The Elizabeth Swan is a craft captained by John Storm, not so much providing a temporary home for life on Earth during a time of crisis, but floating a solution to the problem of energy and sustainability and shouting about it for around 140 days and 140 nights.

In the books by Jameson Hunter, the hero John Storm amasses a DNA collection which is stored on board in a computerized database called the 'Ark'. Not only does John have the DNA of almost every living thing on Earth, but he also has the DNA of many extinct species, such as man's anthropological predecessors. Thus to some unscrupulous scientists the Elizabeth Swan is the subject of much interest with a view to acquiring the collection for their own experiments.

Using the Swan's 'Ark', it would theoretically be possible to recreate all life on earth, provided that the right skill-sets and equipment is used. Cloning technology and computing has reached such an advanced stage that DNA may be manipulated with predictable precision. The John Storm adventure book that explores this scenario is called Cyber Wars (see the cover below).

Scholars and scientists around the world still search for the Biblical Ark. The links below lead to the efforts of others to uncover the final resting place of the most famous boat in history. See also the Youtube videos on this subject, which we hope you'll find as interesting as we did.

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Urartu | Mt. Ararat | Mt. Cudi | Durupinar | Iran

The NoahsArkSearch.com web site, The Explorers Of Ararat: And the Search for Noah's Ark book, and the ArcImaging (Archaeological Imaging Research Consortium) Research Team, are collaborative efforts involving many leading ark researchers.

There are different opinions about whether Noah's Ark could have survived until the present day, exactly where it landed, and if there are actual remains of this biblical vessel still intact today. This web site provides a "big tent" for ark researchers to share their information and research.

Located in the northeast corner of Turkey is Mount Ararat. As you can see, Ararat is close to the borders of Iran and Armenia (formerly Soviet Union). This location does not provide a hospitable environment for an exploratory search for Noah's Ark. It is a hot spot for arms trading with Iran for the mountain provides good refuge for bandits.

There are nomads which live on the mountain. They are considered friendly when they see that you are not carrying any weapons. The mountain provides their sustenance through pure mountain water, valley crops and the herds of sheep and goats that they keep.

Did you know that Mount Ararat is a volcano and experienced a serious earthquake in 1840? Also, we call the mountain: Ararat but the Qur'an calls the location Mount Judi (XI. 44). Are these two different places? Local people call it Agri Dagh which means Mountain of Pain. Why do you think that is? Read on to learn more!

According to the Bible account in the book of Genesis, Noah's Ark came to rest over 4300 years ago on the mountains of Ararat.

Based upon the information which I have gathered, I believe that Noah's Ark does exist on Mount Ararat also known as Mount Judi by some Muslim scholars. It has been preserved all of these years by the hand of God and exists the ice fields on Ararat.

This mountain is home to many mysteries, dangers and troubles. Begin your search to find out more by selecting some of the following items.

Ark Research Project, is a non-profit organization dedicated to locating and documenting the Ark of Noah. To find out more, check out the Ark Research Project web site!

One of the newest books about the Search for Noah's Ark. Written by BJ Corbin, it contains absolutely the best first hand information about the current  search for Noah's Ark. If you are interested in this effort, then you must buy this book! To find out more, check out the Explorers of Ararat web site!

Mission Noah, is a non-profit organization dedicated to research in educational, scientific and humanitarian endeavors throughout the world and the United States.  Mission Noah will provide food, clothing, medical supplies, along with other necessities of life to people lacking these essentials due to poverty and natural or manmade disasters. Mission Noah will provide them with hope for a better tomorrow.. To find out more, check out the Mission Noah web site!

ArcImaging is a group of researchers that focus on using the latest remote sensing technology to search for the remains of Noah's Ark and other sites of interest. The group has received an Employer Identification Number (EIN) and now awaiting final non-profit designation. Check out the ArcImaging web site to learn more!

Tour Noah's Ark:  Using VRML.... It's one of the cool things you can do on the Web. Check out "Noah's Ark: 3D Ark". which allows you to "look" and "move" inside a three dimensional Noah's Ark. Go and have some fun!

Luke 16:31 "And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." (If the Ark is found today, scoffers will denounce it!)

Matthew 24:38-39 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. (KJV)

Qur'an XXIV. 15 But We saved him and the Companions of the Ark, and We made the (Ark) a Sign for all Peoples!

MANY skeptics assert that the Bible must be wrong, because they claim that the Ark could not possibly have carried all the different types of animals. This has persuaded some Christians to deny the Genesis Flood, or believe that it was only a local flood involving comparatively few local animals. But usually they have not actually performed the calculations. On the other hand, the classic creationist book The Genesis Flood contained a detailed analysis as far back as 1961.

A more detailed and updated technical study of this and many other questions is John Woodmorappe's book Noah's Ark: a Feasibility Study (see the end of this article). This article is based on material in these books plus some independent calculations. There are two questions to ask:

1. How many types of animals did Noah need to take?

    

2. Was the Ark's volume large enough to carry all the necessary types?

1) How many types of animals did Noah need to take?

The relevant passages are Genesis 6:19-20 and Genesis 7:2-3.

