Suspense, Mystery, Horror and Thriller Fiction - Suspense Magazine

The Ark of NoAh
SuspenseMagazine.com
By Donald Allen Kirch
There is a mountain in Eastern Turkey known as Mount
Ararat. It’s a beautiful mountain, well over 16,854 feet above
sea level, and 11,847 feet tall. It is also believed to be a special
mountain when it comes to the legacy of mankind. For as long
as man has known how to write, it has been written that Mount
Ararat is the resting place of Noah’s Ark. In this article, we will
take a look at the many facts, people, and history surrounding
the quest to find this holy icon. Did it really exist?
When one thinks of the biblical story of Noah, they must
first tackle one of the most difficult words in the human
language: faith.
Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike have come to revere
this ancient story of a humble man, ordered by God, to turn
his back upon the world, perform the impossible, and to do the
bidding of his Creator.
Mount Ararat in Turkey Credit: Maks Karochkin
The story of Noah is told within the Holy Bible (Genesis
chapters 6-9) and within the pages of the Quran (Surah Hud
11:27-51). Within both books the story is remarkably the same.
God felt a sense of disappointment with the world he created, citing man as his greatest regret. The world in Noah’s day
was a violent one, and life was considered cheap. So, God sought to correct the problem. In planning to do so, he discovered
the soul of a man named Noah. According to the Bible, Noah was the only man whose heart walked with God. The Creator
was so taken aback by this wonderful discovery, that he saw it within His own kindness to spare Noah and his family from
what lay ahead.
In short, Noah was ordered to save what he could so that survival afterwards would be possible.
Like the resurrection of Jesus Christ, one could argue the reality of the Great Flood until they were blue in the face.
The same could be said about the Ark, how it was built, what material it was composed of, and the remarkable miracle of
gathering up all the animals. There can also be made a case for the combination of at least two traditional Hebrew stories to
make up the well-known saga. At least twice in the telling of the story, God tells the reader why He is angered at the world:
there are two reasons. In another part of the story, the numbers of how many animals brought on board are different: One
says two-by-two, the other seven pairs of “the clean animals.” One story of the Flood states forty days of rain, the other states
the breaking out of underwater pools, and that general flooding lasted one hundred fifty days. So, if the telling of Noah is
history, he should be angry—he had a terrible editor!
All of the above mentioned are cardinals of faith. Faith, simply put, cannot be measured.
This article is about mankind’s obsession with finding the actual “Ark.” Those who risked their lives searching for it,
hoping, upon discovery, to prove science wrong and the Bible as history.
From the ancient days of Eusebius (c. 275-339 AD) to the present day, people have dedicated themselves to discovering
pieces of the ancient vessel, who have traveled from the ends of the earth to see if faith can be made fact. Noah’s Ark has held
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