BP News, TN
June 10 2005

IN SEARCH OF NOAH’S ARK: Wyatt’s quest: Part 3, Earthquake
revelations 1979
Jun 10, 2005
By Mark Kelly

Astonishing
An earthquake in December 1978 caused the earth around the mysterious
remains to drop — revealing what looked to Ron Wyatt like a giant
shipwreck! Photo courtesy Wyatt Archeological Research

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–Sixteen long months ground by while Ron Wyatt
waited for another opportunity to return to Turkey. He still had no
idea how he could get permission from the government to excavate what
he knew in his heart were the remains of Noah’s Ark.

Then one day, late in November 1978, news reports carried a casual
mention of an earthquake in a remote part of Turkey near the Russian
border. His heart leapt. Wouldn’t it be just like God to do the
excavation himself!

The next seven months dragged even more slowly than the 16 before.
When his next two-week vacation finally arrived, Wyatt rushed back to
Dogubeyazit with an Armenian preacher from California who spoke
Turkish. They arrived on Aug. 11, 1979.

Wyatt’s jaw dropped at the sight.

The earth around the mysterious object had dropped, revealing what
looked to him like a giant shipwreck. He noted evenly spaced grooves
all around the object, which reminded him of the ribs of a ship’s
hull. The collapse of the dirt enabled him to take soil samples in
the very heart of the ruin.

He also was able to take precise measurements. He noted a total
length of 512 feet, except for a three-foot section that looked like
it had broken off the lower end. That gave him a total length of 515
feet.

Most experts said the Ark was 450 feet long, multiplying the biblical
measure of 300 cubits by 18 inches, the standard in ancient
Mesopotamia. But Wyatt believed the Ark would have been built
according to the older — and longer — Egyptian cubit of 20.6
inches. Applying that measure meant the Ark would have been 515 feet.

Combined with the anchor stones, the ancient house and the graveyard
he had seen two years earlier, Wyatt couldn’t dismiss the
measurements as a coincidence. What would the chances be of
discovering an ancient ship the same size as the Ark in the same
mountain range named in the Bible?

Bill Shea of the Biblical Research Institute in Silver Springs, Md.,
agreed. In September 1976, he had written in Creation Research
Society Quarterly, “One might put these two sites in perspective by
reflecting upon what would have happened had this formation been
found on Agri Dagh [Mt. Ararat]. I may be wrong, but I suspect that
news of it probably would have been heralded far and wide as the
discovery of the site where the Ark had rested. What a difference a
mountain makes.”

Back home, Wyatt sent his soil samples to Galbraith Labs in
Knoxville, Tenn., for an analysis of basic mineral content. A sample
taken outside the formation showed carbon content of 1.88 percent,
but one from inside the object registered 4.95 percent carbon — the
kind of reading one would expect if it contained matter that had once
been alive. Living matter like wood. The sample also had an iron
content higher than would have been expected.

Another piece of positive evidence, but applications to excavate
still were being denied. Wyatt decided his next investigation would
pursue the iron content clue. Would a metal detector show that the
iron content was evenly spaced like the “ribs” he had seen at the
site?