This prophecy from the Old Testament is echoed across time and other cultures. The epic of Gilgamesh from Babylon also refers to an apocalyptic deluge that destroys mankind. A mythic Chinese Emperor founded the first dynasty only after he was able to divert flood-waters that reach to the heavens. Hopi tradition speaks of a devastating torrent that wipes out a corrupt people. Interpreters of prophecy suggest all these floods mirror environmental catastrophe taking place around the world today. Nostradamus Effect, History 2009
The problem with a 450-foot boat made of wood is that the wood as the material cannot maintain the shape of the boat, and the boat would start to distort at sea, seams would open up and it would sink. Tom Vosner, marine archaeologist
We decided to take on the challenge. Professor Walter Pitman, Horizon: Noah’s Flood, BBC 1996
The water that flowed through the Bosporus at the time of the flood was a thousand times greater than what you’re seeing float over Niagara. ibid.
When the Bosporus broke through, the level of the Black Sea began to rise anywheres from fifteen to thirty centimetres a day. ibid.
The occurrence of the flood is an ugly fact. ibid.
7,540 years ago ... The onset of the poisonous layer in the Black Sea. This meant that when the saltwater rushed in through the Bosporus and flooded the shelves it stopped the breathing of the Black Sea ... If such people were settled on the shores of the Black Sea, their displacement would have been an enormous consequence to their culture. Professor Bill Ryan, interview Horizon ibid.
I was doing some research in the Black Sea in the late seventies. I found an old shoreline about a hundred and ten metres under the surface. Then I found evidence of ancient beaches ... There had been a flood. Professor Petro Dimitrov, Institute of Oceanography, Varna, interview Horizon ibid.
The Epic of Gilgamesh does inspire people. Dr Stephanie Dalley, University of Oxford, interview Horizon ibid.
How could he cram two of every different kind of animal into the Ark? ... How would he have got the animals on board? Did he personally go and fetch them or did thy come to him? Noah’s Ark: The True Story, BBC 2003
Forty days and forty nights – even non-stop that’s not enough. ibid.
Wood rots in a matter of centuries. ibid.
The [Ararat] anomaly has tantalised Ark hunters since the pictures were released. But geologists remain unconvinced. ibid.
15,000 years ago at least three Mesopotamian towns were hit by large river floods. ibid.
A Great Flood would leave a signature; it would be a very very large signature apparent all over the world. There is no such signature. There is no evidence. In fact there is only overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Ian Plimer, geologist
I doubt it. I don’t see any evidence in geology or anything else of a worldwide catastrophe. Professor Eric H Cline, The George Washington University
On June 16th 1987 Ron Wyatt and a film crew from the United States of America travelled to eastern Turkey. Noah’s Ark Found? The Best Evidence, UFO TV
In 1960 news of the photos reached the United States. ibid.
High carbon content, as in long decayed ancient wood, there are also traces of metal. ibid.
The Novind Theory: Noah and the animals were safely in the Ark; a minus 300° ice meteor came through the solar system. Fragments cratered the planets and made rings around some other planets; as it approached the Earth it shattered in space and the super-cold ice showed on the Earth mostly around the poles. Kent Hovind, cited Why Do People Laugh at Creationists?
Not only would the boat have to be huge but how are you going to collect every animal on the planet and put them on that ship? So could it be possible that Noah’s Ark was once again misunderstood technology, and Noah’s Ark was a DNA bank? Giorgio A Tsoukalos, publisher Legendary Times Magazine
A deluge, a cataclysm, the vengeful act of God: the Bible states only Noah and his family were spared. But was the Great Flood just a story or a catastrophic event that altered the course of human history? Ancient X Files s2e8: Great Flood & Scottish Stone Mystery, National Geographic 2010
Echoed in other theories that also argue there was a massive flood in the Black Sea region. ibid.
We all remember a bit about Noah’s Ark … Who was Noah, and what was the Ark? Joanna Lumley: The Search for Noah’s Ark, ITV 2012
As much a part of Islam as it is about Christianity. ibid.
Mount Ararat … I wonder if it’s true … Now it’s become a place of pilgrimage. ibid.
Ron Wyatt who in 1977 embarked on over ten years of research into a mysterious formation found a short distance from Ararat. ibid.
It does seem likely there was a flood. ibid.
Earliest copy of The Book of Genesis 250 B.C.; Torah 500 B.C.; The Gilgamesh Tablet 650 B.C.; Babylonian version of The Great Flood 1,800 B.C. ibid.
Could all these stories be linked? ibid.
Could Noah’s Ark ever have been built? ibid.
So Noah, when he anchor’d safe on
The mountain’s top, his lofty haven,
And all the passengers he bore
Were on the new world set ashore,
He made it next his chief design
To plant and propagate a vine,
Which since has overwhelm’d and drown’d
Far greater numbers, on dry ground,
Of wretched mankind, one by one,
Than all the flood before had done. Samuel Butler, Satire Upon Drunkenness
Often it does seem such a pity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat. Mark Twain
The biblical account of Noah’s Ark and the Flood is perhaps the most implausible story for fundamentalists to defend. Where, for example, while loading his ark, did Noah find penguins and polar bears in Palestine? Judith Hayes
We know that there are many animals on this continent not found in the Old World. These must have been carried from here to the ark, and then brought back afterwards. Were the peccary, armadillo, ant-eater, sloth, agouti, vampire-bat, marmoset, howling and prehensile-tailed monkey, the raccoon and muskrat carried by the angels from America to Asia? How did they get there? Did the polar bear leave his field of ice and journey toward the tropics? How did he know where the ark was? Did the kangaroo swim or jump from Australia to Asia? Did the giraffe, hippopotamus, antelope and orangutang journey from Africa in search of the ark? Can absurdities go farther than this? Robert G Ingersoll, Some Mistakes of Moses
And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth: both man, and beast. Genesis 6:7
55,556. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Genesis 6:8
I will destroy them with the Earth. Genesis 6:13
Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.
A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it. Genesis 6:14-16
And behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and everything that is in the earth shall die. Genesis 6:17
But with thee [Noah] will I establish my covenant. Genesis 6:18
And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.
Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.
And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them. Genesis 6:19-21
For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the Earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the Earth. Genesis 7:4