World's largest timber construction - Noah's Ark - opens for business | Woodworking Network World's largest timber construction - Noah's Ark - opens for business Print WILLIAMSTOWN, Ky. — A 510-foot-long, $100 million pine-clad Noah's Ark replica has opened in Kentucky. And Colorado Timberframe was chosen to mill the logs because they are said to be the only U.S. group capable of milling logs as large as 50 feet long and 36 inches in diameter. The Ark Encounter was engineered and built using exact biblical measurements, requiring over 3.3 million board feet of timber to construct it, and fitting over 16,000 people simultaneously. The Book of Genesis describes Noah's Ark as 300 cubits long, its width 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. The attraction will feature museum-like exhibits, displays of Noah's family, and lifelike models of animals - existing in pairs and in compartments just like the Bible described. Guests will be able to tour the ship for $40.

In an effort to employ techniques used in the ancient time the Ark was said to have been constructed, one hundred Amish craftsmen built the replica using ancient timber framing techniques, such as manually bending the wood for the rudder rather than steaming it to make it more pliable. Most of these techniques were utilized, but some had to be altered to adhere to modern building codes (builders originally planned to hold the ark together with wooden pegs, but had to change to steel fasteners). A length of 20.1 inches was chosen for the biblical cubit. This produced plans for an ark measuring 510 feet (160 m) long, 85 feet (26 m) wide, and 51 feet (16 m) high. The 3.3 million board feet of wood was harvested from as far away as Oregon and British Columbia. The Ark's framing consists of Englemann spruce, and the exterior is made mostly of Accoya wood - sustainable, insect-resistant radiata pine that undergoes an acetylation process to make it class 1 durable. The ark contains 132 bays for animals, each standing about 18 feet high.

The structure is held off the ground by three 80 foot masonry towers, which contain stairwells, elevators, and bathrooms. Each features electric lighting designed to resemble oil lamps. Below the ark is a theater and giftshop, and a restaurant sits on its roof. The structure was supposedly built using green construction methods and utilized Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) practices, like geothermal and solar heating, and rainwater capture. Creator and devout Christian Ken Ham said the massive ark will stand as proof that the stories of the Bible are true. Ham's group Answers in Genesis believes God created the world and everything in it around 6,000 years ago. The ark opens July 7 and will attract an estimated two million visitors in its first year, putting it on par with some big attractions in nearby Cincinnati. It has stirred up much controversy among atheists, other religious groups, and those who disapproved of tax incentives given to Ham and his group. Topics: Noah's Ark Noah's Ark Books and Videos Noah's Ark was the immense vessel that God told Noah to build, as recorded in the book of Genesis , chapter 6 .

The Ark fulfilled its purposes to save Noah and his family from the global flood and to preserve mating pairs of every kind of terrestrial animal . Construction Popular conceptions of the Ark have varied with the culture. In the early days of Western shipbuilding, artists depicted the Ark as resembling contemporary ships, though such portraits were typically inconsistent with either the size or the proportions of the Ark. The most accurate portrait during the Renaissance was that made in 1675 by Athanasius Kircher, who thought the Ark to be rectilinear. Sadly, nineteenth century scholars under the influence of secular scientists like Charles Lyell and Charles Darwin began to take the Flood story less seriously. Artists then began to depict the Ark in a manner befitting an illustrated children's book. A typical portrait of the Ark, even in church windows, gave it the shape of a claw-footed bathtub surmounted by an over-sized pilothouse with a gabled roof. In 1961, John Whitcomb and Henry Morris published The Genesis Flood , the landmark work that ignited the modern creation science movement. In that work, Whitcomb and Morris discussed the Ark and emphasized its carrying capacity and hypothetical seaworthiness.

Shortly after this, a number of witnesses came forward claiming to have climbed Mount Ararat in modern Turkey and actually seen the Ark, or spoken to those who had. All the putative witnesses described an immense rectilinear structure, though they provided few details of its size and proportions. Artists now began to depict the Ark as a simple rectilinear solid. The most famous such painting was by Elfred Lee, who in 1985 painted the Ark as a long barge surmounted by a ventilatory superstructure running the entire length of its roof. The artist claimed that he based his illustration on the testimony of one George Hagopian , who died in 1972 after granting multiple interviews in which he described to Mr. Lee what he had seen. [1] Design considerations The Ark need not have been designed as a ship. It would not have required propulsion, a navigation system, or even anchors. Its purpose was to keep its passengers safe, possibly leaving their course and ultimate destination completely in the hands of God . Dimensions The book of Genesis describes Noah's Ark as a wooden vessel 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high.

Based on the shortest estimated length of the cubit, this means it was at least 450 feet (135 meters ) long, 75 feet (22.5 meters) wide, and 45 feet (13.5 meters) high. (If long cubits are assumed, these dimensions increase to 516 ft by 86.0 ft by 51.6 ft, or 157 m by 26.2 m by 15.7 m.) These proportions are ideal to balance the demands of sea-kindliness, hull strength, and stability. The Ark's size is equivalent to an average cargo vessel by today's standards, which is in line with the limits of timber construction. The account in Genesis 6-8 is workable. Even simple requirements such as the height between decks make good sense. [2] [3] The Ark had lower, middle, and upper decks and an additional clearance of one cubit at the roof. This last might refer to an elaborate ventilation system. In contrast, the Epic of Gilgamesh suggests that the Ark was cuboidal, rather than rectilinear. Such a design would have been neither seakindly nor stable.

[3] Structural elements A model of Noah's Ark, showing its proportions, its scale, and hypothetical design elements; suggested by Tim Lovett's work A rectilinear structure would be vulnerable to the shock of wave impacts. A curvilinear structure would be able to deflect the waves safely. Furthermore, any ship designed to stay afloat in the rough seas of the Flood would have a keel. Examination of the ancient war vessels of the Greeks and Romans reveals many common elements that would enhance seaworthiness. They include a tapered bow with a projection below the water line, and a large sail-like projection on the stern. These features would have caused the Ark to head into the wind and fall back before it. [4] The door of the Ark need not have been on the upper level. In fact, the terms used to describe the decks as lower, middle, and upper, rather than first, second, and third, suggest that the door was at the middle level. The door was probably in the stern of the Ark to avoid compromising the strength of its hull. The word usually translated "window" in Genesis 6:16 actually meant "midday" and thus would indicate a series of hatches in its roof.

