Enigma Of Mount Ararat – Researchers Are Determined To Reveal The Truth To The World
AncientPages.com - "Book of Genesis" chapters 7 and 8 say that a storm raged for 40 days and 40 nights, and Noah's Ark floated on the flood waters for about five months before coming to rest "on the mountains of Ararat."
Noah, his family, and two of every animal remained inside the boat for about 13 months total.
"... And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat..." (Genesis 8:4)
The story of the Great Flood - still shrouded in the deepest mystery - is more ancient than Genesis.
The Sumerian epic Gilgamesh tells of a man named Ziusudra, in Mesopotamian religion, rough counterpart to the biblical Noah as survivor of a god-sent flood.
There is also the Babylonian version of that story that says Utnapishtum ("he found life") survives the flood.
No matter diversity of versions of the story, researchers are still very determined to solve the enigma of Mount Ararat.
By the end of March 2014, a team consisting of Turkish, Dutch and Belgian members launched an expedition on Mount Ararat, Turkey and found at an altitude of 4.000 meters remains of a possible wooden structure and also pottery.
They call for community support for a follow-up scientific investigation in September this year.
"It was very tough. Heavy winds and snowstorms made the first two attempts to reach the site fail. The third and last all-or-nothing attempt succeeded and the team reached the location. There, in a fissure within the icecap under 10 meters of rock, ice and snow we found well-preserved wooden remains and pottery too," Jeroen Rensen, a Dutch archaeologist from the team, said.
Later this year a major scientific expedition will conduct a follow-up investigation to determine what the artifacts and wooden remains constitute.
In response to the critics that wood and artifacts were deliberately planted, a Belgian physician, Dr. Marcel Verheyen said as follows:
"That is absolutely impossible. The mountain's terrible terrain is rather inaccessible, let alone to carry beams of wood. You need to be there and see it with your own eyes, before you put forward any hypothesis. I am 100% sure that it is impossible to plant such a structure there."
Recent reports of discovery of wood remains on Mount Ararat were made in 2010 by a Hong Kong based Christian group, NAMI (Noah's Ark Ministries International), yet the finding has been overshadowed by lot of criticisms. The site documented by Rensen and Verheyen in March is in the vicinity of the claim made a few years back.
Participating in the expedition as independent investigators, Rensen and Verheyen do not want to engage into the controversy, but conduct a step-by-step scientific exploration with a multi-disciplinary scientific team.
"The question of whether there are any wooden remains at all on Mount Ararat has been answered. But so many questions still remain. The main question to be answered now is: What type of site do the remains at this location represent?" Rensen said.
This research - based on coordination with scientists, researchers, and the Turkish government to conduct further studies on the site - is necessary to do everything what's possible to reveal long-standing secrets of Mount Ararat.
Researchers are determined to find out the ultimate truth.
See also:
Sumerian King List – Ancient Record Of Kingship That Has Long Been Of Great Interest
Search For Noah’s Ark Continues – The ‘Inside Mount Ararat’ Research Project
Mysterious Lost Kingdom Of Urartu And Its Enigmatic History
"Many people immediately relate the discovery of wood specimens on Mount Ararat to Noah's Ark, but I will not jump to any conclusion. The more I studied the evidence from the mountain, the more I believe it is something very special. Be it the Ark of Noah or not, it definitely deserves careful investigation without bias.
We need community support for our endeavor, so we will be able to reveal the truth to the world," said Walter Tiemessen, a veteran Dutch media expert, has been following the development of the discovery for 4 years.
Crowdfunding has been proven to be a successful source to finance creative and science projects.
"With sufficient funding, we can make the scientific exploration happen, and the whole process will be documented on video. Everything will be under strict scientific protocol. Only then can we provide a satisfactory answer to the curious world. And I expect the project on Mount Ararat will be carried on for many years to come, it is only the first step to take."
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