WHERE DID THE NOAH'S FLOOD OCCUR?

Biblical answer to that question is in the "earth of Ararat." 

The Bible is very explicit in saying where was exactly that fountain flood  had happened when it says:

"wa-tanakh (and rested)

ha-teba (the ark)

ba-chodez (in the month)

hatzebyi (7th),

betzib'ah-'ashar (on the 17th)

yōm (day)

la-chodez (of the month)

'al (on)

harei (mountains)

'ararath (of Ararat)." 

- Genesis 8:4

Moses (Torah) says that the ark had rested on the "mountains of Ararat." He uses plural here to mean a region. 

And that region was also popularly known as 

"'eretz ararath" 

("earth of Ararat"). 

History indirectly relates that "earth of Ararat" to the Noah's ark in an incident during the time of king Sennacherib - an event that is hinted from prophet Isaiah's report after Sennacherib built a movable shrine of a plank claimed to be taken from Noah's ark. 

"And it come to happen as he was worshipping 

Beth Nisar-okh 

[Great House Nisar]

  his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with a sword and they fled to [the] earth of Ararat."

Let us further dissect this passage in this way:

"wayhî (and it came to pass)

hū (as he)

mischtakhāweh (was worshipping)

bêth (house)

nisrōkh (Great Nisar)

'elōhāw (his god)

wa'adhrammelekh (that Adrammelech)

washar'etser (and Sharezer)

bānāw (his sons)

hikuhu (struck him)

ba-chereb (with a sword)

wehêmāh (and they)

nimlathu (escaped in to)

'eretz (earth)

'ararath (of Ararat)..." - Isaiah 37:38

This incident was possibly reported in the kingdom of Judah, as a form of religious encouragement that Yahweh punishes Sennacherib because of his mocking the God of Abraham. 

The Assyrian king never defeated king Hezekiah (r.715-686 BCE) of Judah and because of desperation, Sennacherib sought all means to win in the succeeding battles, resulting later to looting a plank from Noah's ark after he envied Abraham because that God (Yah) is caring for Judah, and he tried to bribe this God (Ya) by making Beth-Nisroch, a god made with the said plank and called its temple Araske (after the name of Lesser Araske river  going to Arzap/Kazan west south of Mt. Ararat) and erected such a shrine made of bricks in his border in what is now called Mt. Cudi. 

Babylonian Talmud further relates: 

"He then went away, 

and found a plank of Noah's Ark. 

'This,' said he, 'must be the great God who saved Noah from the flood. If I go [to battle] and am successful, I will sacrifice my two sons to thee,' he vowed. 

But his sons heard this, so they killed him,..." - Tractate Sanhedrin, folio 96a

The "house" that Sennacherib worshipped as the "great god" was said a plank of Noah's Ark which he probably received from a pilgrim who looted it in around 686 BCE 

and which he called "Nisrokh" ("Great Nisar"), masculine of "Nisar" which was a Babylonian goddess of agriculture. Prophet Isaiah retained untranslated this name ("Nisroch"), but a Judaean servant of the Assyrian king translated it into "Dagon."  

This "Dagon" could have two meanings: first as a direct translation, it means "god of agriculture" and second as a shape, it may mean "fish," referring to the shape of the ark.

It's not difficult for Sennacherib to have such a plank because in 705 BCE Argishti II ( c.713 - c.685 BCE), king of Urartu, had a peace treaty with him.

"But not 40 days had passed, two of Sennacherib's sons assassinated him and then escaped to the

 mountains of Ararat. 

Another son, Sacherdonos [Esarhaddon], reigned after him who appointed Achikar [Achiacharus], my brother Hanael's son, in charge of all the financial affairs of the empire. " - Tobit 1:21

"Adrammelech and Sharezer, they laid in wait for him, and killed him with the sword at the time he went to pray before Dagon his god" (Tobit 1:24)

Official cuneiform record reported that...

" On 20th Tebet Sennacherib, king of Assyria, was killed by his son in a revolt." - Babylonian Chronicle column 3:34

Tobit, a contemporary of Sennacherib and Esarhaddon, was saying that on 4th January 681 BCE Sennacherib was murdered by his sons, and since only one sword was used to kill him (as what prophet Isaiah has reported, too), it simply means only one of the two who really killed him, and

" ... they fled 

eis ta ore A'rarath 

(into the mountains of Ararat),

... "

on February 15, after killing any body who would reveal Adrammelech's plot, but Esarhaddon took the throne on May 29, 681 BCE. 

King Esarhaddon called this

 "ore A'rarath" ("mountains of Ararat") 

as 

"Parts Unknown" 

or of nisirtu, when he officially reported:

" As for those villains [Adrammelech and Sharezer] who instigated revolt and rebellion, when they heard of the approach of my army, they abandoned their troops, and fled to 

parts unknown " - ARAB 2:202

This "Parts Unknown" is what the Gilgamesh Epic called "Nisir" (Hidden).

Historically, what prophet Isaiah has reported " 'eretz ararath" ("earth of Ararat") is what Tobit called "ore A'rarath" ('mountains of Ararat'), which eventually called "Parts Unknown" by king Esarhaddon (681 BCE). And this Parts Unknown are what flood epic called "Nisir" ("Unknown"), and one of the mounds or hills on this Nisir, according to Gilgamesh Epic, was the landing site of the huge boat of Utnapishtim (Noah).

The 630's BCE version of Gilgamesh Epic has said that:

"the wooden-boat was held tight and could not move on a hill country of Nisir." 

  " KUR-ú KUR (Hill country)

 ni-sir (Nisir)

GIŠ (wooden) 

eleppu (boat)

 is-bat-ma (held-tight)

 a-na (that)

na-a-ši (its-movement)

ul (not)

id-din (allowed). " - Gilgamesh Epic, tablet 11,  line 141

King Ashurbanipal (669- c.627 BCE), the publisher of the Standard Epic of Gilgamesh, claimed that the version he has had was written by Sin-leqi-unninni (1000 BCE). 

Most likely this Sin-leqi-unninni who had edited the Epic of Gilgamesh was the scribe who inserted 

tablet 11 (Flood Story) 

to be included. If he was the source of the name 

"Nisir,"

 then it simply means this Sin-leqi-unninni edited the Epic of Gilgamesh in around 880 BCE, because the term "Nisir" has its first appearance in historical cuneiform record when it was used by king Ashur-nasir-pal in 881 BCE during a campaign in Urartu, particularly in Nodshirakan (Adiabene) - a range of mountains and hills from Lower Zab river to Ziyaret (Zaranda-Bari border). And this may also imply that the standardization of Gilgamesh Epic was to mimic the victory of king Hezekiah of Judah in using literature (books published by king Solomon) to tightly unite citizens and soldiers in one faith. King Hezekiah translated the books of king Solomon into Judaean langauge understandable to laymen (cf. Proverbs 25:1). And those published books may include the ancient versions of Moses' writings, particularly about their God Yahweh. 

King Sennacherib tried to discourage Judaeans by mocking the name of Yahweh, but he failed and never defeated Jerusalem, and made retirement from spoiling much failures against Jerusalem; but never forget his lost that later he revived his interest by trying to bribe Noah's God and by mimicking a symbol of unification: Beth Nisroch, a house god Nisar, claimed as derived from a plank of Noah's Ark. Unfortunately, this same house god triggered indirectly his death on January 4, 681 BCE after his barbaric idea that he would sacrifice alive his two elder sons if he could win the battle.

So, with the term "Nisir" we can be certained that Sin-leqi-nninni had edited the complete Epic of Gilgamesh around 880 BCE, and also the possible reason why he put an incipit "Sha naqba īmuru ("He who Saw the Deep") to mean that Utnapishtim had seen the deep (flood or the Yaredu [descent, down of Mashu]) or that Gilgamesh had seen the "Unknown" (Nisir). 

Sin-leqi-unninni possibly plagiarized the Flood Story from the Epic of Atrahasis, Sumerian Epic of Ziusudra, and apparently from Moses' Flood story. 

The original Epic of Gilgamesh may have no Flood Story (tablet 11). It has the incipit or opening words:

"Shūtur eli sharrī"  ("Surpassing All Other Kings").