[4] Material The Ark was made of " gopher wood ," an unidentified hardwood, and was coated inside and out with a covering that is translated as "pitch." The term gopher wood appears only in the Flood account (thereby making it a hapax legomenon ), and thus the Bible gives few clues to its actual meaning. Techniques Skeptics have often doubted whether the technology of shipbuilding in antediluvian times was sufficiently advanced to enable Noah, or any other shipwright, to build a ship more than 500 feet (150 m) long. In fact, modern man cannot know the level of antediluvian technology, because all evidence of that technology lies buried under one or more miles of sedimentary rock . In addition, the recent finds of out-of-place artifacts suggest that antediluvian civilization might have commanded a far higher level of technology than modern archaeologists or even Biblical scholars generally suppose. Tim Lovett suggests that the minimum technology that Noah would have had available to him was that of the ancient Egyptians , which would have been capable of building a wooden vessel as large as the Ark, and certainly within the 120 years probably allotted to the task.

[5] One persistent objection is that a wooden vessel 450 feet or more in length would not be able to stay watertight. [6] Lovett answers this objection with his description of the mortise-and-tenon-planking technique that Greek shipwrights used often and to excellent effect as early as four centuries before Christ. [4] In addition, reports persist of a forty-oar Greek galley built in the fourteenth century BC, though neither ruin nor wreck of such a ship has ever been found. [6] Schedule The Bible does not definitely fix the date on which construction of the Ark began. Yet the Bible says that God delivered a message in advance of the Flood: "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." - Genesis 6:3 While many creationists purport that the reference to 120 years in the above verse was a proclamation that human life expectancy would be reduced following he flood, others believe it refers to the date when the flood would occur - providing a period of warning, during which Noah preached repentance to a world that, sadly, did not listen.

( 1_Peter 3:20 , 2_Peter 2:5 ) [7] Lovett suggests that Noah began to build the Ark at the same time that he began to preach to his world. Given that the Flood occurred on 17 Bul 1656 AM, Noah probably received God's instruction to build the Ark in the fall of 1536 AM [7] [8] and laid the keel of the Ark in the next spring. The Bible further states that God instructed Noah to board the Ark, together with his family and all the animals, seven days before the Flood broke out. ( Genesis 7:1-10 ) [9] The Bible then gives the date of the Flood as the seventeenth day of the second month of the six hundredth year of Noah's life, which would be 17 Bul 1656 AM.

( Genesis 7:11-13 ) [10] The above statements suggest this tentative schedule of the career of the Ark: Construction authorized: Ethanim 1536 AM [7] [8] Keel laid: Abib 1536 AM Commissioned: 10 Bul 1656 AM [9] Launched: 17 Bul 1656 AM [10] Grounded: 17 Abib 1656 AM( Genesis 8:3-4 ) Decommissioned: 27 Bul 1657 AM ( Genesis 8:14 ) Archaeology Main article: Noah's ark expeditions Noah's Ark has not been found. According to Scripture, the Ark came to rest in the mountains of Ararat , which are in Turkey. There have been numerous reports of sightings throughout history, but the region remains largely unexplored. Although the Ark has probably decomposed since the flood, it remains a dream of Biblical archaeologists worldwide that the Ark will be found. The Ark's discovery would substantiate the Biblical account of a recent global flood and God's judgment.

Discovering a vessel of that size in Turkey would lend credence to the Bible's account of the Earth's early history and the catastrophic interpretation of the fossil record . Some believe that they have found the Ark in northern Iran. A Christian archeological expedition has found a rock formation that seems to have the same dimensions as the Ark spoken of in the Bible. The formation was discovered in the Elburz mountain range on Mt. Suleiman. Scientists from the expedition have taken slices from the rocks and run tests on them. They figured out that there are wood cell structures within these samples. It is impossible for the expeditioners to ever know for sure whether or not it really was Noah's Ark, but they do know that it was a place of great importance to ancient peoples. Explorers have discovered an ancient shrine near the supposed Ark. Recent satellite image from Digital Globe's Quickbird examined by NASA as possible Noah's Ark location on Mt. Ararat . There have been many supposed "sightings" of Noah's Ark on or around Mt. Ararat. [11] George Hagopian One of the most famous is that of George Hagopian.

“ He was eight years old, Hagopian said, and it was in the year 1908 [note: another account says the year was 1905 and Hagopian was 10 years old] when his uncle took him up Ararat, past Ahora Gorge, passing the grave of St. Jacob on the way. As the mountain grew more precipitous his uncle carried him on his shoulders until they came to something that looked like a great ship located on a rock ledge over a cliff and partially covered by snow. It had flat openings like windows along the top and a hole in the roof. Hagopian had first thought it was a house made of stone but when his uncle showed him the outline of planks and told him it was made of wood he realized it was the Ark, just like the other people had described it to him. His uncle boosted him up from a rock pile to reach the Ark roof telling him not to be afraid, "because it is a holy ship ..." (and) "the animals and people are not here now. They have all gone away." It is also said that Hagopian's uncle tried to shoot the Ark, but the bullets bounced off as if it were metal.

[12] ” Ararat anomaly Declassified Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Keyhole-9 satellite image of Mt. Ararat and the Ararat Anomaly taken on Dec. 20, 1973 Main article: Ararat Anomaly The Ararat Anomaly is basically an object appearing in pictures on the snowfields at the peak of the Mt. Ararat. This object is often considered to be the remains of Noah's Ark. [13] Durupınar Main Article: Durupınar The Durupınar site is the location of boat-shaped formation, which was named after its discoverer. Its size, unusual shape, and location were immediately recognized as a close parallel to Noah's Ark. The size of the formation matches the description from the Bible almost exactly. Although the shape of the Durupınar site formation is very compelling, it is not unique to the region. There are other similar formations nearby, which are apparently the result of solidified mudflows. [14] Legends Main article: Flood legends Stories of a global flood , and of a favored family that survived it, abound in ancient folklore. John D. Morris collected two hundred such stories and found a surprising number of common elements.

Most of the stories collected speak of a global catastrophe, consisting solely of a flood that a god or gods sent to punish the wickedness of mankind. Most stories also tell of a family, forewarned of the flood, who built a ship to save themselves and all the different kinds of animals. More than half the stories say that this ship ran aground on a mountaintop. [15] The Animals Genesis does not tell us that every kind of animal came to the Ark to be saved from the flood. God only brought animals "with the breath of life", a phrase that most modern creation apologists associate with land vertebrates ( Genesis 7:15 ). One pair of each unclean animal , and seven pairs of each clean animal came on board ( Genesis 6:20 ). The majority of the fossil record was laid down during the flood, so there were many more kinds of animals alive in Noah's time. These would include dinosaurs , pterosaurs , marsupial lions, and others; mammoths were almost certainly part of the elephant kind. Noah did not have to round up the animals, because God sent them to him ( Genesis 7:2 ).