 

Genesis 6:19-20:
"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."

 

Genesis 7:2-3:
"Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.
Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth."

 

 

• In the original Hebrew, the word for beast and cattle in these passages is the same: behemah, and it refers to land vertebrate animals in general. The word for creeping things is remes, which has a number of different meanings in Scripture, but  here it probably refers to reptiles.  Noah did not need to take sea creatures because they would not necessarily be threatened with extinction by a flood. However, turbulent water would cause massive carnage, as seen in the fossil record, and many oceanic species probably did become extinct because of the Flood.

   

  However, if God in His wisdom had decided not to preserve some ocean creatures, this was none of Noah's business. Noah did not need to take plants either - many could have survived as seeds, and others could have survived on floating mats of vegetation. Many insects and other invertebrates were small enough to have survived on these mats as well. The Flood wiped out all land animals which breathed through nostrils except those on the Ark (Genesis 7:22). Insects do not breathe through nostrils but through tiny tubes in their exterior skeleton.

   

• Clean animals: Bible commentators are evenly divided about whether the Hebrew means seven or seven pairs of each type of clean animal. Woodmorappe takes the latter just to concede as much to the biblioskeptics as possible. But the vast majority of animals are not clean, and were represented by only two specimens each. The term clean animal was not defined until the Mosaic Law. But since Moses was also the compiler of Genesis, if we follow the principle that Scripture interprets Scripture, the Mosaic Law definitions can be applied to the Noahic situation. There are actually very few clean land animals listed in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14.

   

• What is a 'kind'? God created a number of different types of animals with much capacity for variation within limits.  The descendants of each of these different kinds, apart from humans, would today mostly be represented by a larger grouping than what is called a species. In most cases, those species descended from a particular original kind would be grouped today within what modern taxonomists (biologists who classify living things) call a genus (plural genera).

   

  One common definition of a species is a group of organisms which can interbreed and produce fertile offspring, and cannot mate with other species. However, most of the so-called species (obviously all the extinct ones) have not been tested to see what they can or cannot mate with. In fact, not only are there known crosses between so-called species, but there are many instances of trans-generic matings, so the kind may in some cases be as high as the family. Identifying the kind with the genus is also consistent with Scripture, which spoke of kinds in a way that the Israelites could easily recognize without the need for tests of reproductive isolation.

   

  For example, horses, zebras and donkeys are probably descended from an equine (horse-like) kind, since they can interbreed, although the offspring are sterile. Dogs, wolves, coyotes and jackals are probably from a canine (dog-like) kind. All different types of domestic cattle (which are clean animals) are descended from the Aurochs, so there were probably at most seven (or fourteen) domestic cattle aboard. The Aurochs itself may have been descended from a cattle kind including bisons and water buffaloes. We know that tigers and lions can produce hybrids called tigons and ligers, so it is likely that they are descended from the same original kind.

   

  Woodmorappe totals about 8000 genera, including extinct genera, thus about 16,000 individual animals which had to be aboard. With extinct genera, there is a tendency among some paleontologists to give each of their new finds a new genus name. But this is arbitrary, so the number of extinct genera is probably highly overstated. Consider the sauropods, which were the largest dinosaurs - the group of huge plant-eaters like Brachiosaurus, Diplodocus, Apatosaurus, etc. There are 87 sauropod genera commonly cited, but only 12 are firmly established and another 12 are considered fairly well established.

   

• One commonly raised problem is How could you fit all those huge dinosaurs on the Ark? First, of the 668 supposed dinosaur genera, only 106 weighed more than ten tons when fully grown. Second, as said above, the number of dinosaur genera is probably greatly exaggerated. But these numbers are granted by Woodmorappe to be generous to skeptics. Third, the Bible does not say that the animals had to be fully grown. The largest animals were probably represented by teenage or even younger specimens. The median size of all animals on the ark would actually have been that of a small rat, according to Woodmorappes up-to-date tabulations, while only about 11 % would have been much larger than a sheep.

• Another problem often raised by atheists and theistic evolutionists is how did disease germs survive the flood? This is a leading question - it presumes that germs were as specialized and infectious as they are now, so all the Arks inhabitants must have been infected with every disease on earth. But germs were probably more robust in the past, and have only fairly recently lost the ability to survive in different hosts or independently of a host. In fact, even now many germs can survive in insect vectors or corpses, or in the dried or frozen state, or be carried by a host without causing disease. Finally, loss of resistance to disease is consistent with the general degeneration of life since the Fall.

   

2) Was the ark's volume large enough to carry all the necessary types?

The Ark measured 300x50x30 cubits (Genesis 6:15) which is about 140x23x13.5 metres or 459x75x44 feet, so its volume was 43500 m³ (cubic metres) or 1.54 million cubic feet. To put this in perspective, this is the equivalent volume of 522 standard American railroad stock cars, each of which can hold 240 sheep.

