The Discovery of Noah’s Ark

The Prophet Noah belongs to the early age of human history. He was sent to Mesopotamia in Iraq, where he performed the task of conveying the message of God to people, for a long period of time. Yet very few believed in him. Finally as the result of a flood, all the people of this area were drowned. At that time, before the tempest, God commanded Noah to build a large boat (ark). Noah did so and then asked all the believers to board this ark. This ark floated on water, until finally, it reached Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey. Later, when the flood subsided, all the people disembarked from the ark and settled in different parts of the world.

This event dates back 5,000 years. The Quran foretold that this ark would remain preserved and would be discovered in later times to serve as a sign for mankind. In chapter 54, the Quran has this to say about the ark: “We have left this as a sign: but will anyone take heed?” (54:15). The same point has been made in chapter 29, “And We made this event a sign for mankind.” (29:15)

At the end of the nineteenth century, the passengers of an aeroplane saw the remains of an ark hidden under a Glacier on Mount Ararat. But repeated efforts to find out more precise details about this was unsuccessful. Then in the twenty-first century, when as a result of global warming the glaciers began to melt, air passengers could see that a whole ark lay buried on Mount Ararat. Subsequently, a group of Chinese and Turkish Christians climbed up there. With modern equipment, they determined the exact age of the ark by carbon dating. Now it was established that this ark belonged to the very age when there had been floods during the time of Noah. The details of this discovery were reported in the media. The following news report was published in The Times of India, New Delhi, April 28, 2010:

“Hong Kong: A group of Chinese and Turkish evangelical explorers said they believe they may have found Noah’s Ark—four thousand meters up a mountain in Turkey. The team say they recovered wooden specimens from a structure on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey that carbon dating proved was 4,800 years old, around the same time the ark is said to have been afloat. “It’s not 100% certain that it is Noah’s Ark but we think it is 99.9% that this is it.” Yeung Wing-cheung, a Hong Kong documentary filmmaker and member of the 15-strong team from Noah’s Ark Ministries International said: “The structure had several compartments, some with wooden beams, which were believed to house animals, he said. The group of archaeologists ruled out an established human settlement on the grounds that one had never been found above 3,500 meters in the vicinity.”

Of the signs of approaching Doomsday this is perhaps the clearest one. Man has been building wooden boats and arks for several thousand years. But of these boats of ancient times, there are no fragments extant in the world today, for after a period of time the wood naturally decays and crumbles. In the history of boats or arks, Noah’s Ark is the exception. God alone knew of this exception. God knew that this ark would float over the waters and then it would reach Mount Ararat, where as a result of a natural process, it would become submerged under the glacier and in this way it would remain preserved. God also knew that by the end of the twentieth century, global warming would take place and the ice on the Mount would start melting until the ark became plainly visible. In the twenty-first century, the appearance of Noah’s Ark is a sign that just as 5,000 years ago a huge tempest had destroyed the whole population, similarly another greater tempest is going to come when all human beings will be wiped out and only those will survive whom God will select as inhabitants of Paradise.