 

King Ashurbanipal has an indication that the Gilgamesh Epic of Sin-leqi-nninni was plagiarized from Epic of Atrahasis as it mentions "Atrahasis" in the story and it copied directly some lines from Atrahasis' epic. 

The oldest copy of the Atrahasis Epic can be dated by colophon (scribal identification) to the reign of Ammi-Saduqa (1550-1530  BCE), grandson of king Hammurabi of Babylon.

 It is expected that Babylonians became concern about this story, as their founder 

"Sumu-abum" (1798-1785 BCE)

 was  proud to be called "Whose Father is Shem." Shem was a chronologically contemporary of king Nuabu ("Whose Father is Noah") of Assyria. 

According to king Hammurabi's list of ancestors, Nuabu (c. 2000 BCE) was the 10th generation after Tudiya-Adam, the first ruler of Assyria.

Genesis 2:14-15 describes that "Adam" was the first ruler of ASSYRIA, particularly in the western part.

 Ugarit (Syrian) scribe had also a version of Atrahasis Epic.              

The incipit of Atrahasis Epic is  “When gods were in the ways of men," relating how gods (priests) were like ordinary men, working a heavy job (like farming, making garden, irrigation, and so on), which later resulted to a revolt of Anunnaki (junior gods of high earth, i.e. priests of the mountains) and ended to a resolution of sacrificing Geshtu-E, one of the gods (priests) by a ritual of mixing his blood to a human figurine soil, symbolizing appointing ordinary men to toil the land for the gods (priests). 

Tablet 3 of Atrahasis Epic mentions that Enki (Ea) spoke on a reed wall in a dream to warn Atrahasis about the impending flood and gave an advice to dismantle his house to build a huge boat.

The name Atrahasis is possibly not a birthname but an alias he had received after he had wisely survived the river flood. In later edition, this name might have changed into Akkadian "Utnapishtim," whose name means "He Found Life." This latter name was a translation of the Old Babylonian name Ziusudra.

The name Ziusudra, Atrahasis, or Utnapishtim is not mentioned in the Sumerian King List Weld-Blunfell Prism (WB 444 AN1923.444) published by king Sin-magir around 1721 BCE, rather the kinglist records:

"Then Zimbir fell and the kingship was taken to Shuruppak. [And ] 

Ubara-Tutu [reigned] 5 sars, 1 ner

Then the flood swept over.

After the flood had swept over, and the kingship had descended from heaven, the kingship was in Kish. [And ruled] Jushur for 33 sars."

This may mean that a devastating Shuruppak flood had really happened during the time of king Ubara-Tutu (c. 2950 BCE). 

However, when another flood happened in 2029 BCE and became more dramatic because the flood hero built and survived by a huge boat, a small cuneiform kinglist (WB 62) published around c. 1950 BCE adjusted it by describing "Zin-Suddu [Ziusudra], son of SU.KUR.LAM [Shuruppak] grandson of Ubara-Tutu" as the king and priest when the flood took place. 

In Babylonian language, Zi-ud-sura means "Found Long Life," which later directly translated as "Uta-Napishti" ("He Found Life").

This could be how southern Mesopotamian scribes plagiarized the Ararat flood, by changing the name of the flood hero into Ziusudra, and edited it with Sumerian langauge. Hence, around 1700 BCE the Sumerian Epic of Ziusudra was published. Fortunately the Epic of Ziusudra is honest to mention that the flood hero was living in "Dilmun," a distant place known for its woods and copper (in Diyarbakr) in the region called by the Sumerians as Erin (Cedar) untranslated in Moses (Torah) as Eden, what we called today Syria. 

These trees of Eden were located from Lebanon to Assyria, according to the Bible.

"Behold, the 

Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon

 with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs. 

The 

cedars in the garden of God

 could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chesnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty. 

I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and 

all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon,

 all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth." - Ezekiel 31:3,8,16 (KJV)

And in around 880 BCE when Sin-leqi-nninni plagiarized the Epic of Ziusudra, he mentions:

"godchild of Ubaratutu, who lives a pious life in fair Dilmun where Shamash rises as it does in paradises lost and won" (Gilgamesh Epic, tablet 9, column 1, line 10)

Cedar (Erēnu) of Syria was known as the shade of Dilmun. Hebrews Hebrized that Sumerian word "Erin" into Eden, referring to the region of Cedar and various trees in Syria from Tyre to Dilmun (Diyarbakr) as we can discern from Ezekiel 31:8,16 and 28:12-13. The Tyre being mentioned by prophet Ezekiel may refer to Sumerian term "TIR" ("Forest").

King Sargon described that Tilmun (Dilmun) as near Tuttul, Mari, Yarmutu (Jarmoth), Ibla (Ebla), and Cedar (Lebanon, Syria). 

"Sargon king of Kish was victorious in 34 campaigns; the city walls he destroyed as far as the shore of the sea; he caused to be moored at the wharf of Akkad ships from Melukha, and ships from Magan and ships from Tilmun (Dilmun). King Sargon prostrated himself in prayer before Dagan in Tutul; and he gave him the upper region, including Mari, Yarmutu, and Ebla as far as the Cedar Forest [Lebanon] and Silver Mountain [Taurus]. Enlil permitted no one to oppose king Sargon," - Sargon of Akkad (r. 2238-2183 BCE)

As early as 25th century BCE Dilmun was known for woods brought by its boats as officially reported by a king of Lagash. 

"boats from the land of Dilmun carried the woods" - king Urnanshe (c. 2400 BCE)

This may mean that woods from Cedar Forest were carried on by the ships of Dilmun to southern Mesopotamia. According to several Uruk III (2016-1908 BCE) texts, Dilmon was a good source of copper, which was referring to Diyarbakr, hence Sumerians borrowed their term for copper from the Hurrians of the ancient Diyarbakr.

Ziusudra Epic reported that the flood hero was permitted to live in Dilmun. 

"king Ziusudra ...they caused to dwell in the land of the country of Dilmun, the place where Shamash rises." - Epic of Ziusudra, line 261

The 630 BCE Gilgamesh Epic described further, although omitted the term Dilmon:

"Formerly Utnapishtim was a human being, but now he and his wife have become gods like us. Let Utnapishtim reside far away, at the mouth of the rivers." 

- dingir-kabtu [divine important person], Gilgamesh Epic, tablet 11, lines 202-204

It indirectly describes where gods are living - at the mouth of the rivers. The dingir-kabtu, who pronounces this, is a man who represents a god. He is a priest who emphasizes his distinction from ordinary humans. And these junior gods (called Anunnaki) were human beings who presided as divine beings (priests); these gods were too much frightened by the flood. 

"The Anunnaki, those great gods [were sitt]ing in thirst and hunger." - Epic of Atrahasis, OB tablet 3, lines 30-31

And that Utnapishtim (Ziusudra) became one of the gods simply means he became one of the priests. Cuneiform list WB 62 reported that the flood survivor was a gudug priest.

The rivers, whose mouth where Utnapishtim lived at, refer to Tigris in Dilmun (Diyarbakr - there is no Tigris in Bahrain), Euphrates in Mt. Abos (Yanikcukur), Lesser Araske river from Gülü lake to Arzap (Kazan), and probably a river in the border of Iran-Turkey. King of Uruk, alias Gilgamesh, after 2029 BCE was searching for the flood hero by going to traditional route: to Metsamor and then to Mashu (Mt. Ararat), and when he found him not, he went to ERIN (Cedar Forest) and then to Dilmun, and there he found Urshanabi at Arzap/Kazan; since there was still a body of water, they sailed traversing the "Waters of Death" going to Nasar, at the foot of the hill of Baris-Ziyareth Dag. And the flood hero learned their arrival at the First Landing Site.

To further determine it, we can cite king Sargon (722-702 BCE) who describes that king Uperi of Dilmon was living a mere 30 beru (116-257 km, 72-160 miles) in the midst of the sea, which could be an island in Nairi Sea (Lake Van) or on formerly rain-lake near Arzap (Kazan), south of Mt. Ararat.

Through prophet Ezekiel the location of the flood could be understood as the location where the Nephilim had been buried, and it was called "Yardu" or "Down" - a lower ground on the southern foot of Mashu (Mt. Ararat). 

