Has Noah's Ark been found? Two people think so and two different geographical sites are in contention.
One believer is Daniel McGivern, who received worldwide publicity in early spring when he announced he was planning a July expedition up Turkey's Mt. Ararat to investigate what was spotted in high-resolution satellite images taken last year at the height of a record-warm summer. McGivern's planned expedition up Ararat has still not taken place for one simple reason – lack of permission from Turkey. According to Space.com, the U.S. Air Force took the first photographs of the Mt. Ararat site in 1949. The images allegedly revealed what seemed to be a structure covered by ice, but were held for years in a confidential file labeled "Ararat Anomaly."
Meanwhile, there are others who believe Noah's Ark has already been found, and tourists can actually visit it on a mountain next to Ararat. Ross Patterson, a computer programmer from Whangarei, New Zealand, is among those who think that way, and he's now preparing his own expedition there by October. The 40-year-old Christian has twice been to the site located near Dogubayazit, Turkey. "I believe this is Noah's Ark," Patterson tells WorldNetDaily.
Patterson looks to add weight to research by the likes of the late Ron Wyatt, whose Tennessee-based foundation, Wyatt Archaeological Research, purports the ark is indeed at Dogubayazit, some 12-15 miles from Ararat, noting the book of Genesis states the ark rested "upon the mountains of Ararat," not mountain.
Wyatt's website is filled with on-location photographs and charts promoting its case with physical evidence including radar scans of bulkheads on the alleged vessel, deck timber and iron rivets, large "drogue" stones which are thought to have acted as types of anchors, and even some animal hair inside, possibly from a large cat like a lion or tiger.
Patterson is hoping to work with Dr. Salih Bayraktutan, a geology expert at Turkey's Ataturk University who has conducted previous research at the site. He's also invited biblical researcher Dr. Lennart Moller of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm on his journey to Turkey. Moller is the author of "The Exodus Case," and is among those who say there are chariot wheels and other human debris on an underwater land bridge in the Gulf of Aqaba portion of the Red Sea. The book of Exodus says the Red Sea is where God parted the water and drowned the army of ancient Egypt in pursuit of the Israelites.
Despite Patterson's staunch belief about the ark being at Dogubayazit, there's been no shortage of critics from both scientific and Christian circles who think the site is erroneous. Lorence Collins, a retired geology professor from California State University, Northridge, joined the late David Fasold, a one-time proponent of the Wyatt site, in writing a scientific summary claiming the location is "bogus." "Evidence from microscopic studies and photo analyses demonstrates that the supposed Ark near Dogubayazit is a completely natural rock formation," said the 1996 paper published in the Journal of Geoscience Education. "It cannot have been Noah's Ark nor even a man-made model. It is understandable why early investigators falsely identified it."
"They sold a bill of goods at the time," adds McGivern in Hawaii, "but it has developed a cottage industry."
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