page_title: Ark Encounter
section_title: Visitor experience
hierarchical_section_title: Ark Encounter / Visitor experience
caption_attribution_description: English: Deck 2, Llama live animal exhibit.
context_page_description: Ark Encounter is a Christian religious and creationist theme park that opened in Grant County, Kentucky in 2016. The centerpiece of the park is a large representation of Noah's Ark based on the Genesis flood narrative contained in the Bible. It is 510 feet long, 85 feet wide, and 51 feet high.
  Ark Encounter is operated by Answers in Genesis, a young Earth creationist organization that also operates the Creation Museum 45 miles away in Petersburg, Kentucky. The theme park promotes pseudoscientific young Earth creationist beliefs about the age of the universe, age of the Earth, and co-existence of man and non-avian dinosaurs.
  After feasibility studies projected that the park would be a boon to the state's tourism industry, the Ark Encounter received tax incentives from the city, county, and state to induce its construction. This drew criticism from groups concerned with the separation of church and state.
context_section_description: The ark contains 132 bays, each standing about 18 feet (5.5 m) high, arranged into three decks. Visitors enter on the lowest deck and move between decks on ramps constructed through the center of the ark. Bays on the first deck contain models of some animals that AiG believes could have been on the ark; there are no live animals within the exhibit though there is a petting zoo on the grounds. The models are meant to represent "kinds" of animals, which AiG says gave rise to modern animals after the flood. Prior to the Ark's opening, media outlets reported it would feature models of dinosaurs and "Biblical unicorns".
  The second deck contains more animal models, along with dioramas of Noah's workshop and a blacksmith. Bays on the third deck contain displays presenting what AiG believes might have happened inside and outside the ark during the flood. Displays in three of the bays include artifacts from the Green Collection and promote the Museum of the Bible, a Washington, D.C. attraction constructed by the Green family, who donated to the Ark Encounter's construction. RoadsideAmerica.com rated the displays depicting the sinful state of the world before the flood, including a priest sacrificing an infant to an unnamed snake god and people fighting a giant and a dinosaur in a gladiatorial arena, as among the most memorable exhibits in the attraction.
  The ark is held 15 feet (4.6 m) off the ground by a series of concrete towers. The starboard side of the hull merges into three 80-foot (24 m) masonry towers containing stairwells, elevators, and restrooms.
  Emzara's Kitchen, a two-story, buffet-style restaurant located within the park, has a capacity of 1,500 guests, making it one of the largest restaurants in the world.
caption: Deck 2, A live animal exhibit alternates between Llamas, Alpacas and Donkeys from day to day.
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