SEEING NOAH'S ARK

Noah's Ark was found from a place that is fifteen kilometres south from a small town of Dogubeyazit. At the finding place a big ship - liked object can be seen at 1920 metres above sea water level. It is there in north - south direction and protrudes nowadays 4 to 6 metres above it's environment. It's bow points to north and it's west side has partly crashed inside when the Noah's Ark was pushed against a rock by a land slide.

Coordinates of the out of the way location of Noah's Ark are 39 26' N and 44 15' E and it is about 400 metres from a village named Uzengil on a slope of the mountain of Mahser. The area is sometimes a bit dangerous because of the military operations against Kurds living there. Tourists can visit the place in practise at warm season only because at winter time there at that height the weather is cold, windy and there is snow.

State of Turkey and the nearby University of Erzurum have given support to Fasold and Wyatt and participated their work. State of Turkey has also noticed the value of the finding place of the Noah's Ark as a place for tourists to visit and created possibilities to develop local tourist services.

State of Turkey has proclaimed the whole finding area a natural park and 1988 build a four lane road to the area and also a tourist centre near the finding area that has been open during the warm season of year. The tourist centre alone cost to government of Turkey about 1.65 million euros. According to available brochures there is room for 50 customers in the well equipped tourist centre. From those days Noah's Ark has been mentioned in the official tourist guides of the State of Turkey also. Neither meaning nor value of the finding is not being hesitated to declare. The tourists are guided to the finding place of Noah's Ark by signposts with text "Nuhun Gemisi". Year 1990 there visited tourists from 40 different countries, from USA to Australia.

I would like to give some information for those who want to go to see Noah's Ark. It is possible to have a flight from both Istanbul and Ankara to the most important town Erzurum at North-East region of Turkey. From there you can continue by a bus, a taxi or you can hire a car. By a bus the travel from Erzurum to Dogubeyazit takes 4-5 hours. There is over 30 000 residents in Dogubeyazit and from there you can find good hotels like "SIM-ER" or "ARARAT". "SIM-ER" phone is 1601-2254 and telex 74 258. From "SIM-ER" you can get English speaking guide to the Noah's Ark. The other hotels have guides too. Near the town there is also many other historical sights that are worth to take a look. More detailed information you can get from the tourist office of the Embassy of Turkey. HAVE A GOOD JOURNEY.

Noah's Ark

This is how Noah's Ark looks today about 4000 years after it's building.

Source: Seppo Tuominen, Nooan Arkki, Mullistava laivalöytö Araratin vuoristosta.