Mystery Noah's Ark For many years it has been attracting not only theologians, but also scientists. Both among those and among others there are enough people who dream of proving that the Ship, thanks to which humanity was saved from the Great Flood, is not a myth. Until now, researchers on the topic assumed that the Ark should be looked for on Mount Ararat, where, according to the Bible, it landed. However, none of the expeditions even 50 percent confirmed the existence of the Ark, despite the fact that many of its supposed fragments were found, as well as the outline of the vessel itself on Mount Ararat. Therefore, hypotheses about his whereabouts continue to appear.
In the Chechen Republic, the topic of the Ark was taken up by local seeker Marat Makazho - after he found strange fossils on the Sadoy-Lam mountain of the republic.
While walking, I noticed layers of rock protruding from the mountain, similar in texture to logs, he recalls. - The stones fit together evenly and tightly, like beams in a ship. I did not find any admixtures of local clay in the stones themselves; they looked man-made.
Photo: Marat Macajo claims that these fossils were once the logs of the Ark. / @ kp.ru
The size of the fossils, as well as footage from a quadcopter, which made it possible to see that the mountain had the outline of a large ship, gave Marat the idea that it might not be just a ship.
The dimensions of the hill are quite suitable for the dimensions of the Ark described in Scripture, argues Marat. “I started asking the elders living near Mount Sadoi Lam. And they said that during the construction of the mosque almost 100 years ago, two giant wooden beams were found on a high plateau. According to them, the tree seemed to come out of nowhere. The beams were so large that no one could lift them - they dragged them with difficulty, and now our mosque stands on them. Other residents with whom I spoke recall many strange and even mystical stories associated with the mountain.
However, Marat still cannot convince archaeologists to start excavations:
They shrug their shoulders and do not believe in the very possibility of finding the mythical, as they say, Ark.
Marat's hope was given by an expedition of the Russian Geographical Society, which plans to go to Chechnya and study the fossils in more detail. In the meantime, the “discoverer” of the Ark is excavating himself with the help of his like-minded people and is trying to attract specialists to the topic by publishing videos of his observations on the Internet. We asked Professor, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences and Chief Researcher of the Geological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Trifonov to look at one of these records.
“It’s more like limestone deposits, which have their own special origin in the Caucasus,” he commented. - These structures formed at the bottom of the Tethys Ocean, which existed at the site North Caucasus millions of years ago. Such artifacts rarely end up this high, but due to the movement of tectonic plates, this is quite possible and most likely. Visually it may resemble wood, but due to exposure to the environment it can weather and take on a surprising shape.
As far as I know, there have been several similar cases. They all have a distinctive feature: people see something visually similar to the remains of an ancient ship. The two most striking cases were recorded in Turkey, directly at the foot of and not far from Ararat. In one case, it was sediment that had formed relatively recently. They acquired their shape as a result of external influences, that is, washing and weathering. However, their structure was too strikingly different from petrified wood, which is most often quartzed (partially transformed into quartz - Ed.), and almost never remains soft, like the same limestone. In the second case, the structure was solid, these were quite old rocks that even aroused the interest of scientists. A group of geophysicists from Japan studied this formation and conducted experiments, but were unable to provide strong evidence.
How many times has the Ark been found?
Attempts to find the Ark have been made since around the 4th century AD. According to biblical legend, he was supposed to stop on the slope of Mount Ararat. There are several other areas that are considered to be its potential location. One of the main places, according to seekers, is the so-called Ararat anomaly - the “contours of a ship” protruding from the snow on the northwestern slope of Ararat. Scientists explain its formation by natural causes, but research on the site is difficult, since the area is a military closed zone in the area of the Armenian-Turkish border.
Photo: Alleged remains of Noah's Ark near Mount Ararat in Turkey / Mfikretyilmaz - own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org
1. One of those who The one who “found” the Ark was Russian military pilot Vladimir Roskovitsky, who, during World War I, while flying over Mount Ararat, saw what he called a “lying large vessel.” The pilot wrote a report about what he saw, and in 1917 Russia allegedly even sent an expedition there, which took several photographs of the Ark, but during the revolution the report on the expedition disappeared. Later, other pilots, in particular the Turk Durupinar in 1957, took photographs of a strange outline similar to a ship near Mount Ararat. Durupinar's photograph even ended up in Life magazine and became the reason for further expeditions, each of which announced the discovery of the Ark.
Photo: Turk Durupinar in 1957 took a photograph from an airplane of a strange outline similar to a ship near Mount Ararat
2. In 1955, French researcher Fernand Navarre brought from Ararat the remains of a board that, according to him, was broken off from the wooden frame of the Ark. Some of the studies partially confirmed the age of the tree at 5,000 years, but all these conclusions were very subjective.