"There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude: her graves are round about him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused their terror in the land of the living. 

Do they not lie with the other uncircumcised warriors, who were 

giborim Nophilim,

who are gone 

YARDU (Down)

to the grave with their weapons of war, whose swords were placed under their souls? The punishment for their sins rested on their bones, though the terror of these warriors had stalked through the land of the living." - Ezekiel 32:26-27

In Genesis 6:4 they are described as the "mighty men of old, men of renown." 

"The Nephilim were on the earth in those days - and also afterward - when the sons of elohim went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of antiquity, popular men. Yah saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time." - Genesis 6:4-5

If we will follow Ezekiel's hint, we can suppose that these Nophilim had descended from Meshech and Tubal in what we called in history as the Hittite land. They were the people who had copper sources, known for smelting swords or weaponry. 

Adding to the region's location is the fact that in Gilgamesh Epic tablet 11, lines 87-101 the boatman of the ship of Utnapishtim (Noah) was Purur-amurri, an Amorite - suggesting that the flood happened around 2029 BCE and was a river flood, as Amorites were living in the region of many rivers and Amorites migrated to Mesopotamian region in c. 2100 BCE.The older Atrahasis Epic can corroborate that it was a river flood.

 

"Like dragonflies they have filled the river. Like a raft they have moved in to the edge. Like a raft...they have moved in to the riverbank." - Epic of Atrahasis, tablet 3, column 4, lines 6-9

In the Bible it started as a fountain flood coupled with a continuous strong rain, which expectedly turned into a river flood. Later, the body of water it had left on the foot of Mt. Ararat's southern part became enough for Sin-leqi-unninni to describe it as a sea flood. That sea or lake of rain was likely still visible during the time of king Ashurbanipal (630 BCE) until the time of Herodotus (c. 425 BCE).

 If we will read the hint of Urshanabi, Arzap (Kazan) was a mountain as it was an island between 880-620's BCE. Sacred stones of Urshanabi are reported by Gilgamesh Epic to be located on the island where Urshanabi lived. The area west north of Arzap was called Hell or Down (Yardu) in the epic, probably because the fire of hell (Mt. Ararat volcano) that is descending to that direction. 

This could be the reason why Syriac scribes of Targum (Chaldee version) translated "Ararat" in Isaiah 37:38 as 

"Karedu [Kardu]," 

which originally may mean "Descent" and later called by the Armenians as "Nakhichevan" ("Place of Descent"), the Naxouana in Ptolemy's report.

Yerushalmi Megillah i.71b paraphrased Jeremiah 51:27's " Ararat, Minni, Ashkenaz" as 

"Kordu, Harmini, and Hadayab," 

which are referring to the provinces of

" Ayrarat, Vaspurakan, and Nor Shirakan, " respectively.

Unlike to Sumerian Epic of Ziusudra, Babylonian Epic of Atrahasis, and Assyrian Epic of Gilgamesh, the Flood Story of Moses (Torah) mentions the exact location of the resting site of the big ark, and it untranslated the original name: 

"mountains of Ararat."

The term "Ararat" was the Hebrew rendering of the 21st century BCE term " Aratta," which in Sanskrit and in Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta means "holy land." 

A 21th century BCE cuneiform record has alluded the flood of Ararat when it says:

"Inana, the lady of all the lands, has surrounded

 Aratta,

 on its right and left, for her like a rising 

flood.

 They are people whom she has separated from other people, they are people whom Dumuzid [the Fisherman] has made step forth from other people, who firmly establish the holy words of Inana. [ . . . ] After the flood had swept over, Inana, the lady of all the lands, from her great love of Dumuzid, has sprinkled the water of life upon those who had stood in the face of the flood and made the Land subject to them." - Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, lines 557-576

The king of Aratta here is not called "king" because since the time of "Adam," the first ruler of Assyria, their "king" was but God. 

In Gilgamesh and Huwawa it is said that "a decision that concerns the mountains is the business of Utu (Shamash/Sun). A decision that concerns the 

GISH erin-kud

(Mountains of Cedar-felling)

 is the business of youthful Utu (Sun)." 

Mountains here refers to "Aratta" and Mountains of Cedar-felling refers to Eden (Syrian region). According to Sumerian, Babylonian, and Akkadian epics of the flood, Dilmun is where Shamash (Utu/Sun) rises. And they depicted it on a seal. 

On this Babylonian seal, it is correctly depicted that Sun (Utu/Shamash) is rising on Lesser Masis to the east of Mashu, and located the Greater Masis on the west. 

Mashu is a Twin-peaked Mountain. Native Armenians untranslated this as "Masis," but European writers changed its name into "Mt. Ararat." 

Mt. Ararat is different from "mountains of Ararat," the latter being a region known to prophet Isaiah as "earth of Ararat." 

Both Tobit, prophet Jeremiah and and prophet Isaiah untranslated what Moses (Torah) called "Ararat". 

Moses untranslated what the primitive Urartian ancestors called "Aratta." 

Aratta was a 2100 BCE term for the mountainous region above Zubi mountain (Minyas/Mannaean land) and before reaching Shubur (Amida/Diyarbakr region). 

In around 1263 BCE southern part of Aratta was revived and called by Assyrian king Shalmaneser as "Uruatri," which in the 9th century BCE was called Urartu. 

Around 850 BCE Arzashkun (near the starting point of Euphrates in Yanikcukur) was the first capital of Urartu before the capital was transferred to Tuspha, after 832 BCE. This may mean that the book of Genesis that contains Flood Story mentioning "Ararat" was published either before 850 BCE or but not after 832 BCE, as this Urartu almost exactly corresponds to Moses' Ararat.

Like in Torah, Quran Surah 11:44 does not mention "jabal" (mount) or  "jabal Gudiyy" (Mount Judi), but al-Gudiyy (the Gudiyy). And this Gudiyy is the Arabic form of Tsa-du-u (Sha-du-u), a region known to ancient merchants as the Mountainous Region north of Urartu. 

With this oldest extant Babylonian ancient world map, we can discern where exactly located "Sha-du-u," the region mentions in Gilgamesh Epic as the site of Nisir and where the huge boat landed. The map describes that Urashtu (Ararat) is above Assur and that 'Shadu-u,' known in ancient Arabic speaking people "al-Gudiyy" ("Mountain"), is located above a city of Urartu (Ararat). This could not be in Mt. Cudi of the Muslims, but Mt. Abos and beyond.  

The map does not show there is an island in Muslim's Mt. Cudi. However, it depitcs that there is an island near Sha-du-u, and history says that there was an island in Dilmon, and that the flood hero lived in Dilmon. This map settles once and for all the issue regarding the whereabouts of al-Gudiyy (Sha-du-u Nisir). Al-Gudiyy was originally not in Assyria n Mt. Cudi.

Note: Babylonian Chronicle : Schrader, Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, II. pp. 281

WRONG WORDING

The title itself is wrong. There is no ark there. What is there is soil, or more accurately ship-shaped soil/rocks. 

    Viking Ship

(world-archaeology.com, Amy Brunskill; Flipboard)

To call the next sample "Viking Ship" is wrong because there is no ship there. What we can find there is a ship-shaped soil formed by natural geophysical activities. 

The question is, where did the natural geophysical activities take the shape?

Some may theorize that it's itched by nature accidentally, the way scientists claimed for the ship-shaped mound in Durupinar site. 

But, people who are exposed to various natural formations will claim natural geophysical activities took the shape from a ship, most likely man-made ship. 

This is where both the camps of Wyatt and antagonist scientists got wrong. The Wyatt camp is still insisting that it is the Noah's Ark despite of the fact that it is a ship-shaped soil/rock formation, whereas antagonist scientists are keep insisting that nature accidentally itched the ship-shape & horribly claim that a few grams rock samples represent the entire ship-shaped mound. 

To archeologically completely determine the ship-shaped structure in Durupinar, archeologists must destroy it, the way they destroyed the Viking Ship-Shaped Structure, which means destroying the major evidence (the ship-shaped formation) in exchange of archaeological dig findings, and this is where the provincial government of Turkey intervened because destroying it to prove it is a kind of destroying the major fossil and they do not allow it to happen. What the Turkish government allows is to scientifically study the ship-shaped structure without destroying it, and some archeologists seem do not want any other scientific approach to study it except by destroying it, and sadly even making lies by a conclusion not conclusive. 