The capacity of the Ark matches estimates of the number of animals kept by Noah that have since diversified into an apparently much larger number of species . For example, the variety of modern dogs are believed to have descended from a single ancestral pair. Related News Latest Noah's Ark 'just wood planted on Ararat' Archaeologists make astonishing claim about alleged discovery of Bible boat. WorldNetDaily. April 28, 2010. 'We've found Noah's Ark!'... claim evangelical explorers on mission to snow-capped Ararat Pictures released by a Hong Kong based group claims to show the interior of a structure on the top of Mount Ararat that contains wooden beams and compartments that could have held animals. Daily Mail, April 28th, 2010. Dutch Man Builds Replica Of Noah's Ark A man in the Netherlands took two years to build a replica of Noah's Ark. The large boat was opened to the public last weekend in a Dutch town and the creator plans to sail it to several European towns. NBC11. April 30, 2007.

Flood of claims for 'Noah's Ark': Legendary vessel of Genesis story goes from nowhere to everywhere There are numerous claims about the final resting place, from Ararat to Armenia. With modern technology and digital photography being utilized in the hunt, it seems like everyone is finding what they think is Noah's Ark. WorldNetDaily. July 16, 2006. Noah's Ark Discovered in Iran? A team of Christian archaeologists says this rock outcrop on a mountain in Iran could be the remains of Noah's Ark. Layered patterns in the stone (inset) resemble petrified wood, the team says, but other scientists say the patterns are consistent with ordinary sedimentary rock. National Geographic News. July 5, 2006 Explorers of Noah's Lost Ark an entrepreneur is investing US$900,000 to send a joint U.S.-Turkish team to Mount Ararat in mid-July for a month long investigation into a boat-shaped structure. June 25th, 2004 Noah's Ark in fiction Many novels have been written having Noah as a character, and often as the central character. They include: Noah by Ellen Gunderson Traylor.

It speculates rather heavily on whether antediluvian civilization might have included prominent figures having names that prefigured the classical Greek pantheon, but otherwise tells a story faithful to the Bible about the Ark, its shape, its construction, how long the project took, and its voyage. Ice by Shane Johnson. Noah figures here, too, though not as the central character. Johnson speculates that humans might have stood on average one-third again as tall as they stand today, and therefore the cubit might have been twenty-four inches long, not merely eighteen. The Ark would therefore have been 600 feet long, not merely 450, and hence quite large enough by any standard to hold two of every created kind of land animal and bird (and seven of every kind of clean bird). Johnson also suggests that the "gopher wood" might have been an advanced composite, and the "pitch" likewise an advanced blend of natural resins. Both of these would have been the products of a civilization that, Johnson suggests, was far more advanced than is usually supposed and even more advanced than human society today.

References ↑ Tim Lovett, Noah's Ark: Thinking Outside the Box, Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2008 ( ISBN 9780890818075 ), p. 18-19. ↑ Lovett, op. cit., p. 32-33. Noah's Ark Replica Made By Johan Huibers Opens Doors In Dordrecht, Netherlands | The Huffington Post Noah's Ark Replica Made By Johan Huibers Opens Doors In Dordrecht, Netherlands 07/30/2012 10:33 am ET 1.6k David Moye Pop culture journalist, HuffPost Weird News An authentic replica of Noah's Ark that opened a few weeks ago in the Netherlands could soon be flooded with tourists. The ark was designed by a millionaire contractor and creationist named Johan Huibers, to be as close to the original biblical description of Noah's vessel as possible. The ark described in the Book of Genesis measured to 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high.

A cubit is supposed to be the distance of a man's arm from the elbow to the fingertips, so Huibers used his own arm and his ark came to be around 450 feet long, according to Sky News. Huibers envisioned building the model s20 years ago when he had a dream that the Netherlands was submerged in a flood like the Old Testament destruction. This wooden recreation, four years in the making, is the second one he's built. In 2004, he built a half-scale version that he sailed around his native country's canals, ChannelsTV.com reported. It attracted a wave of publicity when Huibers opened it to tourists and he used the proceeds from admissions to build the full-size ship. He hoped to take it to London, but had to dry dock those plans when Olympic officials asked him to use safety rules that weren't around in Noah's time. "We would like to carry 3,000 people on the boat (so) you can't say: 'We'll leave it like that,'" manager Deborah Venema-Huibers told SkyNews. "You have (to clear) everything with the fire department, as it is all wood.

It took such a long time that we had to skip the Olympics." There are some concessions to modernity. Huibers used Swedish pine instead of the "gopher wood" mentioned in the Bible. Huibers says that's okay since, in the Bible, God told Noah to use a "resin wood." It's also built around a steel frame. Another concession to modernity, or at least to animal rights, instead of two of each kind of animal, there are only a few live chickens on the boat and a whole menagerie of life-size plastic critters such as giraffes, elephants and donkeys, NewsTrackIndia.com reported. "Johan's Ark," as Huibers boat is known, is opening in a period where Noah's Ark-related news stories are flooding the media. Earlier this year, ArkEncounter, a proposed theme park in Kentucky, aroused attention when the state's governor, Steve Beshear, giving it a $43 million tax break. Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky is reportedly working on a movie of the Noah's Ark tale that would feature Russell Crowe in the title role. Former Baywatch actress Donna's D'Errico has spent the last two years organizing a trip to Mt.

Ararat in Turkey to actually look for the remains of the Ark. In addition, Aaron Fruh, right-wing pastor in Alabama, came to Chick-fil-A's defense last week by claiming that same-sex marriage brought about the great flood that Noah endured. Noah's Ark The Ark: Noah's Ark Noah's Ark, as described in the Biblical book of Genesis, was the vessel built by Noah at God's command to save Noah, his family, and the world's animals, from the Deluge. God sent a Flood to destroy the earth. Noah was instructed to build an Ark and to retreat to it with his family and male and female representatives of all animals. It rained for 40 days and nights .The flood waters rose, and those inside the Ark survived as the rest of creation was extinguished. At the height of the flood "God remembered Noah", the waters abated, and dry land reappeared. Finally Noah and the animals left the Ark, Noah offered a sacrifice, and God vowed never again to destroy the earth in this manner. How Big Was the Ark?