 

If the animals were kept in cages with an average size of 50x50x30 centimetres (20x20x12 inches), that is 75,000 cm³ (cubic centimetres) or 4800 cubic inches, the 16,000 animals would only occupy 1200 m³ (42,000 cubic feet) or 14.4 stock cars. Even if a million insect species had to be on board, it would not be a problem, because they require little space. If each pair was kept in cages of 10 cm (four inches) per side, or 1000 cm³, all the insect species would occupy a total volume of only 1000 m³, or another 12 cars. This would leave room for five trains of 99 cars each for food, Noah's family and range for the animals. However, insects are not included in the meaning of behemah or remes in Genesis 6:19-20, so Noah probably would not have taken them on board as passengers anyway.

 

Tabulating the total volume is fair enough, since this shows that there would be plenty of room on the Ark for the animals with plenty left over for food, range etc. It would be possible to stack cages, with food on top or nearby (to minimize the amount of food carrying the humans had to do), to fill up more of the Ark space, while still allowing plenty of room for gaps for air circulation. We are discussing an emergency situation, not necessarily luxury accommodation. Although there is plenty of room for exercise, skeptics have overstated animals needs for exercise anyway.

 

Even if we don't allow stacking one cage on top of another to save floor space, there would be no problem. Woodmorappe shows from standard recommended floor space requirements for animals that all of them together would have needed less than half the available floor space of the Ark's three decks. This arrangement allows for the maximum amount of food and water storage on top of the cages close to the animals.

 

John Storm's DNA collection is stored in the SolarNavigator's database called the 'Ark.' Many scientists know about this treasure and plot to obtain it for their own collections, which puts the crew of this solar boat in jeopardy. Fictional adventure story by Jameson Hunter

FOOD REQUIREMENTS

The Ark would probably have carried compressed and dried foodstuffs, and probably a lot of concentrated food. Perhaps Noah fed the cattle mainly on grain, plus some hay for fibre. Woodmorappe calculated that the volume of foodstuffs would have been only about 15 % of the Ark's total volume. Drinking water would only have taken up 9.4 % of the volume. This volume would be reduced further if rainwater was collected and piped into troughs.

EXCRETORY REQUIREMENTS

It is doubtful whether the humans had to clean the cages every morning. Possibly they had sloped floors or slatted cages, where the manure could fall away from the animals and be flushed away (plenty of water around!) or destroyed by vermicomposting (composting by worms) which would also provide earthworms as a food source. Very deep bedding can sometimes last for a year without needing a change. Absorbent material (e.g. sawdust, softwood wood shavings and especially peat moss) would reduce the moisture content and hence the odour.

HIBERNATION

The space, feeding and excretory requirements were adequate even if the animals had normal day/night sleeping cycles. But hibernation is a possibility which would reduce these requirements even more. It is true that the Bible does not mention it, but it does not rule it out either. Some creationists suggest that God created the hibernation instinct for the animals on the Ark, but we should not be dogmatic either way.

Some skeptics argue that food taken on board rules out hibernation, but this is not so. Hibernating animals do not sleep all winter, despite popular portrayals, so they would still need food occasionally.

Noah's Ark rainbow covenant

CONCLUSION

This article has shown that the Bible can be trusted on testable matters like Noah's Ark. Many Christians believe that the Bible can only be trusted on matters of faith and morals, not scientific matters. But we should consider what Jesus Christ Himself told Nicodemus (John 3:12):

If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?

Similarly, if the Scriptures can be wrong on testable matters such as geography, history and science, why should they be trusted on matters like the nature of God and life after death, which are not open to empirical testing? Hence Christians should be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you (1 Peter 3:15), when skeptics claim that the Bible conflicts with known scientific facts.

NOAH THE MOVIE

Russell Crowe stars as Noah, the righteous Old Testament hero who built a giant ark to protect his family and the Earth’s animals against an apocalyptic flood sent by God to destroy the wicked. The film also features Jennifer Connelly, Anthony Hopkins, Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, and Ray Winstone. With a budget of at least $115 million, it is by far Aronofsky’s biggest production, and though Black Swan was an enormous financial success, Noah represents the director’s first real attempt at a blockbuster (a longtime ambition demonstrated by his flirtations with directing Batman, Watchman, RoboCop, and, most recently, The Wolverine.)

Aronofsky introduced some footage to the largely Christian audience at a Texas convention in July, and while it was relatively well-received there, others worried that he was veering off track by making Noah “the first environmentalist.” When Brian Godawa, a Christian-minded screenwriter, got his hands on an early Noah script last year, he concluded it was “an uninteresting and unbiblical waste of $150 million that will ruin for decades the possibility of making a really great and entertaining movie … This movie will be rejected by millions of devoted Bible readers worldwide because once again it subverts their own sacred narrative with a political agenda of pagan Earth religion that is offensive to their faith.”

That could be the concern of Paramount, which is splitting the bill for Noah with New Regency, after the film was recently screened before Christian and Jewish audiences. But Paramount vice-chairman Rob Moore told the trade that the movie was simply going through the “normal preview process,” and that the studio “allowed for a very long post-production period, which allowed for a lot of test screenings.”

Aronosfsky’s spokesperson said, “This is a long and collaborative process, and Darren and the studio are working together to make the best version of his movie that they can. To comment on anonymous quotes only gives time and space to false rumors and gossip.”