02 The Secret on Ararat (7 page)

TEN

MURPHY QUICKLY SURVEYED the audience. The amphitheater was filled and all eyes were on him. There were nearly one hundred fifty students in his controversial class on biblical archaeology.

Shari was in her usual spot in the front row. Her black hair was smoothed back into the familiar ponytail, but she didn’t look like her perky self. There was an air of sadness in her green eyes. The seat next to her was empty.

Murphy’s eyes went from Shari back to the audience. He then spotted Paul. He was seated about seven rows up on Murphy’s left, in an aisle seat not far from the door. Why wasn’t he sitting next to Shari? Had they had another fight? Or was his imagination just working on overdrive? Maybe Paul had arrived late and just took the nearest empty seat. He made a mental note to ask
Shari about it later—but subtly, the way Laura would have done it.

“Good morning! It’s good to see a full house. I guess I must have said something interesting last week! Okay, let’s start right where we left off. When the bell rang on Monday, we were discussing the various men who had discovered wood on Mount Ararat. The last of the four men mentioned was Fernand Navarra. The wood he discovered was very ancient. We also reviewed twenty-six ancient and early writers who have written about Noah’s Ark. Today, we will look at some individuals who claimed to have actually seen or climbed on the ark.”

There was an audible buzz of anticipation as Murphy flipped on the first PowerPoint slide.

Those Who Claim to Have Seen Noah’s Ark

Who:

George Hagopian and his uncle.

When:

During the years from 1900 to 1906.

Circumstances:

On two occasions—once when he was ten years of age, and the second when he was twelve years of age.

“George Hagopian’s grandfather was an Armenian Orthodox minister near Lake Van in Turkey. He would tell
stories about the holy ship on the mountain, and one day, when Hagopian was around ten years of age, his uncle told him that he would actually take him to see the ark—about eight days’ journey away. He was told that the ship could be seen because it had been an unusually mild winter on Mount Ararat. In his own words, he says,

When we were there, the top of the ark was covered with a very thin coat of fresh-fallen snow. But when I brushed some of it away I could see a green moss growing right on top. When I pulled a piece off … it was made of wood. This green moss made the ark feel soft and moldy.

On the roof, besides one large hole, I remember small holes running all the way from the front to the back. I don’t know exactly how many, but there must have been at least fifty of them running down the middle with small intervals in between. My uncle told me these holes were for air.

That roof was flat with the exception of the narrow raised section running all the way from the bow to the stern with all those holes in it.

Murphy paused and looked out over the audience. They seemed spellbound.

“The second time Hagopian visited the ark was when he was twelve years old. He was with his uncle again. In his own words:

I saw the ark a second time. I think it was in 1904. We were on the mountain looking for holy flowers, and I went back to the ark and it still looked
the same. Nothing had changed. I didn’t really get a good look at it. It was resting on a steep ledge of bluish-green rock about 3,000 feet wide.

The sides were slanting outward to the top and the front was flat. I didn’t see any real curves. It was unlike any other boat I have ever seen. It looked more like a flat-bottomed barge.

“The next individuals to have claimed to see the ark were five or six Turkish soldiers. They also claimed to find wooden pegs that helped to hold the ark together. Here is part of what their letter said:

Those Who Claim to Have Seen Noah’s Ark

Who:

Five or six Turkish soldiers.

When:

1916, upon their return from Baghdad.

Circumstances:

They wrote an official letter to the American Embassy in Turkey offering their services as guides for those who wanted to see the ark.

When returning from World War I, I and five or six of my friends passed by the Ararat. We saw
Noah’s Ark leaning against the mountain. I measured the length of the boat. It was 150 paces long. It had three stories. I read in the papers that an American group is looking for this boat. I wish to inform you that I shall personally show them this boat and I request your intervention so that I may show the boat.

Those Who Claim to Have Seen Noah’s Ark

Who:

150 Russian soldiers.

When:

The summer of 1917.

Circumstances:

The Czar sends two research divisions of [150] army engineers and scientists on an expedition to Ararat to find the ark.

“The next sighting is even more interesting. A Russian pilot by the name of Vladimir Roskovitsky was flying his plane around Ararat in the summer of 1917 when he spotted the ark. He reported it to his superiors, and the Czar then sent research teams to investigate. I’m going to ask Shari to pass out two sheets of paper that relate their findings.”

Shari started passing along a stack of printed sheets. Murphy read out the story of the Russian expedition and let the incredible tale sink in. Once it did, he knew there’d be questions.

THE RUSSIAN EXPEDITION

The Russian investigators claim to have taken measurements of the ark. It was supposedly 500 feet long, about 83 feet wide at the widest place, and about 50 feet high. These measurements, when compared with a 20-inch cubit, fitted proportionately with the size of Noah’s Ark as described in Genesis 6:15. The entire rear end of the boat, the investigating party [sic] able to enter first the upper room, a “very narrow one with a high ceiling.” From here, “side by side to it, stretched rooms of various size; small and large ones.”

There was also “a very large room, separated as if by a great fence of huge trunks of trees,” possibly “stables for the huge animals,” such as elephants, hippopotami, and others. On the walls of the rooms were cages, “arranged in the lines all the way from the floor to the ceiling, and they had marks of rust from the iron rods which were there before. There were very many various rooms, similar to these, apparently several hundreds of them. It was not possible to count them, because the lower rooms and even part of the upper ones—all of this was filled with hard ice. In the middle of the ship there was a corridor.” The end of this corridor was overloaded with broken partitions.