The Ark was 300 cubits long (450ft), 50 cubits wide (75ft) and 30 cubits high (45ft). (Genesis 6:15) It contained 3 levels or interior decks. Or, 1,518,750ft3 displacement, and 101,250ft2 deck space. Until the 19th century, the Ark was the largest ship ever constructed and to this day is still the largest wooden ship ever constucted. Were Dinosaurs on the Ark? Yes. The Bible states that two (2) of every kind of air-breathing land animal (and seven of some) went on board Noah's Ark. So that means all the dinosaur 'kinds' (probably around fifty) went on the Ark. Were Dinosaurs really on Noahs Ark?

click here Noah’s Ark would have floated: study | New York Post Noah’s Ark would have floated: study Russell Crowe stars in "Noah." Paramount Pictures/Regency Enterprises Originally Published By: Noah’s Ark would have floated — even with two of every animal on board, physicists have determined based on the weight of the beasts and the buoyancy of the boat. The students from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leicester who came to this conclusion used the dimensions for the boat that were given in the Bible. In the book of Genesis, Noah is commanded to build an ark which is 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high to house himself, his family and two of every species of animal. For the study, the students settled on a cubit being about 19 inches (48.2 centimeters) long and found the ark could support the weight of 2.5 million sheep. The university said previous research suggested there were approximately 35,000 species of animals in Noah’s time. The students said it was not clear if all the animals would actually be able to fit on board. But if they did, the boat would still float.

This recently deciphered tablet contains building instructions for Noah’s Ark.AP Photo/Sang Tan Student Thomas Morris, 22, said: “You don’t think of the Bible necessarily as a scientifically accurate source of information, so I guess we were quite surprised when we discovered it would work. “We’re not proving that it’s true, but the concept would definitely work.” The full paper, “The animals float two by two, hurrah!,” was published in a peer-reviewed student journal. Research leader Oliver Youle, 22, explained the science behind the study. “Every object when immersed in a liquid has an upwards force acting against it — a buoyancy force; it also has a weight acting downwards — a downwards force, and in order for it to float, these two forces need to be equal.” His colleague Benjamin Jordan added: “Using the dimensions of the ark and the density of the water, we were able to calculate its buoyancy force, which, according to Archimedes’ principle, is equal to the weight of the volume of fluid the object displaces.

This meant we were then able to estimate the total mass the ark could support before the gravitational weight would overcome the buoyancy force, causing the ark to sink, which we calculated as 50.54x106kg.” This article originally appeared on News.com.au . Share this: ‘Noah’s Ark would have floated’ Story stays afloat ... Russell Crowe in a scene from "Noah." Scientists have said the boa News Corp Australia NOAH’S Ark would have floated — even with two of every animal on board, physicists have determined based on the weight of the beasts and the buoyancy of the boat. The students from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leicester who came to this conclusion used the dimensions for the boat that were given in the Bible. In the book of Genesis, Noah is commanded to build an ark which is 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high to house himself, his family and two of every species of animal. For the study, the students settled on a cubit being 48.2cm long and found the ark could support the weight of 2.5 million sheep.

The university said that previous research suggested there were approximately 35,000 species of animals in Noah’s time. The students said it was not clear if all the animals would actually be able to fit on board. But if they did, the boat would still float. DIY project ... in the book of Genesis, Noah is commanded to build an ark which is 300 cuSource:AP Student Thomas Morris, 22, said: “You don’t think of the Bible necessarily as a scientifically accurate source of information, so I guess we were quite surprised when we discovered it would work. We’re not proving that it’s true, but the concept would definitely work.” The full paper, The animals float two by two, hurrah! , was published in a peer-reviewed student journal. Research lead Oliver Youle, 22, explained the science behind the study.

“Every object when immersed in a liquid has an upwards force acting against it — a buoyancy force; it also has a weight acting downwards — a downwards force, and in order for it to float, these two forces need to be equal.” His colleague Benjamin Jordan added: “Using the dimensions of the ark and the density of the water, we were able to calculate its buoyancy force, which, according to Archimedes’ principle, is equal to the weight of the volume of fluid the object displaces. This meant we were then able to estimate the total mass the ark could support before the gravitational weight would overcome the buoyancy force, causing the ark to sink, which we calculated as 50.54x106kg.” Business: Noah's Ark (UPDATE) Noah's Ark (UPDATE) Noah: The Eve of the Deluge 1848 by John Linnell John Linnell presents a vision of the British landscape rich in spiritual and poetic associations. He draws on the biblical story of Noah's ark in which God orders Noah to build a ship to harbor his family and animals from the Great Flood.

The English poet, John Milton, also addressed the story in his epic poem Paradise Lost, a passage from which Linnell included alongside his painting at the Royal Academy exhibition in 1848: "When lo! a wonder strange! Of every beast, and bird, and insect small, Came sevens and pairs, and entered in, as taught, Their order: last the sire, and his three sons, With their four wives; and God made fast the door. Meanwhile the southwind rose, and with black wings Wide hovering, all the clouds together drove From under heaven." The context for Linnell's picture may represent the debate at that time between theologians and scientists over the accuracy of biblical sources. Alternatively, the awe-inspiring theme, represented most clearly in Linnell's apocalyptic swirl of sky, was of longstanding interest to romantic painters and writers. A flood of Biblical proportions just like in the story of Noah's Ark may have actually happened, according to the oceanographer who found the Titanic. Acclaimed underwater archaeologist Robert Ballard claims his team of researchers have uncovered evidence that suggests The Great Flood described in the Bible was actually based on real events.

Mr Ballard told how he investigated a controversial theory proposed by two scientists from Columbia University that there was a massive flood in the Black Sea region. Under sea researcher Robert Ballard (left), who found the Titanic, holds a picture of ancient jugs found off the coast of Israel and lost in a storm around 750 BC. He claims to have found evidence of The Great Flood Genesis: A mural from the mid-16th century shows God ordering Noah to load two of every animal on to his ark to avoid the imminent Great Flood In an interview with ABC News , he said around 12,000 years ago much of the world was covered in ice and the Black Sea had been a freshwater lake surrounded by farmland. But when the glaciers began to melt during a warming period in the cycle of the Earth's temperature around 5600BC water rushed toward the world's oceans, Mr Ballard said. This, he claimed, caused floods all around the world and water cascaded through Turkey’s Straits of Bosporus towards the Black Sea.'Where I live in Connecticut was ice a mile above my house, all the way back to the North Pole, about 15 million kilometers, that's a big ice cube,' he said.

