Description

Noah's Ark is the huge vessel described in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament book of Genesis, through which the Hebrew God saved a single man, Noah, together with the other seven members of his family, plus representatives of all the species of animals and birds, from a cataclysmic flood with which he wished to exterminate all other life on Earth. It is described as 300 cubits long, or approximately 450 feet (137 m) - considerably longer than any wooden vessel ever built in historical times. According to Genesis 8:4 the Ark came to rest "in the mountains of Ararat."

The motivation of the searchers is summed up in this quotation from the Institute for Creation Research: "If the flood of Noah indeed wiped out the entire human race and its civilization, as the Bible teaches, then the Ark constitutes the one remaining major link to the pre-flood World. No significant artifact could ever be of greater antiquity or importance.... [with] tremendous potential impact on the creation-evolution (including theistic evolution) controversy." The writer might equally have added the implications for geology, cosmology, and almost every other branch of modern science.