They even used the strong stand of Fasold that there is no Noah's Ark had been found in the site, and in fact Fasold testified in 1997 in an Australian court that the Ark has been found is "absolute BS." 

Why? 

Because for Fasold it is the fossilized remains of the Noah's ark and not the ark itself. 

And yet, a certain liar scientist is trying to change this history, a history that for Fasold this is a fossilized remains of the ark.

NOAH'S FLOOD WAS A FOUNTAIN-RAIN FLOOD

The Bible does not mention a "GREAT flood" either in Old or New Testament, rather it describes the Noah's flood as 

a fountain flood with rain. 

A fountain is smaller than a river. Neither the Bible mentions that is was a sea flood or an ocean flood. 

"...ba-hodes (in the month)

hasheni ( 2nd ),

ba-shiba (on the 7)

'asar (plus 10th)

yōm (day)

la-hodes (of the month),

ba-yom hazzeh (on this day)

nibhqa'u (burst forth)

kal- (upon)

mayanoth (the FOUNTAINS)

tehom rabah (of great deep),

wa'arubot (and the latices)

ha-shamayim (of the lofty-waters/sky-clouds)

niphtahu (were opened).

Wayhî (and was) 

hagesem (the rain)

'al- (upon)

ha'ares (the earth/soil), 

urbaim (40)

yōm (days)

wa'arbaim (and 40)

layalah (nights)." 

- Genesis 7:11-12

Moses (Torah) is describing here that on May 20th, 2029 BCE during the flood time of Tigris-Euphrates rivers, all

MAYANOTH (fountains)

TEHOM RABAH (of great deep)

burst forth, and latices of sky-clouds were opened. 

Mayanoth in Isaiah 41:18 and Proverbs 8:24 may also mean "springs," which are the sources of river waters, and it is derived from the root word "ma'yan." Joshua describes "mayan" as a well, and Solomon further describes it as what waters a garden. (Joshua 18:15, Songs of Songs 4:15). 

But the fountains being mentioned in Genesis 7:11 are called "of great deep," which means the source of water of the pond or lake that could be dried up because those fountains are connected to volcanic fire in one way or another under the ground. Prophet Isaiah knew that also that there are waters of great deep that dry up. 

"Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the 

great deep;

 that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? " - Isaiah 51:10

(KJV)

And in Amos 7:4 "great deep" is described as connected to fire, most likely under a mount.

"Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and, behold, the Lord GOD called to contend by 

fire, and it devoured the 

great deep,

 and did eat up a part. " - Amos 7:4

(KJV)

So, what were bursted out were fountains connected to volcanoes deep down in the ground, and those volcanoes are in the earth of Ararat. The plain south of Masis (Mt. Ararat) have traces of ponds that may be what Ashurbanipal's Gilgamesh Epic called "sea" during 8th century BCE and still visible during the time of Herodotus. That area is east north of Lesser Araske river and where Arzap (Kazan) is located. The mount east of Arzap turned into "island" during the Ashurbanipal's Gilgamesh Epic's writing, and where the "sacred stones" of Urshanabi are located. Some of those stones are half cut because, according to the epic, Gilgamesh has destroyed many of them (in around 2000 BCE).

(Sacred Stones of Urshanabi are still there in the former residence area of Urshanabi, the friend of the flood hero.)

In Gilgamesh Epic, the area is identified as "apsû" (fresh deep water), but Moses is more accurate in describing that it's not just deep fresh water, but also "of great deep" - or affected by volcanoes. Apsu is the Akkadian of Sumerian term "ZU.AB," derived from the words "ab" (water) and "zu" (deep). 

Both Moses (Torah) and Gilgamesh Epic were derived from a common source of information but Moses describes it more vividly and accurately. 

Ea (Ya), the God which made man from god's & earth's substances, instructed Atrahasis (Noah) to make roof like as apsu has roof. 

"Like the Apsu you shall roof it." - Atrahasis Epic 3.1.29 

(Gilgamesh Epic 11.31)

This may mean that Atra-Hasis covered the top of the ark with solidified soil or, likely, rocks, as apsu (great deep waters) is roofed with soil and rocks. 

Atrahasis reason out to the elders that his god and Enlil, probably via priests, were not united and he wanted to live with Enki in the apsû, which necessitated him to build a big boat enough as a shelter for his family and a zoo for livestock. Utnapishtim (Noah) left Shuruppak and went to apsu (source of river water), that is, either in Dilmun (Diyarbakr) or in Mt. Abos. 

"I will go down [the river] to the apsû to live with Ea, my Lord." - Gilgamesh 11.42

And that apsû is near Dilmun (Diyarbakr), the land of copper, east of Syria or southwest of Nairi Sea (Lake Van) in Ararat region. 

There are a lot of "fountains of the great deep" in Ararat region, and that is why in Gilgamesh Epic the place where Utnapishtim (Noah) was living is described as "mouth of rivers," because Mt. Abos, in which belongs the Tendurek volcano and Nasar settlement (Akyayla site), is the starting point of Euphrates river via Arsanias river. 

In around 2040's BCE, there was a lacking of grain in Aratta and its ruler did not surrender it's yoke to the lordship of Enmerkar unless the latter would send grain to Aratta. 

Be noted that Moses untranslated "Aratta" as "Ararat" when he mentioned about the area where Noah's big boat floated on. 

 Enmerkar reigned 1300 years, cryptically meant the real Enmerkar lived in around 3100 BCE. This famine may mean that the Aratta land was under certain volcanic activities, that could dry up the land, and sooner could cause devasting flood. And probably through the Sacred Stones of gods (priests) in Arzap, a god predicted that Mashu (Mt. Ararat) was about to cause flood. And Atrahasis (Noah) encountered in a dream the god Ea which whispered on his reed wall an instruction to him to build a big reed boat because of the impending flood. 

NOAH IN HISTORY

There is no direct mentioning of Noah.

But we have had indirect reference to Noah in history when Assyrian kinglist named the 10th generation king after (Tudiya-) Adam as 

"Nuabu" ("Whose Father is Noah"), 

who ruled during the time of biblical Shem. While king Hammurabi of Babylon traced his ancestor back to Tudiya-Adam (the first leader of Assyria) and split the descendant to Nuabu, Sumuabum on the other hand has the name that means "Whose Father is Shem." 

Sumuabum (1798-1785 BCE) was the founder of Old Babylon and his name suggests that he was a descendant of "Sumu" ("Shem"), the ancestor of the people that lived in east or northeast of Beth-Eden (Bit-Adini). 

Chronologically speaking, Nuabu ("Whose Father is Noah") is contemporary of the biblical Shem and he was the 10th generation after Adam, the first governor of Assyria. In the Bible, Adam was a ruler who lived in the western part of Assyria in an area called "Garden" located in Eden (Eden was a region now known as "Syria"). 

In Atrahasis Epic, the flood hero is named "Atra-Hasis," a translation of the Sumerian name Ziusudra ("Found Long Life"). The first user of the name "Zin-Suddu" was a king during the 2900 BCE Shuruppak river flood, but his name was used for Ziusudra, a legendary name for a flood hero of 2029 BCE.  

The oldest datable Epic of such this flood was written during the time of Babylonian king Ammisaduqa (1550-1530 BCE) in which Ziusudra was the flood hero and lived in Dilmun (Diyarbakr) and which is the source of the Gilgamesh Epic's flood story.

 Atra-Hasis describes the incident as a RIVER flood after of which many had died, floating on the water:

"Like dragonflies they have filled the river." - Atrahasis 3.4.6-7

And this description corroborates what the Bible says, that it was by all fountains of GREAT deep and by 40 days' rain. The major contributor of this flood was River Araxes. Herodotus described that there was a Great and a Lesser Araske river. The Greater Araxes is on the north of Masis (Mashu), whereas the Lesser Araske is at west south of Masis.

Lake of Balik Gülü might have overflown to Lesser Araske river, which in turned ran toward east of Arzap (Kazan) and started to fill in the plain area on the foot of Mashu (Mt. Ararat). 