'But then it started to melt. We're talking about the floods of our living history. The questions is, was there a mother of all floods?' His research follows a 1997 study by William Ryan and Walter Pitman who, drawing on archaeological and anthropological evidence, claimed that 'ten cubic miles of water poured through each day', and that the deluge continued for at least 300 days. A working replica of Noah's Ark built six years ago by Johan Huibers as a testament to his faith in the Bible in Schagen, the Netherlands The animals coming were two by two: The story of Noah is described in the book of Genesis Legendary: A manuscript of Noah's Ark from the Nuremburg Bible 1493 More than 60,000 square miles of land were flooded, they said, and the lake's level rose by hundreds of feet after merging with the Mediterranean, triggering mass animal migrations across Europe. According to their study, the force of the water was two hundred times that of Niagara Falls, sweeping away everything in its path. It also transformed the Black Sea from an isolated freshwater lake surrounded by farmland into a saltwater inlet.

The researchers, whose findings have been backed up by carbon dating and sonar imaging, claimed that the story of Noah's flood had its origin in this cataclysmic event. Passed down: A 14th Century English manuscript showing Noah's Ark at the end of flood 'We went in there to look for the flood,' Mr Ballard told ABC News . 'Not just a slow moving, advancing rise of sea level, but a really big flood that then stayed... The land that went under stayed under.' The team found an ancient shoreline which Mr Ballard believes is proof such an event did take place. He believes that, by using carbon dating shells found along the shoreline four hundred feet below the surface, it took place around 5,000 BC. 'It probably was a bad day,' he said. 'At some magic moment, it broke through and flooded this place violently, and a lot of real estate, 150,000 square kilometers of land, went under.' As the theory goes, the story of the disaster was passed down from generation to generation and eventually inspired the biblical account of Noah.

Noah is described in the Bible as a family man, a father of three, who is about to celebrate his 600th birthday. 'In the early chapters of Genesis, people live 800 years, 700 years, 900 years,' said Rabbi Burt Visotzky, a professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. 'Those are mythic numbers, those are way too big. We don't quite know what to do with that. So sometimes those large numbers, I think, also serve to reinforce the mystery of the text.' 'It probably was a bad day,' he said. 'At some magic moment, it broke through and flooded this place violently, and a lot of real estate, 150,000 square kilometers of land, went under.' Robert Ballard Mr Ballard's team has also found an ancient shipwreck, as well as ancient pottery. Although he does not think he will ever find Noah's Ark, he believes he may find evidence of an ancient community washed away.

In the book of Genesis, God despairs of human corruption and decides to flood the Earth, instructing Noah to build an ark to save himself, his family and a pair of each animal species. The Ark is described in the Book of Genesis as 300 cubits long, or approximately 450ft (137m), but despite many rumours and claims of sightings, no scientific evidence of its existence has ever been found. 'The oldest shipwreck that we have discovered so far of that area is around 500 BC, classical period,' Mr Ballard said. 'But the question is you just keep searching. It's a matter of statistics.' Mr Ballard, who led the international team that located the wreckage of the Titanic in 1985, does not think he will ever find Noah's Ark. However, Mr Ballard does think he may find evidence of a people whose entire world was washed away about 7,000 years ago. He and his team said they plan to return to Turkey next summer. 'It's foolish to think you will ever find a ship,' Mr Ballard said, referring to the Ark. 'But can you find people who were living? Can you find their villages that are underwater now?

And the answer is yes.' Throughout history, people have sought to understand how the world came to be and how it has changed over time. This curiosity has produced a rich legacy of science and philosophy and impacted and influenced religion and theology. In the November 2012 issue of GSA Today, David Montgomery of the University of Washington examines both the history of geology and of biblical views regarding Earth's origins. David Montgomery is a geomorphologist, a geologist who studies changes to topography over time and how geological processes shape landscapes. He has seen firsthand evidence of how the forces that have shaped Earth run counter to some significant religious beliefs. But the idea that scientific reason and religious faith are somehow at odds with each other, he said, "is, in my view, a false dichotomy." In a new book, "The Rocks Don't Lie: A Geologist Investigates Noah's Flood" (Aug. 27, 2012, W.W. Norton), Montgomery explores the long history of religious thinking -- particularly among Christians -- on matters of geological discovery, from the writings of St.

Augustine 1,700 years ago to the rise in the mid-20th century of the most recent rendering of creationism. "The purpose is not to tweak people of faith but to remind everyone about the long history in the faith community of respecting what we can learn from observing the world," he said. Many of the earliest geologists were clergy, he said. Nicolas Steno, considered the founder of modern geology, was a 17th century Roman Catholic priest who has achieved three of the four steps to being declared a saint in the church. "Though there are notable conflicts between religion and science -- the famous case of Galileo Galilei, for example -- there also is a church tradition of working to reconcile biblical stories with known scientific fact," Montgomery said. "What we hear today as the 'Christian' positions are really just one slice of a really rich pie," he said. For nearly two centuries there has been overwhelming geological evidence that a global flood, as depicted in the story of Noah in the biblical book of Genesis, could not have happened.

Not only is there not enough water in the Earth system to account for water levels above the highest mountaintop, but uniformly rising levels would not allow the water to have the erosive capabilities attributed to Noah's Flood, Montgomery said. Some rock formations millions of years old show no evidence of such large-scale water erosion. Montgomery is convinced any such flood must have been, at best, a regional event, perhaps a catastrophic deluge in Mesopotamia. There are, in fact, Mesopotamian stories with details very similar, but predating, the biblical story of Noah's Flood. "If your world is small enough, all floods are global," he said. Perhaps the greatest influence in prompting him to write "The Rocks Don't Lie" was a 2002 expedition to the Tsangpo River on the Tibetan Plateau. In the fertile river valley he found evidence in sediment layers that a great lake had formed in the valley many centuries ago, not once but numerous times. Downstream he found evidence that a glacier on several occasions advanced far enough to block the river, creating the huge lake.

But ice makes an unstable dam, and over time the ice thinned and finally give way, unleashing a tremendous torrent of water down the deepest gorge in the world. It was only after piecing the story together from geological evidence that Montgomery learned that local oral traditions told of exactly this kind of great flood. "To learn that the locals knew about it and talked about it for the last thousand years really jolted my thinking. Here was evidence that a folk tale might be reality based," he said. He has seen evidence of huge regional floods in the scablands of Eastern Washington, carved by torrents when glacial Lake Missoula breached its ice dam in Montana and raced across the landscape, and he found Native American stories that seem to tell of this catastrophic flood. Other flood stories dating back to the early inhabitants of the Pacific Northwest and from various islands in the Pacific Ocean, for example, likely tell of inundation by tsunamis after large earthquakes. But he noted that in some regions of the world -- in Africa, for example -- there are no flood stories in the oral traditions because there the annual floods help sustain life rather than bring destruction. Floods are not always responsible for major geological features.