3. A joint Turkish-Hong Kong expedition to Mount Ararat in 2010 made a statement that they found Noah’s Ark at an altitude of 4000 meters frozen into a glacier and even entered some rooms inside the Ark, taking videos and photographs. However, there is a version that all this filming was edited to create a world sensation. Professional archaeologists do not take the claims of the Ark seekers seriously, considering all their discoveries to be a figment of the imagination.
In Chechnya, enthusiasts and scientists continue to explore Noah’s Ark on Mount Sadoi-Lam in the Cheberloevsky district of the republic. Three years ago lonely local resident Marat Makazho found here an amazing formation of layered limestones, surprisingly similar to wooden beams.
I was just walking through the alpine meadows in the mountains, a little above Lake Kezenoyam. I admired the beauty of nature and explored the area. The strange elevation above the plateau aroused my interest. From there it was very nice to admire the surroundings, I often came to just sit there. Then he began to look at the stones and noticed that they were very even, smooth and beautiful in this place. It’s as if they were specially tailored to each other. I became interested in their origin, without completely understanding what I was dealing with, simply out of curiosity. This is how this story began,” Marat told Komsomolskaya Pravda.
"Gate of the Ark" Photo:
The man spent the next year in libraries, researching historical sources and geological manuals. Who could grind limestone so delicately? For what? And what kind of man-made structure could be located on a plateau high in the mountains?
The insight came with the thought that it might not be a stone at all, but petrified wood. That's when I first thought about the Ark. At first I was skeptical about this,” says Marat. - I often went to the mountains and explored. But the deeper I studied the topic, the less doubts remained. The final conviction came when I saw something that I can’t call anything other than familiar. It was similar to the “phenomenon” from canonical legends: slightly gloomy weather, the sky overcast with clouds. I walk to the plateau in thought. And then a ray of bright light bursting out from behind the clouds falls on the place that we now call the “gates of the Ark”!
Marat Makazho talks about Noah's Ark in Chechnya.
Mufti of the Chechen Republic Salah Mezhiev about the discovery of Noah's Ark
Marat spent another year studying theological literature and the history of the search for the Ark. Of course, most clerics claimed that the ancient ship of the prophet stopped on Mount Ararat. But long searches and scientific research yielded nothing. Formations truly similar to the ship were never found, and archaeologists and geologists, not finding the skeleton on the mountain, moved to other areas of Turkey. Another part of Islamic scholars indicates that the Ark could have stopped in another place.
According to one of the widespread theories put forward by Islamic scholars, the ship could have sailed further north and run aground in the Caucasus Mountains, the Mufti of the Chechen Republic Salakh Mezhiev explained to Komsomolskaya Pravda. - Moreover, here, in the North Caucasus, there are people who bear the name of the prophet. In Arabic, Noah is called Nuh, or Noh. And true Vainakhs know that the real name of the Chechen people is Nokhchi. That is, in other words, the sons of Noch.
Using this map, everyone will be able to find a unique phenomenon discovered by Marat Makazho Photo: Personal archive of the publication hero
The coincidences amazed Marat. And two years later he publicly announced that he had found Noah’s Ark. An initiative group immediately gathered around him; enthusiasts, having looked at the phenomenon with their own eyes, without regret invested their own funds in its study, and soon excavations began.
Unique natural object amazed even scientists. They suggested that multi-layered limestones were formed under enormous water pressure. Most likely - at the bottom of the Tethys Ocean, which existed millions of years ago in the North Caucasus. But the origin of the “nails” that dot the limestone layers is more difficult to explain.
Photo: Personal archive of the publication hero
An expedition from the Crimean branch of the Russian Geographical Society and specialists from the Central Research Institute of Geology of Nonmetallic Minerals came to us. The scientists, over a glass of beer, honestly said that they were amazed by some of the details, and education in the mountains of Chechnya is really worthy of study, shares Marat Makazho. - But the analysis of limestone samples did not give positive results for us. Therefore, we cannot yet announce the find to the whole world. We continue excavations.
At the same time, the scientists themselves speak of the Chechen enthusiast with great warmth and respect his beliefs.
Even scientists find it difficult to answer the question about the origin of the nails with which the limestone is studded. Photo: Personal archive of the publication hero
Marat is a very interesting, smart person. Doesn't look at all like the local madman who wrote a beautiful legend and believed in it, says geologist and speleologist Gennady Samokhin, who heads the expedition of the Crimean branch of the Russian Geographical Society. - As a scientist, I, of course, cannot seriously assume that this is the mythical Noah’s Ark. But the object he discovered is indeed extremely interesting and deserves detailed study. I sincerely wish him luck in his research.