Other fountains of great deep also bursted out and increase the water supply on May 20, 2029 BCE. What triggered this bursting of fountains of the great deep? Scientists discovered that pyroclastic flow deposits covered ruins in the early Bronze Age (around 2450 BCE and perhaps 2029 BCE). There was volcanic activities deep in Masis (Mt. Ararat). And it was coupled with the fact that Mt. Ararat has much precipitation during May reaching 7 days in a month. 

".... in the 2nd month, the 17th day of the month, the same day were all the

 fountains of the great deep

 broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. " - Genesis 7:11

 There was a continuous evaporation of water and clouds above remained heavy for one month. 

"And the rain was upon the earth 40 days and forty nights. " - Genesis 7:12

The flood of increasing water lasted for 40 days, and the flood of decreasing water lasted till the 150th day. And this prolonged rain might be caused by the fact that Mt. Ararat was hot during June reaching its temperature up to 32° Celsius, that may evaporate a lot of water from lakes. 

The Bible is teaching that rain is localized upon certain area of the land because it is dependent on the water vapor nearby. 

Did the rain drop over the entire planet? 

Biblically speaking, rain rains upon certain land because according to the Bible the evaporation of water for rain flood is heavily occurring from the ends of the land (that is, from sea, lakes or body of water). 

"When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens; and he causeth the 

vapours 

to ascend from the ends of the earth: he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures. " - Jeremiah 51:16

Water evaporates from the ends of land (that is, sea, lake, or body of water).

" And said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times. 

And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little 

cloud out of the sea, 

like a man's hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not. 

And it came to pass in the mean while, that the 

heaven was black with clouds

 and wind, and there was a great rain. . ." - 1 Kings 18:43-45

And when evaporation happened, the clouds of heaven would be filled with water of rain. 

"If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: ... " 

- Ecclesiastes 11:3

"For he maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof: Which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly. " - Job 36:27-28

Rain drops to a certain earth (land) and not necessarily to the entire planet, biblically speaking.

" And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab; and I will send 

rain upon the earth. " - 1 Kings 18:1

"Who  giveth rain upon the earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields: " - Job 5:10

"To  cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man; " - Job 38:26

In the case of Noah's flood, the rain dropped on the earth of Ararat's mountains. 

" Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth 

rain

 for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains. " - Psalms 147:8

Since there are many snow on the high mountains in Armenia, it's expected that it melts at certain season or reason. 

" For as the rain cometh down, and the 

snow

 from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, ... " - Isaiah 55:10 (KJV)

The usual flood of Tigris-Euphrates rivers may come in early April to June, and the Noah's flood dates it on what our calendar says May 20 - June 30, 2029 BCE.

The water became 26 feet upward, and the waters became strong. If Noah was measuring from the ground to the surface of the flood, then it means that the flood was 3 floor high. Mt. Ararat this time was just twin hills, not as high as it is today. 

(For illustration)

" ... the flood came forth.

Its power came upon the peoples like a battle,

one person did not see another,

they could not recognize each other in the catastrophe.

The flood belowed like a bull,

and like a screaming eagle was the sound of the wind.

The sun was not seen, the darkness was dense."

 - Atrahasis 3.10-17

The thickness of the water (rain) covered the sky that people could not see each other, and Noah could not sea the high twin mountains (Mashu/Masis) on the north.  

"... waykusu (and covered) 

kal- (whole)

he-harim (the dual-hills)

ha-gabohim (high)

'aser (that)

tahat ([were] under)

kal- (whole)

ha-shamayim (the sky-clouds/heavens)." - Genesis 7:19b

The passage is telling us that the waters of rain falling from clouds had 

"... covered the whole 

he-harim ha-gabohim" 

(high dual-hills) 

that were under the whole lofty-waters (sky)."

Josephus impliedly understood 

"he-harim "

 (the hills) 

as referring to the Twin High Mountains near the vicinity of the flooded area. And in Akkadian, this "Twin Mountain" is called "Mashu," which is referring to what the modern writers called "Mt. Ararat." 

This may mean that Josephus understood the suffix

 "-im"

 in "harim" as a short form of 

dual suffix

 "-ayim." 

Babylonian or Assyrian writers, if considering this passage, may understood

 "he-harim ha-gabohim" as a 

High Twin Mountain, 

and in fact that was also how they depicted Mashu on their seal. 

Our understanding of 

"ha-shamayim" as

 "lofty-waters" 

(clouds-of-sky)

 in this very passage is derived from the first part of the passage, saying that the "waters became strong more & more upon the earth (land)."

That is, Genesis 7:19 in effect, is saying, heavy falling waters were covering the whole Mashu (Mt. Ararat) under the lofty-waters (clouds).

In history, Strabo (63 BCE - AD 23) reported :

"And it is said, that in ancient times the Araxes in Armenia, after descending from the mountains, spread out and formed a 

sea

 in the plains below,..." - Geography 16.14.13

And in the Bible, such this spreading out of Lesser Araske river's water, is said to happen in "mountains of Ararat," in the region called by Isaiah 37:38 as

 " 'eretz ararath" ("earth of Ararat"). 

Both Atrahasis and the Bible agree that it was a river flood by fountains and rain. Neither the Bible has mentioned it as an ocean flood. 

Only later, during the 9th century BCE it was probably described as a sea flood by Gilgamesh Epic because such sea or lake was still there on the southern foot of Mt. Ararat until the time of Herodotus (c.484 - c.425 BCE). 

According to Josephus,

 Noah's ark drew near to the highest mountain of Armenia, and then landed on APOBATERION, Greek of the Armenian phrase "Nakhnakan Ichevan (which means, First Landing Site) in Carra, border of Nor-Shirakan (Adiabene), Iran in ancient  Zaranda-Bari, in what we called today near Ziyaret Dag. 

(For illustration)

After 40 days of flood rain, the flood continued for 110 days until it abated on the 150th day. 

ARK OF NOAH WAS A REED BOAT

( Image Source: https://www.yachtingworld.com/extraordinary-boats/viracocha-iii-chilean-reed-boat-pacific-voyage-123954  )

ARK OF GOPHER 

"Make for yourself a TEBAT (ark) of 

gopher wood.

 Make qinnim (nests) in the ark, and cover it with kopher (covering) to the house and outside." - Genesis 6:14

The writer here borrowed the Egyptian

 "t-b-t" 

to describe Babylonian word "tubbu," a round rectangular reed boat (of probably Tob sailors) in ancient Hit, Iraq. It could be from Arabic term "tubbu" or "tub," which in Assyrian Eastern dialect " tupa" means "to fold:" it folded the long rounded boat - that is, forming a rectangular-oblong boat. Or it could be referring to the 14th century BCE men of Tob at southeastern Sea of Galilee in northeastern Jordan in the direction of Hit, Iraq. Tob was Hebrew of "tubbu" or Ugaritic "thābu"  from Akkadian "jâbu" ('to be good'), which may mean 'desirable.' So, the boat is desirable. Ancient Germanic people might have retained such a boat with the name "tubbe." 

And he also untranslated the 2nd millennium BCE word "gopher," related to Assyrian "gipāru" ("woven reed mat"), derived from 2500 BCE Sumerian terminology "gipar." 

In Exodus 2:3 the Hebrew translation for "tebat 'āsê-gōpher" ("ark of gofer wood") is

 "tebat gōme" ("papyrus ark, ark of bulrushes," "wicker basket"), 

and it is clearly understood as such when Isaiah 18:2 describes "bikle gōme" ("papyrus vessels") for Egyptian ambassadors' sea-going vessels. 

Another possibility is that 

"asê-gopher" 

is a Hebrized of Sumerian two words "esir" ('bitumen') and "gapir" ('reed mat'), which may mean 'bitumized reed-woven shelter.'

Why "goper" is called "wood"? 

Because during the time of Noah (2029 BCE) and Moses (1309-1189 BCE), "reedwork" was designated as "wood." 

Judaeans and Jews likely did not know this designation that's why in the 1st century they understood it as cypress or cedar wood. 

That the said goper (reedwork) was belonged to woody materials is mentioned in the c. 2050 BCE "Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta." 

" I shall say it again in his 

gipar,

 fruitful as flourishing mesh-tree, to my king, the lord of Kulaba.