Hiking a trail from the floor of the Grand Canyon to its rim, Montgomery saw unmistakable evidence of the canyon being carved over millions of years by the flow of the Colorado River, not by a global flood several thousand years ago as some people still believe. He describes that hike in detail in "The Rocks Don't Lie." He also explores changes in the understanding of where fossils came from, how geologists read Earth history in layers of rock, and the writings of geologists and religious authorities through the centuries. Montgomery hopes the book might increase science literacy. He noted that a 2001 National Science Foundation survey found that more than half of American adults didn't realize that dinosaurs were extinct long before humans came along. But he also would like to coax readers to make sense of the world through both what they believe and through what they can see for themselves, and to keep an open mind to new ideas. "If you think you know everything, you'll never learn anything," he said. Montgomery's main premise is that throughout most of the past several hundred years, scientists and theologians engaged in extensive collaboration regarding issues like Earth's age and origin.

The common bond that sustained this rich exchange of ideas was a respect for reason and a trust in the scientific process. As modern science evolved, so did many shared questions and struggles regarding how to best understand Earth's age as well as how new scientific findings harmonized with or conflicted with theological understanding as conveyed in works such as the Bible. These questions and struggles persist into the present, most notably in geology, where vast differences in the answers to such fundamental questions as "how old is this planet?" both correlate and contrast with some religious beliefs. In terms of Christian theology, the main problems that Montgomery discusses are Earth's age and the role of a global flood ("Noah's flood") in geological history. While these issues -- that Earth is not over four billion years old, but is actually only a few thousand years old, and that most of the geological history recorded by rocks was formed as a result of Noah's flood -- are commonly raised by modern-day creationists, they have also been vigorously studied by both scientists and theologians over the past several hundred years. Montgomery shows that geologists have provided a vast array of evidence that refutes both a young age for Earth and a worldwide flood.

These conclusions provoked significant debate among Christian writers during the early 1800s, but many acknowledged the validity of the scientific evidence. They subsequently adapted their view of creation as spelled out in the Bible, recognizing that it might be figurative instead of literal, and that Noah's flood was likely a regional event that involved the Caspian or Black Sea. Modern-day creationism, according to Montgomery, developed from several influential efforts, beginning in the 1920s. The movement would revive the global (Noah's) flood explanation for the geological record, resurrecting the older theory mainly in an effort to question scientific conclusions regarding the biological evolution of life on Earth. The creationists of the twentieth century -- and those of today -- evolved in order to reject a scientific basis for understanding of the history of our planet. They instead rely on a literal interpretation of Biblical accounts of creation. These arguments are effective. Montgomery points out more than 40% of Americans believe Earth is less than 10,000 years old, despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary.

However, Montgomery hopes that by pointing to our longer-term history and mutual heritage of using scientific observations of the natural world to inform both secular and religious understanding, the relationship between science and religion can undergo further evolution, and faith in science can be restored. According to Genesis 8:4, it came to rest 'in the mountains of Ararat'. Experts have agreed that these mountains are to be located in present-day Armenia and eastern Turkey. Many biblical scholars believe the story of Noah and the Ark was inspired by the legendary flood stories of nearby Mesopotamia, in particular 'The Epic of Gilgamesh.' These ancient narratives were already being passed down from one generation to the next, centuries before Noah appeared in the Bible. 'The earlier Mesopotamian stories are very similar where the gods are sending a flood to wipe out humans,' said biblical archaeologist Eric Cline. 'There's one man they choose to survive. He builds a boat and brings on animals and lands on a mountain and lives happily ever after? I would argue that it's the same story.' Catastrophic events of this kind are not unique to the Bible.

Some contemporary examples include the 2004 tsunami that wiped out villages on the coasts of 11 countries surrounding the Indian Ocean. There was also Hurricane Katrina, described as the worst hurricane in United States history. Scholars aren't sure if the biblical flood was larger or smaller than these modern day disasters, but they do think the experiences of people in ancient times were similar to our own. 'If you witness a terrible natural disaster, yes, you want a scientific explanation why this has happened,' said Karen Armstrong, author of A History of God. 'But you also need to something that will help you to assuage your grief and anguish and rage. And it is here that myth helps us through that.' Regardless of whether the details of the Noah story are historically accurate, the author believes this story and all the Biblical stories are telling us 'about our predicament in the world now.' As believers in the literal truth of the Bible, they knew it was there. Even so, the explorers who say they found seven large wooden compartments beneath snow and volcanic debris near the peak of Mount Ararat can be forgiven their excitement.

'It's not 100 per cent that it is Noah's Ark, but we think it is 99.9 per cent that this is it,' said Yeung Wing-cheung, a filmmaker working with the 15-strong team of fundamentalist Christians exploring the Turkish mountain. This picture released by the evangelical group claims to show one of the explorers examining part of a structure which they claim might prove the existence of Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat. There are no external images of the site and the Hong Kong-based group refuse to say precisely where they made their discovery until the Turkish government designate it an archaeological site The snow-capped peak of Mt. Ararat. The discovery is said to have been made 12,000ft up the mountain which lies in eastern Turkey GOD'S COMMAND In the Bible, the story of Noah's Ark appears in chapters six to nine of the Book of Genesis. It tells how God, spurred by the wickedness and corruption of man, vows to send a great cleansing flood. Deeming Noah to be the only righteous man worth saving, God commands him to build a vast ship, the ark - capable of saving himself, his family and a representation of the world's animals.

When Noah has completed his task, and God has sent 'two of every sort' of animal to the Ark, the flood waters rise until all mountains are covered and life (except fish) is destroyed. When the flood subsides, the animals leave the Ark and God vows to never again send a flood to destroy man. The story can also be found in the texts of Judaism and Islam. Although considered a historical event, most scholars and archaeologists do not believe in a literal interpretation of the Ark story. The vessel was said to measure '300 cubits, by 50 cubits, by 30 cubits', which translates to up to 515ft long, 86ft wide and 52ft high. They said wood taken from the site, which is more than 13,000ft above sea level, dates to 2,800BC. If it is the ark, the discovery would be the greatest in the history of archaeology and bear out one of the most famous stories in the Bible.

