor and God loves us.
There is only one way of escape today as there was then.
There was a door at the rib of the ship it was the only way in.
genesis 6:¹⁶ A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it."
genesis 7: ¹⁶ And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the Lord shut him in."
  From the rib of adam we have Eve whom is the mother of all living.  From the rib of the Ark we found the survival of the human race.  From the rib of christ we find the blood which is the salvation of the human race.
john 19: ³⁴ but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.
The escape was through this door.  Now salvation is through this door.
John 10: ⁹ I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
   This way demand faith.  But knowing this as truth demands Humility. Let us do so before it is too late.
Matthew 24:
³⁸ For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, ³⁹ and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.