By Daina Doucet
What does it take to find Noah’s Ark? Unlike expeditions of the past, a 14-member team that climbed Mt. Ararat in 2012 and 2013 to search for Noah’s Ark had the combined advantage of a team of experts, state-of-the-art technology, and the right equipment.
So confident was the team of their ability to locate an Ark-shaped “anomaly” 45 to 60 feet below the ice at the summit, and retrieve core samples from it, that Hollywood movie producer Brent Baum offered to help fund the expedition in exchange for the privilege of shadowing the discovery of Noah’s Ark with a ten-man camera crew. The resulting two-and-a-half hour documentary, Finding Noah, is playing in 650 USA theatres Thursday, October 8, 2015.
The team was led by Dr. Dick Bright, a leader of multiple expeditions, and geologist Dr. Don Patton. Chief archaeologist was Dr. Randal Price, former director of excavations at Qumran, Israel.
The search was based on five parameters:
- the Bible, which identifies Ararat as the location of Noah’s Ark and the highest mountain in the Middle East,
- numerous sightings of the Ark throughout history,
- satellite imagery using ground-penetrating radar of an Ark-shaped object under the ice at the summit,
- a ground-penetrating radar machine at the site that corroborated satellite imagery and produced 3-D colour images of the anomaly.
- drill-coring at the summit.
Canadian Steve Rudd of Hamilton, Ontario, an archaeologist who works with Associates for Bible Research in Israel, became involved with the multi-year, complex Ararat project in 2008 but didn’t qualify as an explorer. “I was told I lacked three qualifications: P H D.” He won a place on the team by “making myself useful and incessant begging!”
Back home in Canada, as the only team member with seasonal access to frigid weather, Rudd was asked to replicate the conditions at the summit for the 2008 to 2011 expedition seasons and to research methods of penetrating snow and ice. For the 2013 expedition his assignment was to acquire a drilling tool with which to extract core samples for analysis. His involvement proved providential.
The summit team had drilled 40 three-inch cores down 60 feet through glacial ice. Two holes were tagged by the scientists as the anomaly. They then had to use the coring tool to retrieve samples from these two holes, but the tool wouldn’t work. Without samples, the expedition would fail. Rudd had been delayed in arrival at Ararat by two weeks. When the summit team gave up, they sent for him to correct the problem. It took him and a camera man two days to reach the summit at 5,100 meters (17,000 feet) after three days of acclimatizing at the 4,200 meter upper base camp to avoid altitude sickness.
“It’s incredibly hard to move at that altitude. You walk ten feet and stop ten seconds. You can’t go faster. I was in good shape, but it feels like your body has no strength because there is no air and you’re starving for oxygen.”
Within three hours of reaching the summit, Rudd was able to work the coring tool and extract two samples which are currently being analyzed in the USA.
Even though the climb was dangerous due to extreme weather conditions and potentially hostile people groups, Brent Baum observes in World Religion News, “…these men dared to be different. They acted on their hopes, dreams, fears, and determination to attain a goal few others have even considered.”
“I knew I was risking death,” says Rudd, “But I climbed the mountain because of my faith.” He recalls a transcendental moment:
“One night I stepped out of my tent at two a.m. into an other-worldly silence and extreme blackness. It was a clear night, and I was suddenly aware of the lights of scores of cities three miles below in every direction – Armenia, Russia, Turkey and Iran. They lit up the ground below us everywhere, far into the distance. Then I glanced up at the most spectacular celestial display of God’s creation I had ever seen – the Milky Way and multitudes of stars, bright and clear. It reminded me of Daniel 12:3 that those who lead many to righteousness are like those stars forever and ever. That is why I am searching for Noah’s Ark. I want to help people realize the Bible is true.”
The movie, Finding Noah, details the expeditions, recalls the biblical story and reviews the history of Ark sightings and exploration. To see the trailer, and to find a theatre near you, visit www.findingnoah.com. Advance tickets are for sale online for $13.00.
Daina Doucet is a free-lance writer and senior editor for Acts News Network.
Copyright © 2015 Acts News Network.