The team of Turks and Chinese researchers from Noah's Ark Ministries International in Hong Kong say they made the discovery on Ararat - the biblical resting place of the ark - in October At a press conference yesterday to announce the discovery, another team member, Panda Lee, said: 'I saw a structure built with plank-like timber. 'Each plank was about eight inches wide. I could see tenons, proof of ancient construction predating the use of metal nails. 'We walked about 100 metres to another site. I could see broken wood fragments embedded in a glacier, and some 20 metres long.' The structure had several compartments, some with wooden beams, the team said. The wooden walls of one compartment were smooth and curved while the video shown by the explorers revealed doors, staircases and nails. The team said the wood appeared to be cypress although, according to the Bible, the ark was built from gopher. The group ruled out identifying the find as a human settlement, saying none had been found so high up in that area. They are keeping the exact location secret. Four years ago and following a decade of research, U.S.

national security analyst Porcher Taylor claimed a satellite image revealed a baffling 'anomaly' on the mountain's north-west corner that he believed to be the remains of the Ark. But Mike Pitt, a British archaeologist, said the evangelical explorers had yet to produce compelling evidence. He added: 'If there had been a flood capable of lifting a huge ship 4km up the side of a mountain 4,800 years ago, I think there would be substantial geological evidence for this flood around the world. And there isn't.' Nicholas Purcell, a lecturer in ancient history at Oxford University, said the claims were the 'usual nonsense'. He added: 'If floodwaters covered Eurasia 12,000ft deep in 2,800BC, how did the complex societies of Egypt and Mesopotamia, already many centuries old, keep right on regardless?' According to Genesis, the first book in the Old Testament, Noah was told to build the ark by God, who wanted to flood the world to punish sinners.The story was widely seen as fact until the 19th century, when scientists began to question the evidence for a worldwide flood.

This photo, also put out by the evangelical group, is said to show part of a wall inside the structure found by the explorers. One of the team said: 'It's not 100 per cent that it is Noah's Ark but we think it is 99.9 per cent that this is it' In 2006, U.S. national security analyst Porcher Taylor claimed this satellite image revealed a baffling 'anomaly' on the mountain's north-west corner that he believed to be the remains of the Ark Wooden beams which the explorers said they found at the site. The search for the physical remains of Noah's Ark has held a fascination for Christians, Jews and Muslims for hundreds of years. But despite various claims no scientific evidence has ever been found Did a catastrophic flood of biblical proportions drown the shores of the Black Sea 9,500 years ago, wiping out early Neolithic settlements around its perimeter? A geologist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and two Romanian colleagues report in the January issue of Quaternary Science Reviews that, if the flood occurred at all, it was much smaller than previously proposed by other researchers.

Giosan and his colleagues estimate that the Black Sea was around 30 meters below present day levels (Black Lake is represented by dark blue water) before a breach of the Bosporus sill 9,500 years ago raised levels to a maximum of 20 meters |(the flooded area is represented by light blue water). Their estimates mean that the magnitude of the Black Sea flood was 5 or 10 meters but not 50 to 60 meters. (Credit: Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) Using sediment cores from the delta of the Danube River, which empties into the Black Sea, the researchers determined sea level was approximately 30 meters below present levels—rather than the 80 meters others hypothesized. “We don’t see evidence for a catastrophic flood as others have described,” said Liviu Giosan, a geologist in the WHOI Geology and Geophysics Department. Ten thousand years ago, at the end of the last glacial period, the Black Sea was a lake—cut off from the Sea of Marmara and beyond it the Mediterranean by the Bosphorus sill.

Debate in geological and archaeological circles has focused on whether, as glaciers melted and global sea levels began to rise, the Bosphorus sill overflowed gradually or whether a flood broke through the sill, drowning some 70,000 square kilometers and wiping out early Neolithic civilizations in the region. In addition to questions about the rate of the flood, investigators continue to debate the extent of the flood -- a debate centered around what the level of the Black Sea was 9,500 years ago. In the late 1990s, Columbia University researchers Bill Ryan and Walter Pitman examined the geological evidence and estimated the Black Sea level at the time of the flood was approximately 80 meters lower than present day levels. They suggested that the impact of a Black Sea flood could have forced the movement of early agriculturist groups to central Europe and established the story of Noah and his ark, as well as flood myths among other peoples. The source of the uncertainty fueling the Black Sea flood debate is the difficulty of finding reliable sea level markers to date the flood. “Sea level is like the Holy Grail,” said Giosan.

“You can’t really talk about a flood if you don’t know the exact levels of the sea level in both the Black Sea and outside it in the Mediterranean. And that’s what we tried to find.” Scientists examine the geochemistry of sedimentary deposits for evidence of fresh water fauna and the morphology of features on the seafloor, trying to infer drowned beaches or wind-generated dunes, but there are pitfalls associated with these indicators. Sediments are subject to erosion by waves and currents, and sand deposits formed by underwater currents can misleadingly be interpreted as dunes or beaches. “Instead, what we use as indicators of sea level is the level of the Danube River delta plain, an immense landform that cannot be mistaken for something else,” Giosan stated. A delta is formed when a river empties into a body of water. It dumps sediments and builds a flat plain—the delta—that is within a couple of meters of the shore and is, therefore, an indicator of sea level.

In 2006, a team led by Liviu Giosan showed that contrary to Soviet-era data suggesting large oscillations of Black Sea level, the development phases of the Danube delta demonstrate that the level was more or less as today in the last 6000 years. To extend their record back in time beyond 6000 years, in 2007, Giosan and his colleagues drilled a new core to 42 meters depth at the mouth of the Danube River, the largest river emptying into the Black Sea. Their goal was to reconstruct the history of that part of the delta—before and after the flood—through an examination of the sediments. In analyzing the delta sediment from the new core as well as others taken in the region, Giosan’s team discovered fresh water deposits of the newly forming delta dating back approximately 10,000 years, subsequently overlaid by fine marine sediments, followed by the modern delta deposits. “It’s amazing,” said Giosan. “The early delta was forming in a fresh water lake just a couple of hundred years before the flood.

And after the flood you have these marine deposits overlaying the whole delta region.” Using sediment cores to reconstruct the delta with accurate dates is challenging. To attach a date to the layers of a core, scientists use radiocarbon dating on the fossil shells of animals found in the core—for instance, clams or snails. But in energetic areas, waves can erode sediment on the seabed and heave up older shells, depositing them in “younger” sediments. To address these concerns, Giosan and his team used an approach that had not been used before in the Black Sea. They employed high resolution dating performed at WHOI’s Accelerator Mass Spectrometer (AMS) facility and only used “articulated” bivalves – those where both sides of the shell were still attached as they are when alive. The shells are held together by an organic substance that degrades easily when they are dead, so the valves usually separate when the animal dies. When bivalves are found intact, it means they were not moved by waves and they are likely to be in situ. Once the researchers dated and reconstructed the delta plain, they could determine sea level for the Black Sea.

