ArmenPress
July 19 2004

TWO EXPEDITIONS TO SEEK NOAH’S ARK

MOSCOW, JULY 19, ARMENPRESS: A Russian expedition left last
Saturday for the upper reaches of Mount Ararat where organizers hope
to prove an object nestled amid the snow and ice is Noah’s Ark.
Before setting out the expedition got the blessing of Russian
Patriarch, Alexis II. The Russians have taken with them the icon of
George the Triumphant, who is thought to be the protector of
Caucasian Mountains to present it to Turkish authorities. This will
be the second ascension of the head of the expedition, Andrey
Polyakov, to Mount Ararat.
Also another, joint U.S.-Turkish team of 10 explorers plans to
make the arduous trek up the mountain this summer to enter what they
believe to be a mammoth structure some 45 feet high, 75 feet wide and
up to 450 feet long that was exposed in part by last summer’s heat
wave in Europe. Explorers have long searched for an ark on the high
slopes of Mount Ararat, where the biblical account of the Great Flood
places it.
In 1957, Turkish air force pilots spotted a boat-shaped formation
in Agri province. The government did not pursue the sighting,
however. The entire area, including Mount Ararat, was off limits to
foreigners because of Soviet complaints that explorers were U.S.
spies.