“The ark was covered from inside as well as from outside,” the story went on, “with some
kind of dark brown color” resembling “wax and varnish.” The wood of which the ark was built was excellently preserved except 1
)
at the hole in the front of the ship, and 2
)
at the door-hole at the side of the ship; there the wood was porous and it broke easily.

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THE RUSSIAN EXPEDITION

“During the examination of the surroundings around the lake … there were found on one of the mountaintops the remains of some burned wood ‘and a structure put together of stones,’ resembling an altar. The pieces of wood found around this structure were of the same kind of wood as the ark.”

An eyewitness is said to have stated: As the huge ship at last loomed before them, an awed silence descended, and “without a word of command everyone took off his hat, looking reverently toward the ark; and everybody knew, feeling it in his heart and soul,” that they were in the actual presence of the ark. Many “crossed themselves and whispered a prayer.” It was like being in a church, and the hands of the archaeologist trembled as he snapped the shutter of the camera and took a picture of the old boat as if it were “on parade.”

Our guide, Yavuz Konca, reported that an elder Kurdish tribal chief remembered just such a Russian discovery in the summer of 1917. At the time, he was a young man of eighteen years of age. He recalled an unusual event that summer in which returning Russian soldiers came into the village throwing their hats in the air and shooting their rifles. When he inquired as to the celebration, he was informed that they had discovered Noah’s Ark on Mount Ararat.

A detailed account stating the description and measurements of the ark, both inside and out, together with photos, plans, samples of wood, were sent at once by special courier to the office of the chief commandant of the Army—“as the Emperor had ordered.”

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“Professor Murphy?”

Murphy looked into the center section of the amphitheater and smiled. Don West, one of his more serious archaeology students, had his hand raised.

“Yes, Don!”

“What happened to all the pictures and measurements that were taken by the Russians?”

“Good question, Don. The answer is, we don’t know
for sure what happened to them. Many believe that they were destroyed during the Russian Revolution. But I’d like to think they might be gathering dust in some forgotten archive. And there’s an intriguing story that backs up their findings. One of the relatives of a member of the expedition worked as a cleaning maid in the Czar’s palace. She testifies to having seen the pictures and reports. They were shown to her by the chief medical officer of the expedition. She says that the pictures show that the ark was three decks high, and on top of the roof there was a catwalk that was about knee-high with openings underneath.”

Murphy clicked the projector again.

“There are a number of other people who have claimed to have seen or even climbed on Noah’s Ark, but I would like to discuss only one more. His name is Ed Davis.”

Murphy paused to gather his thoughts when the door to the lecture hall opened and he recognized the silhouette of Levi Abrams framed in the light. What could have brought him here, he wondered, before continuing.

Those Who Claim to Have Seen Noah’s Ark

Who:

Ed Davis.

When:

The summer of 1943.

Circumstances:

While working for the Army Corps of Engineers, friends take him up Mount Ararat to see Noah’s Ark.

“Ed Davis was working for the 363rd Army Corps of Engineers. He was working out of a base station in Hamadan, Iran, building a supply route way station into Russia from Turkey. His driver, Badi Abas, pointed to Agri Daugh, or Ararat, and said, ‘That’s my home.’

“The conversation turned to Noah’s Ark and Abas told Davis that he could take him to see it. They drove to the foothills of Ararat and began hiking. On the way they passed a village whose name meant
where Noah planted the vine
. Davis said that the grapevines were very old and so big that he could not put his arms around them. Abas then told Davis, ‘We have a cave filled with artifacts that came from the ark. We find them strewn in a canyon below the ark. We collect them to keep them from outsiders who would profane them.’ Davis said:

That night, they show me the artifacts. Oil lamps, clay vats, old-style tools, things like that. I see a cage-like door, maybe thirty by forty inches, made of woven branches. It’s hard as stone, looks petrified. It has a hand-carved lock or latch on it. I could even see the wood grain.

We sleep. At first light, we put on mountain clothes and they bring up a string of horses. I
leave with seven male members of the Abas family and we ride—seems like an awful long time.

Finally we come to a hidden cave deep in the foothills of Greater Ararat. The cave was at about the 8,000-foot level near the western wall of the Ahora Gorge. They told me that T. E. Lawrence [of Arabia] hid in this cave. There’s fungus there that glows in the dark. And they say Lawrence put it on his face to convince the Kurds he was a god and get them to join him in his war against the Turks.

Eventually we run out of trail for the horses. After three days of climbing we come to the last cave. Inside, there’s strange writing, it looked beautiful and old, on the rock walls and a kind of natural rock bed or outcropping near the back of the cavern.

The next day we hike for a while. Finally Abas points. Then I see it—a huge, rectangular, man-made structure partly covered by a talus of ice and rock, lying on its side. At least a hundred feet are clearly visible. I can even see inside it, into the end where it’s been broken off, timbers are sticking out, kind of twisted and gnarled, water’s cascading out from under it.

Abas points down the canyon and I can make out another portion of it. I can see how the two pieces were once joined—the torn timbers kind of match. They told me the ark is broken into three or four big pieces. Inside the broken end of the biggest piece, I can see at least three floors and Abas says there’s a living space near the top with forty-eight rooms. He says there are cages inside
as small as my hand, others big enough to hold a family of elephants.

It began to rain. We had to return to the cave. The next day it was snowing so bad that we could not climb down to the ark. We were forced to leave the mountain. It took five days to get off the mountain and back to my base.

The lights were turned on and several hands were raised. Murphy could see Levi Abrams standing behind the back row smiling that big Israeli smile. Their eyes caught each other’s and there was a barely perceptible nod of heads.