They found that the Black Sea level at the time of the flood was around 30 meters below present levels. Determining how much water poured over the Bosphorus sill remains problematic. There is no direct reconstruction of the sea level for the Marmara, but, according to Giosan, indirect methods put it at approximately 5 to 10 meters above the Black Sea level at the time of the flood. “So if this is true, it means that the magnitude of the Black Sea flood was 5 or 10 meters but not 50 to 60 meters,” said Giosan. “Still, having flooded the Black Sea by 5 meters can have important effects, for example, drowning of the Danube Delta and putting an area of 2,000 square kilometers of prime agricultural land underwater. This has important implications for the archaeology and anthropology of southern Europe, as well as on our understanding of how the unique environment of the Black Sea formed.” The Hebrew word for the ark is teba, which occurs only twice in the Bible, here and in the Book of Exodus , where it is used for the basket in which the infant Moses is placed by his mother.

(The word for the ark of the covenant is quite different in Hebrew). In both cases, therefore, teba has a connection with salvation from waters. It is made of "gopher" wood, a word appears only here in the entire Bible, and is divided into qinnim, a word which always refers to birds' nests elsewhere, leading some scholars to amend this to qanim, reeds, the material used for the boat of Atrahasis , the Babylonian flood-hero. Noah is instructed to kapar (smear) the ark with koper (pitch): in Hebrew the first of these words is a verb formed from the second, and this is the only place in the Bible where "koper" means "pitch".

God spells out to Noah the dimensions of the ark, 300 cubits by 50 by 30, approximately 137 by 23 by 14 meters (440 feet long, 73 feet wide, and 43 feet high), with three internal divisions (which are not actually called "decks", although presumably this is what is intended), a door in the side, and a sohar, which may be either a roof or a skylight. [3] The story of the flood is closely connected with the story of the creation, a cycle of creation, un-creation, and re-creation, in which the ark plays a pivotal role. [4] The universe as conceived by the ancient Hebrews was made up of a flat disk-shaped habitable earth with the heavens above and Sheol, the underworld of the dead, below. [5] These three were surrounded by a watery "ocean" of chaos, protected by the firmament , a transparent but solid dome resting on the mountains which ringed the earth. [5] Noah's three-deck ark represents this three-level Hebrew cosmos in miniature: the heavens, the earth, and the waters beneath.

[6] In Genesis 1, God created the three-level world as a space in the midst of the waters for mankind; in Genesis 6-8 (the flood story) he fills that space with waters again, saving only Noah, his family and the animals with him in the ark. [4] The parallels – both similarities and differences – between Noah's ship and that of the Babylonian flood hero Atrahasis have often been noted. Noah's is a rectangle, while Atrahasis was instructed to build his in the form of a cube; Atrahasis has seven decks with nine compartments on each level, Noah has three decks, but is not given any instructions on the number of compartments. [7] The word used for "pitch" is not the normal Hebrew word but is closely related to the word used in the Babylonian story. [8] The Building of Noah's Ark (painting by a French master of 1675) "Rabbinic Judaism" is the Judaism of the first millennium CE, beginning approximately with the 2nd century Noah Warns the People Noah warned the people that God's judgment was coming.

It took hundreds of years to build the Ark, and everybody knew why Noah was doing it. But nobody believed him until it was too late. The Bible says in Luke 17:26 that "As in the days of Noah, so shall the days of the coming of the Son of Man be. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all." Don't wait too long. Once the door of the Ark was sealed shut by the hand of God, there was no hope of salvation for those who were outside. The same will be true of the Tribulation. Having been built, according to the Bible, thousands of years ago, Noah's Ark has only ever existed in peoples' imaginations. But now a group of architects who pondered what the Biblical vessel looked like have turned their dreams into reality by constructing a Noah's Ark replica, complete with animals. Thomas, Walter and Raymond's land-bound Ark certainly has dimensions on a Biblical scale, measuring a massive 450ft long and 75ft wide.

Biblical scale: The Ark in Hong Kong measures 450ft long and 75ft wide Water sight: The Ark also boasts less authentic Biblical touches such as double-glazed windows and a fine dining restaurant The billionaire brothers who built the Ark in Hong Kong claim it is the only ful-scale version in the world And the imaginative trio even attempted to give the giant boat an air of authenticity by placing 67 pairs of animals at the entrance, just like the pairs of creatures saved from the Great Flood by Noah in the Bible tale. The creationist-inspired vessel forms part of a theme park near Hong Kong which was inspired by a young girl's scrawled drawing of the mammoth boat. Architects appear to have used some artistic licence in parts of the Ark - for instance including double-glazed windows, a fine dining restaurant and luxurious bedrooms. Inside, real-life exotic animals can be found - including a nautilus, a toucan and reams of fish.

All lit up: The Ark shines under Hong Kong's lights as a fibreglass giraffe stands guard near the entrance Authentic: Various fibreglass animals stand outside the Ark to mimmick the Bible tale where Noah took creatures on board the vessel The Noah's Ark Theme Park is now run by Christian organisations, who use it to promote peace and unity. Matthew Pine, manager of Noah's Ark Theme Park, said: 'They had a vision to do something remarkable, something outstanding. 'They came up with many ideas. Some of them were really outrageous. 'But then they came across this girl's drawing, and knew it would be something do-able that captured imaginations.

'So they hired architects and engineers to create the replica Noah's Ark.' Food for thought: The Ark also includes a sophisticated-looking restaurant as one of its on-board attractions Food for thought: The Ark also includes a sophisticated-looking restaurant as one of its on-board attractions Bed for the night: Guests on board Noah's Ark can also stay on the Biblical vessel in one of its luxurious hotel-style rooms Land-bound: The Hong Kong-based Noah's Ark theme park was built in 2009 and is popular among tourists Matthew added: 'The reason we chose that moment in the Bible's story is because this is the message we want to bring to Hong Kong, to China, to the world. 'In our lives we always face floods, we will face trials, we will face difficulties. 'Hopefully Noah's Ark will inspire people to pass through those troubles as Noah did in his day.' The Ark opened in May 2009, 17 years after plans were first mooted for the enormous structure. It is just one of a number of real-life Noah's Arks - including one built by a Dutchman that contains pairs of living animals.

Question: In the Book of Genesis, what is described as 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high?
Answer: NOAH'S ARK