"Messenger, speak to your king, the lord of Kulaba, and say to him: " Let him put in his hand and contemplate a sceptre that is not wood, nor 

designated as wood

 [ ... ] not ildag wood, not shim-gig wood, not khashur cypress, nor palm wood, not cedar wood, nor zabalum wood, not cypress wood, not hard wood, not popular as in a chariot, not 

reedwork

 in whimp handles..." - "Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta" line 215-218, 397-405

Here "gipar" is a marriage house of gods (priests); formerly it was made of "reeds," but later the term was also applied to any palace of gods (priests), particularly the brick-made temple as bricks appear like reed-woven mat bed. Three other words are possibly branched out from the term "gipar" or "tebat asê-gopher" :

"gaparit" ([pitch of] sulphur, Gen.19:24, Deut.29:23, Job 18:15, Isa. 30:33);

"gōme" (bulrushes, reeds, papyri, etc. Exo.2:3, Isa. 18:2);

and 

"kufar" (made of palm-leaves, millow-branches, and so on, woven like a basket and coated with bitumen on the inside; Arabic "kufr," derived from Hebrew "gofer" and Arabic "quffa," from Akkadian "quppu" ['basket']), which was popularized by ancient Armenians and mentioned or depicted by Assyrian kings Assurnasirpal II (883-859), Sennacherib (705-681), and Gilgamesh Epic editor Assurbanipal (669- c.627). According to Herodotus (c.484 - c.425 BCE) it was used in Babylon. Historically, it was the ancient wine sellers of Ararat region who made the willow frames of kufars and might have transported the story of a huge ark of the Ararat river flood (cf. "The History of Herodotus,1" G. Rawlinson, 1885). 

In Gilgamesh Epic, the boat of the flood hero must be covered over like Apsu boats. Apsu may also mean a fresh water marsh near the temple of Ea. 

"Like the Apsu you shall roof it" - Atrahasis Epic 3.1.29,  & Gilgamesh Epic 11.31

"I will go down [the river] to the apsû to live with Ea, my Lord." - Gilgamesh 11.42

The temple of Ea at Eridu is called apsu-house or " E-abzu" ("House of the deep water"), as the holy shrine "gipar" for Inanna at Uruk called "E-ana" ("House of Heaven"). 

Aratta did not have great holy palace for Inanna in 2100 BCE and Inanna, through her priest, is asking the ruler of Aratta to make great temple for her.

Holy gipar could be understood too as "abzu shrine."

"Let Aratta build a temple brought down from sky - your place of worship, the Shrine Eana; let Aratta skilfully fashion the interior of the

 holy gipar,

 your abode; may I the radiant youth, may I be embraced there by you. Let Aratta bring down for me the mountain stones from their mountain, build the great shrine for me, make the great abode, the 

abode of the gods,

 famous for me, make my decree prosper in Kulaba, make the abzu grow for me like a 

holy mountain,

 make Eridug gleam for me like mountain range, cause the 

abzu shrine

 to shine forth for me like the silver in the life. When in the 

abzu

 I utter praise, when I bring the decree from Eridug, when, in lordship, I am adorned with the crown like a purified shrine, when I place on my head the holy crown in Unug Kulaba, then may the ... of the great shrine [bring you into the gipar, and may the great shrine] of the 

gipar

 bring me into the great shrine." - Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta, line 25-32

In this passage "Aratta" is understood as a "holy mountain" of abzu, suggesting that the term is derived from the ancestor of Sanskrit language. In Genesis 8:4 such word is untranslated as "Ararat" - an evidence that the source of Moses (Torah) was from 2000 or 1300 BCE.

Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta line 25-32 describes that Aratta (Urartu) has "gipar" made not of bricks and not as a holy place for Inana (moon god). 

During the time of Moses (1309-1189 BCE), holy gipar E-ana could be understood as "abzu shrine," as the former is for the high moon, the latter is for the lowest water. 

Abzu is very common in Ararat region because of the mouth of rivers in divers places. The term "abzu" is derived from Sumerian ZU.AB, which means "ab" ('water') + "zu" ('deep'), and in Genesis 7:11 it is mentioned as "fountains of the great deep." It is "apsû" in Akkadian language. 

Utnapishtim could be using a double meaning for the term "absu": house of Ea near the water, and gipar, a reed house that may mean also a reed boat. 

The house of Utnapishtim was a reed house, as that was the common type of house during his time, particularly for goddess (priestess) and god (priest).

Such a house is also mentioned in this passage:

"His slave Enkidu ... replied to (deity) Gilgamesh "...so lacking in understanding! [ ... ] A captured high priestess returned to the gipar ! A captured gudug priest restored to his wig of hair!" - Gilgamesh and Humbaba (version B), lines 148-154

There was a famine of grain in Aratta in around 2050 BCE before the abundant water (probably from melted ice and much evaporation) flooded the mountains of Ararat. The lord of Aratta did not surrounder to the lordship of the king of Uruk, unless grain would be brought to Aratta. During this time was written the legendary story Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta, the account that says moon god Inanna, possibly through her priest, asked the lord of Aratta to send metals and precious stones (likely from Metsamor and Musasir) to build the apzu of Enki (Ea) at Eridu as she is not pleased to Aratta and made her allegiance to Unug (Uruk). 

 Ea (Ya), the God who made man out of earth's substances & life of god, intervened in Utnapishtim's dream and whispered an instruction that he should build a huge boat out of his reed house whatever the cost to save his life and of his beloved.

The Bible and Gilgamesh Epic use the same terminology for the covering material of the boat. 

The Bible mentions :

"... wa-kapharta (and cover)

'otah (it)

mi-bayit (to the house) 

u-mihus (and outside)

ba-koper (with pitch). " - Genesis 6:14

Kāphar is possibly Hebrized of Akkadian "kapāru" (to smear on). 

The untranslated "koper" (pitch, tar) here is mentioned "kupru" in the epic, and in 

Assyrian language it means "bitumen." 

"Three sars (3,600 units) of raw 

kupru (bitumen)

 I poured into the bitumen kiln" - Utnapishtim, Gilgamesh Epic 11.65

It is also reported that the builders were reedworkers. 

" Just as dawn began to glow

the people assembled around me.

The carpenter carried his hatchet,

the 

reedworker

 carried his flattening stone, . . . . . .

The child carried the pitch,

the weak brought whatever else was needed.

On the 5th day I had laid out her exterior.

It was a field in area,

its walls were each 10 times 12 cubits in height,

the sides of its top were of equal length, 120 cubits each [the boat was cubic].

Then I designed its interior structure as follows:

I provided it with six decks,

thus dividing it into seven levels.

The inside of it I divided into 

9 compartments.

I drove plugs to keep out water in its middle part.

I saw to the punting poles and laid in what was necessary." - Gilgamesh Epic, 11.48,54,58

What shape did the Noah's ark may have had? 

Here is how boats during the time of Noah (2029 BCE) look like. The bundles of reeds are arranged crosswise to the length of the boat. This very same arrangement could be discerned from the fossilized shape of the 515-foot ark-shaped mound in Akyayla site in the "mountains of Ararat." 

BOGUS SCIENTIFIC OPINION OF LORENCE GENE COLLINS AGAINST ARK-SHAPED MOUND

He's continuously using his position as a scientist to destroy what scientific instrument can show us by using his opinions or by not presenting scientific images as a counter attack.

He started his internet article with a title and then this paragraph: 

"Lorence Gene Collins                  

Department of Geological Sciences         

California State University Northridge    

Northridge, California 91330-8266

email: lorencecollins@gmail.com"

and ended it with the following line:

"Dr . Lorence G. Collins

Department of Geological Sciences

California State University Northridge

18111 Nordhoff Street

Northridge, CA 91330-8266

FAX 818-677-2820."

And then shamelessly, in his introduction, claims that

" investigators found the boat-like appearance (Figure 2) to be 

only 

superficial."

This claim in his article is a form of lie because investigators in 1960 - 1980 did not dig the deepest portion of the ship-shaped mound to found out that the structure's 

BOAT-LIKE APPEARANCE

would be 

ONLY SUPERFICIAL. 

The horrifying thing on this article is that he is dragging the name of science on this bogus scientific feeling-based opinion by using science publication. He says:

"The above has been published in the Journal of Geosciences Education, v. 44, 1996, p. 439-444..."

