Free Republic

The girder comes out from the glacier of Mount Ararat, at an altitude of 4200 meters. It's visible to the naked eye and the Alpine guide Claudio Schranz of Macugnaga has no more doubts: it's a piece of the Noah's Ark. He saw and photographed it at a distance of five meters. It's the morning of December, 2nd, Schranz is an Alpinist and he's 51 years old, he has hundredths of expeditions in all the world to his credits.

There's a well-known account of ten year old Georgie Hagopian, who saw Noah's Ark while climbing Ararat with his uncle in 1904. The date isn't precise but this was around the time my grandfather was in the region and heard convincing stories of the Ark, preserved in ice and snow, still occasionally visible. My grandfather died in 1980, aged 106. As a boy, I listened to his adventures as a doctor in Eastern Turkey and Russia between 1904 and 1910. He worked in the very shadow of Greater Ararat - the legendary Biblical landing place of Noah's ship. My grandfather...

In 1943 during WW2, an army Sgt., Ed Davis, was working in Iran near the Turkish border, in charge of locals hired by our army to build a road through Iran to the Soviet border, which would carry supplies to the Soviets instead of flying them in. In short, Ed did a tremendous favor for a little Kurdish village near Ararat. His workers were mostly Kurds and the chief of the village came to Ed and asked if he would like to see Noah's Ark. He said the summer on the mountain had been hottest in many years and the...

Dogubayazit (Turkey’s Iran-Armenian Border) • For the first time in the seven decade-long history of the search for the legendary Noah’s Ark, a Turkish-Hong Kong exploration team on Tuesday came out with “material evidence”, to prove that the Ark was nestled on Mount Ararat, Turkey’s highest mountain peak bordering Iran and Armenia. A panel of experts, comprising Turkish authorities, veteran mountaineers, archaeologists, geologists and members of Hong Kong-based Noah’s Ark Ministries International, also displayed an almost one-metre-long peice of petrified wood before the media and specially invited international experts. The experts claimed it to be a part of a long...

The story of Haji Yearam is the first known to us where a person claims to have seen the ark himself. He was born in 1832 in Armenia, moved at sometime to Oakland, California, where he lived until he died in 1920. "When Haji was a large boy, but not yet a man fully grown, there came to his home some strangers. If I remember correctly there were three vile men who did not believe the Bible and did not believe in the existence of a personal God. They were scientists and evolutionists. They were on this expedition specifically to...

The first sightings of the ark in more modern times took place in 1856 when a group of English scientists climbed the mountain to search for the Ark. They asked a young Armenian boy, Haji Yearman, and his father to guide them up the mountain and show them the ark of Noah. Haji Yearman and his father did just that! This upset the scientists, because their object was to prove that the ark was not there. These scientists were atheists, and they tried to burn the ark. They said it would not burn, so they tried to destroy it, but...

Details of the reported sightings and finds are described below...

This article was first published in the July 2006 ABR Electronic Newsletter. And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. – Genesis 11:1–2 (KJV) The Media Blitz Since mid-June, 2006 there has been a flurry of reports in the media and on the Internet about the possible discovery of Noah's Ark on a mountain in northern Iran. Robert ("Bob") Cornuke, who has previously claimed to have found such notable things as...

Digital image of 'Ararat Anomaly' has researchers taking closer look A new, high-resolution digital image of what has become known as the "Ararat Anomaly" is reigniting interest in the hunt for Noah's Ark. Satellite image of 'Ararat Anomaly,' taken by DigitalGlobe's QuickBird Satellite in 2003 and now made public for the first time (courtesy: DigitalGlobe) The location of the anomaly on the northwest corner of Mt. Ararat in eastern Turkey has been under investigation from afar by ark hunters for years, but it has remained unexplored, with the government of Turkey not granting any scientific expedition permission to explore on...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- An expedition is being planned for this summer to the upper reaches of Turkey's Mount Ararat where organizers hope to prove an object nestled amid the snow and ice is Noah's Ark. A joint U.S.-Turkish team of 10 explorers plans to make the arduous trek up Turkey's tallest mountain, at 17,820 feet, from July 15 to August 15, subject to the approval of the Turkish government, said Daniel P. McGivern, president of Shamrock-The Trinity Corporation of Honolulu, Hawaii. The goal: to enter what they believe to be a mammoth structure some 45 feet high, 75 feet wide...

My Arab Neighbors by Sara Yoheved Rigler I live in the walled Old City of Jerusalem, on the edge of the Jewish Quarter. A two-minute walk from my house is the Arab shuk. When I first came here 19 years ago, the shuk was a bustling bazaar, which drew crowds of foreign tourists and Israelis eager to experience the exotic aromas and tastes of a genuine Middle Eastern marketplace in the heart of modern Israel. I, too, was enticed by the open stalls of fragrant spices heaped up in colorful piles, dried fruits and grains, mouth-watering Levantine sweets, and hand-crafted...

What does Europe want from the Jews? Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis's Hitlerian rant this week was the latest expression of the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe. To an audience which included the Greek ministers of culture and education he asserted that the Jewish nation "is the root of evil. It is full of self-importance and evil stubbornness." Theodorakis has a long personal history of hating Jews and Israel matched by a long history of support for the PLO – support which led to the PLO's decision to have him compose the Palestinian national anthem. Because of this, the fact that...

Update: Noah's Ark Investigation Posted April 15, 2003 By Timothy W. Maier Nearly a week after the CIA released another record from its secret "Noah's Ark" file, this one including a note saying that U.S. intelligence agencies immediately destroy records from reconnaissance missions, Insight received another batch of declassified records that suggest the U.S. Navy may have shot a series of pictures of the anomaly on Mount Ararat. in 1974. The released records consist of a 1993 memo to the deputy director of the CIA from William H.J. Manthorpe Jr. , deputy director of Naval Intelligence, and notes from a...

Arafat, Israel accept U.S. proposal to end Ramallah seige By Aluf Benn, Ha'aretz Correspondent, Ha'aretz Service and agencies Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat accepted a proposal by President George W. Bush aimed at ending the siege upon his Ramallah compound, senior Palestinian official Nabil Abu Rudeineh said Sunday night. Earlier in the evening, the Israeli government accepted the proposal, whereby American and British guards will be dispatched to the region to ensure that the killers of assassinated tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi remain behind bars in their Palestinian jail. In light of Israel's agreement to the proposal, U.S. Secretary of State...

Above: Yasser Arafat snacks on flies in his fetid Ramallah swamp. RAMALLAH, WEST BANK —After showing his new EU Stars paw-tattoo, Yasser Arafat told reporters today that "Palestine" will soon be admitted to the European Union. "It's a done deal," said the Arabphibian while snacking on flies in his fetid Ramallah swamp. "We will be admitted to the EU shortly, because we have met all the sanitation, economic, cultural and tolerance standards of the European Union." Surrounded by admiring would-be suicide bombers, the jubilant web-footed terrorist added, "We can blow up civilians a hell of a lot better than...

Besieged Arafat mourns Queen Mother's death   RAMALLAH, West Bank, April 1 (Reuters) - Besieged Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has sent his condolences to Britain's Queen Elizabeth and Prime Minister Tony Blair over the death of the Queen Mother, Palestinian news agency WAFA said. Arafat had expressed his "deep sadness" on Sunday in separate messages to Queen Elizabeth, whose mother died on Saturday aged 101, and to Blair, the official agency said. "We offer you, your government and your friendly people our sincere sympathies in the name of the Palestinian people, its leadership and in my name personally," he said in his cables. Arafat...