Why horrifying? 

Since when that geosciences are using ignorance as a tool to judge or to render bogus scientific opinion? 

("Ignorance" because no one of them really knew its inner 3-D appearance, except that the results of Fasold and Wyatt's testings are not considered valid for personal reasons.)

And to cover up his bogus scientific opinion, he is attacking subsurface scientific data without presenting his counter subsurface data but by stitching his imaginary explanations of some natural geological materials and processes, as if his imaginary opinions are superior than what scientific instruments can show us. 

First of all his bogus opinion that "investigators found the boat-like appearance to be 

only 

superficial"

  uphold by his fans is a lie because no investigators have entered the inner portions of the ship-shaped mound to claim that the boat-like appearance is ONLY SUPERFICIAL. 

And the most important, scientific instruments could slap his face by showing that the boat-like appearance is not just superficial rather even deep inside the said mound. 

If it is ship-shaped down inside the mound, then how natural geological processes could make such a boat-like shape in the soil?

So, we have to remind every one here that sometimes scientist is using his title (the name science) to abuse and mislead or even to lie to his fans. 

So, he has to prove first that there are investigators who entered in it by any means to claim that its boat-like appearance would be ONLY SUPERFICIAL, and he has to prove that it is "ONLY SUPERFICIAL"  by presenting scientific 3-D images of the deeper portions of the said mound.

 

Not because he could lie whenever he wanted to, it immediately means no one will react to his lie.

(Between 8 and 7 meters inside the structure is a boat-like appearance)

I can present direct counter evidence against his bogus scientific feeling-based opinion (which he has stitched from his imagination of natural geological processes). 

Here are scientific images derived from the data of ground penetrating resistivity scanning done in 2014 and so on by other scientists.

(Images released by Anadolu Agency, News Broadcasting System in 2019)

In 3-D images, we can see that deep inside the mound there is a ship-shaped structure, contrary to the bogus scientific feeling-based opinion of the antagonists. 

ARK SOIL

SHIP-SHAPED SOIL

As of now this could be the biggest fossilized shape and the most studied object of curiosity since 1959. 

On May 19, 1948 after heavy rains and three earthquakes in Telçeker village, the ark-shaped mound started to re-expose from the surrounding mud; and Reshit Sarihan, a Kurdish shepherd, discovered it. News writers might have distorted his report, claiming that he saw it on Mt. Ararat, the favorite mountain of the European chronographers, who identified Masis (Mashu) as the mountain where the Noah's ark was claimed had landed upon - and this was the reason why Europeans called Masis as "Mount Ararat." 

At the back of that twin volcano (Masis) to the southern direction is a plain known in Gilgamesh Epic as 

"Waters of Death" 

possibly because molten materials from erupting Tendurek and Masis volcanoes are frequenting it in the pass, one of which was likely in 550 BCE and probably during the era of Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (669- c. 627 BCE), a possible editor of recent standard Epic of Gilgamesh. 

Such volcanic activities became the sources of volcanic rocks.

There are two sites of sacred stones (now known as "Anchor or Drogue Stones") associated with the flood hero. Those stones on Nasar (Akyayla site) in Telçeker, near to the purported first landing site of the ark, and those in Arzap (Kazan) village. In the epic they are called "SACRED STONES " used by gods or priests (probably to determine the volcanic activity of Mt. Ararat). 

The hole of this Stone is toward the tip of Mt. Ararat (Masis).

(David Franklin Fasold  and the Sacred Stone at Arzap.)

Those were sacred most likely because they were from the volcanoes there, from Hades deep underground fire. The preliminary conclusion of Lorence Gene Collins of California State University Department of Geological Sciences supports the conjecture that those stones are indeed of volcanic origin, and as from the region of Mt. Ararat (Pearce and others, 1990), corroborating the biblical hint that Noah was from Ararat region. 

And the owner of those sacred stones, as told in the Gilgamesh Epic, was Urshanabi, the ferryman who lived in the then island of Arzap and a friend of the flood hero Utnapishtim (Noah) who was visited by a king of Uruk after the 2029 BCE river flood in Ararat. 

The volcanic earthquakes and eruptions and heavy rains could be the reason why the ark was carried away by mud flows from its former landing site to the lower ground.

(Image Source: https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/3d-images-of-noahs-ark-site-to-be-shown-in-documentary-148738 )

Apparently the remains of the ark were repaired during the Iron Age as it became sacred and then Ararat's wine sellers were selling kufars' willow frames and popularizing to Babylon the story of a wine planter flood hero. This was also the time that the region where the big boat was located was identified as one of the hills of Nisir (a mountain range from Telceker down to between Great Zab river and Lake Umria to Adiabene). 

The big reed boat was looted in ancient days and the first historically referenced to do this was king Sennacherib (705-681 BCE), who called the relic as "Beth Nisroch," masculine form of "Nisar" of a Babylonian goddess of agriculture, as the vicinity was known Nasar by the inhabitants and made a temple which he called Araske, likely named after the Lesser Araske river near Arzap and Dogubeyazit. This Assyrian emperor made his version of ship house in what is now called Mt. Cudi. 

Subsequently Akyayla site became a pilgrimage area (hence the mountain where it is belonged is now called Ziyaret Dag) and many pilgrims in the 300 BCE to 1st century AD and 300 AD are reportedly having looted its remaining woods, leaving only its hardened rock and fossilized shape. 

Apparently, after Josephus gave notice to the world of this ark in Mt. Baris, it was repaired, measured its length and the woods were fastened with nails in the 2nd century AD, and Eusebius (c.275-339) became interested to find this ark, and Yaqob Nsibnaya (fl. 337 AD) found it in Sararad mountain in mountainous region of Armenia near the boundary of Ayrarat territory where Masis is located. But Armenians and pilgrims pulled out its nails and woods during the time of Philostorgius (c.368-439 AD).

Rains and mud flows might have moved it to a lower location and covered it, and by the time of historian Isidore (c. 560-636) its exact whereabouts was not known, and they only named Masis as the Mt. Ararat and the possible location.

Centuries, after when remained nothing on it but the shape which is full of natural sedimentary materials, it reappeared when under ground volcanic activities jiggled the covering soil. 

And soft and washable soil which might have detached by earthquakes and heavy rains were most likely also the reason why this fossilized ark shape has resurfaced in September of 1948.

In October 1959 Turkish Air Force Army Captain Ilhan Durupinar,a  cartography expert, took aerial photographs of the region on a mapping mission for NATO, and eventually saw the ship shape mound. 

By the altitude or distance of the aircraft to the object, the shadow of the ship-shaped object, and the measurements of the lenses, Captain Durupinar has calculated its approximated length to 500 feet. 

On a military aircraft, Turkish-Armenian photojournalist Ara Güler took the photographs, and said:

 “If this is the sign of Noah’s Ark, it’s like seeing God down there.”

And he shared to the world the photographs, and it was first published in Australian Pix magazine on July 9, 1960, and then by American Life Magazine (shown on the image).

“ Noah's Ark? A Boatlike Form Seen Near Mt. Ararat Raises a Fascinating Question

While routinely examining aerial photos of his country, a Turkish army captain suddenly gaped at the picture shown above. There, on a mountain 20 miles south of Mt. Ararat, the biblical landfall of Noah’s Ark, was a boat-shaped form about 500 feet long. The captain passed on the word. Soon an expedition including American scientists set out for the site.

At 7,000 feet, in the midst of crevasses and landslide debris, the explorers found a clear, grassy area shaped like a ship and rimmed with steep, packed-earth sides. Its dimensions are close to those given in Genesis: ‘The length of the ark shall be 300 cubits, the breadth of it 50 cubits, and the height of it 30 cubits,’ that is, 450x75x45 feet. A quick two-day survey revealed no sign that the object was man made. Yet a scientist in the group says nothing in nature could create such a symmetrical shape. A thorough excavation may be made another year to solve the mystery.”

The  Life magazine, September 5, 1960, p.112, speaks about two sides here: first the boat-shaped object and then the quick judgment that there is no man-made in it. 

 George Vandeman, captain Ilhan Durupinar, and professor of photogrammetry Brandenberger of Archeological Research Foundation (ARF) surveyed the site in September 1960 after the Turkish government received the report of this mound.

 Unlearned how to conduct other scientific means to study the subject, some of their companions destroyed one of its little portion by a dynamite, and found nothing on digging it but "dirt, rocks and more dirt," and their dig brought disappointment to the expedition members. 

The part of the ark structure destroyed by military dynamite under George Vandeman and Sigfried Horn.

Their 2 days archeological destructive digging and ocular inspection resulted to a conclusion that 

 "there were no visible archaeological remains" and that this boat-shaped object "was a freak of nature and not man-made."

Because of the dynamiting, the portion of the ark structure becomes penetrable by water and may lead to further destruction internally, as shown (red) here in a 3-D resistivity image photographed by John Larsen.

This is one of the possible reasons why destructive archaeologists are later not allowed to continue to destroy it, and it was not allowed to be destroyed even before the 1980's.

 And for this was one of the possible reasons too why biblical archaeologists do not recognize any other scientific study of the ark-formation as a valid scientific means to learn more about it. That is, they rejected any other scientific means to study it except by archaeological dig, and there are biblical archaeologists who do not even recognize it as ark fossil in layman's terms or as an ark-shaped formation. And on their comments, scientists who studied this ark-formation are considered under pseudo-archaeology, bringing the populace thinking that there are no other scientists except biblical archaeologists. 

So, there is no other scientific means in the world but archaeology and there is no other way of archaeology but to destroy it?  Good luck to your archaeology. 

Some scientists and proud experts are even blatantly lying in suggesting that this ship-shaped mound is not allowed to be scientifically studied because the local government wanting it to be a tourist destination, regardless if it is about Noah's Ark or not. But this lie is proved false many times when the local government there is allowing any other scientific method of studying it, except destructive. 

Nondestructive scientific studies, however, are allowed by the Turkish government in some instances.

One of these studies is by using nondestructive deep penetrating radar scanning. 

The first to conduct scientific research on the site and the ark fossil were geologist Dr. Salih Bayraktutan of Erzurum’s Atatürk University and the scientists of California University’s Los Alamos National Laboratory. They studied the ark fossil and the nearby places that have boat-shaped formations too, and on their 80-page scientific report suggests that:

“It is highly likely that the formation underground is [of] a ship. Archaeological excavations must be launched..."

Turkish scientist's studies made that area a protected archeological site, and government of that province made it a Noah's Ark park. 

Some pseudo-archaeologists are suggesting that it was the yellow-ribbon activity of Ron Wyatt the reason why it was made by the provincial government as a Noah's Ark tourist destination.  

And other pseudo-archaeologists say that the reason why this is protected by the government is for tourist attractions (needless to say, pseudo-archaeologists do not recognize other scientists from their preliminary scientific testings on the structure).

It was David Fasold who was permitted by the Rector of the Erzurum's Ataturk University under the project leader, Associate Professor Salih Bayraktutan.

Fasold discovered circumstantial evidence to suggest that this structure could have been the fossilized shape of an ark:

(1) Its length and width are in agreement with what the Bible prescribed:

 "300 by 50 cubits."

 (Egyptian cubit is between 523.6 mm, 20.6 inches and 529.2 mm, 20.84 in);

 (2) Nine divisions are detected inside the buried structure, corroborating with what has been described by Utnapishtim in the Epic of Gilgamesh: "Its innards I divided into nine parts," and the ark-shaped formation displays an area of 44 100, similar to flood hero's description:

"One IKU (acre) was its whole floor space" (Gardner and Maier, 1984). 

Guner (1986) reported that other streamlined rock-shapes have been found in the area, but according to geologist Bayraktutan, these shapes do not display the same morphological and internal features. 

Dr. Bayraktun  found it difficult to explain why the site had so many geometric properties if it were just some randomly formed natural outcrop, thus seems to confirm what the ground-penetrating radar detected in the ark fossil, that is, it has symmetry and regular distribution (Fasold, 1988).

 

The haste conclusion of Lorence Gene Collins based on the feelings of other investigators that its boat appearance be 

"ONLY superficial" 

is proved wrong by other scientific studies. 

Why the haste conclusion of Collins is bogus? Because he or even other scientists are not using 3-D images of the internal parts of the said mound as supporting sources. So, his conclusion that the boat-like appearance is "Only superficial"  is purely based on imagination. 

In 2014 geophysicist John Larsen was given a permission by the Turkish government to conduct with a then advance ground penetrating resistivity scanner, so that we have had now a scientific 3-D resistivity images of the internal portions of the ark fossil. And what he has seen using that scientific instrument? 

Scientific instrument used by geophysicist John Larsen and archaeologist & computer engineer Andrew Jones reveals that even 8 or 7 feet below the ground, the appearance of the structure is still like a ship (© 2020 by these scientists).

The ark shape is not just superficial as claimed by Collins but in fact even deep inside the ground. And this scientific confirmation that it is ship-shaped has partly vindicated the belief of renowned photogrammetry and Earth scientist Arthur Brandenberger of Ohio University.

(Credit: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/vg/video-gallery/3d-images-of-noahs-ark-to-be-shown-in-documentary/0 )

After scientific testings using  nondestructive cables to sent to and receive reflected electric signals in the ark-shaped object done by John Larsen and also by computer engineer & archaeologist Andrew Jones, 

Cem Sertesen, the director of the documentary 2017 “Noah’s Ark," commented that these are the actual images of the ship-shaped structure.

"They are neither fake nor simulation." 

"They show," he said to Anadolu Agency, "the entire ship buried underground."

"It's a ship, but it’s too early to call it Noah’s Ark. We have to do a lot of work. This can only be done with the support of universities and the Turkish state.” 

Therefore, so-called scientific opinion that the ship-shaped structure is ONLY surface appearance is of the pseudo-archaeologist. So, all biblical archaeologists who also have the same feeling-based opinion are themselves pseudo-archaeologists. Therefore, the so-called anti-pseudoarchaeologists are themselves sometimes pseudo-archaeologists. One reason why this happens is because antagonists have the habit of using ignorance as a tool to judge rather than to based on scientific experimentations. Scientific instruments can show to us that it is ship-shaped even deep inside the soil. 

Pseudo-archaeologists, usually Noah's ark antagonists, are in a habit of using a lie or fallacy, like saying Noah had built ark in southern Mesopotamia, when the Bible suggests that Adam lived in western part of Assyria and the ark was floating on the flooded earth of Ararat (Genesis 2:14-15 & 8:4).

In Gilgamesh Epic, Utnapishtim (Noah) had built his big boat near a body of water, most likely on Lake Van or on Lesser Araske river near Arzap. 

I am not saying that all biblical archaeologists are practicing this, but most of them become pseudo-archaeologists with regards to Noah's ark structure in the "mountains of Ararat."

Instead to correct the erroneous terminology usually use by laymen, they brought them into more error. One of the erroneous terminology is the term "Noah's ark" itself. 

If Noah's ark was made of biodegradable materials, then it is expected that now its materials have already decomposed, so what would be left likely is its shape, as expectedly the "shape"  could be fossilized by natural geological activities. So, what could we have had now is the ark-shaped fossil, which is the fossilized shape of the ark. 

And if it is an ark-shaped fossil, it is very unlikely to destroy it, that is, destroyers of ark-shaped fossil are enemies of the ark-shaped fossil. 

But Dr. Andre A. Snelling on September 1, 1992 (in Creation 14, no. 4) accused Agri governor Sevkit Ekinci of having " a number of times intervened to stop a dig [on it] because he may not want to run the risk that excavation shows it not to be the Ark, and thus have no further tourist potential." 

This high speculation is a form of a lie because even before it was declared as Noah's Ark tourist destination

 it was forbidden to dig. 

And any scientific examination of it, except destructive, is allowable since 1985. 

Why some scientists are engaging themselves in such a lie? 

Because there are westerner experts and their adherents believing that Noah's Ark landed on Mt. Ararat (Masis). 

The Bible does not say that the ark landed on Mt. Ararat, rather it says it had rested on the 

"mountains of Ararat." 

The Bible gives the region where it was rested, not the name of the "mount." 

 "Mountains" is plural and may refer to an area or region.