Enthusiasts have to work very carefully - they are afraid of damaging the shrine. Now they have managed to go 25 meters deep into the limestone. Members of the initiative group are confident that they will find voids inside - interior spaces legendary ship. And they hope that this find will prove to all skeptics that Noah’s Ark is really in Chechnya.
The most important test for the initiative group was the visit of representatives of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Chechnya. After him, the Muftiate of the republic has no doubt about the authenticity of the Ark.
After examining the object by our representatives, I can confidently say that Noah’s Ark is in Chechnya,” said the Mufti of the Chechen Republic Salakh Mezhiev. - This is our position. May Allah grant that studies of the skeleton found in the mountains finally confirm this! We believe and hope that this will happen soon.
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How many times has the Ark been found?
Attempts to find the Ark have been made since around the 4th century AD. According to biblical legend, he was supposed to stop on the slope of Mount Ararat. There are several other areas that are considered to be its potential location. One of the main places, according to seekers, is the so-called Ararat anomaly - the “contours of a ship” protruding from the snow on the northwestern slope of Ararat. Scientists explain its formation by natural causes, but research on the site is difficult, since the area is a military closed zone in the area of the Armenian-Turkish border.
1. One of those who “found” the Ark was Russian military pilot Vladimir Roskovitsky, who, while flying over Mount Ararat during World War I, saw what he called a “lying large vessel.” The pilot wrote a report about what he saw, and in 1917 Russia allegedly even sent an expedition there, which took several photographs of the Ark, but during the revolution the report on the expedition disappeared. Later, other pilots, in particular the Turk Durupinar in 1957, took photographs of a strange outline similar to a ship near Mount Ararat. Durupinar's photograph even ended up in Life magazine and became the reason for further expeditions, each of which announced the discovery of the Ark.
2. In 1955, French researcher Fernand Navarre brought from Ararat the remains of a board that, according to him, was broken off from the wooden frame of the Ark. Some of the studies partially confirmed the age of the tree at 5,000 years, but all these conclusions were very subjective.
3. A joint Turkish-Hong Kong expedition to Mount Ararat in 2010 made a statement that they found Noah’s Ark at an altitude of 4000 meters frozen into a glacier and even entered some rooms inside the Ark, taking videos and photographs. However, there is a version that all this filming was edited to create a world sensation. Professional archaeologists do not take the claims of the Ark seekers seriously, considering all their discoveries to be a figment of the imagination.
In Chechnya, enthusiasts and scientists continue to explore Noah’s Ark on Mount Sadoi-Lam in the Cheberloevsky district of the republic. Three years ago, a lonely local resident, Marat Makazho, found here an amazing formation of layered limestones, surprisingly similar to wooden beams.
I was just walking through the alpine meadows in the mountains, a little above Lake Kezenoyam. I admired the beauty of nature and explored the area. The strange elevation above the plateau aroused my interest. From there it was very nice to admire the surroundings, I often came to just sit there. Then he began to look at the stones and noticed that they were very even, smooth and beautiful in this place. It’s as if they were specially tailored to each other. I became interested in their origin, without completely understanding what I was dealing with, simply out of curiosity. This is how this story began,” Marat told Komsomolskaya Pravda.
The man spent the next year in libraries, researching historical sources and geological manuals. Who could grind limestone so delicately? For what? And what kind of man-made structure could be located on a plateau high in the mountains?
The insight came with the thought that it might not be a stone at all, but petrified wood. That's when I first thought about the Ark. At first I was skeptical about this,” says Marat. - I often went to the mountains and explored. But the deeper I studied the topic, the less doubts remained. The final conviction came when I saw something that I can’t call anything other than familiar. It was similar to the “phenomenon” from canonical legends: slightly gloomy weather, the sky overcast with clouds. I walk to the plateau in thought. And then a ray of bright light bursting out from behind the clouds falls on the place that we now call the “gates of the Ark”!
Marat spent another year studying theological literature and the history of the search for the Ark. Of course, most clerics claimed that the ancient ship of the prophet stopped on Mount Ararat. But long searches and scientific research yielded nothing. Formations truly similar to the ship were never found, and archaeologists and geologists, not finding the skeleton on the mountain, moved to other areas of Turkey. Another part of Islamic scholars indicates that the Ark could have stopped in another place.
According to one of the widespread theories put forward by Islamic scholars, the ship could have sailed further north and run aground in the Caucasus Mountains, the Mufti of the Chechen Republic Salakh Mezhiev explained to Komsomolskaya Pravda. - Moreover, here, in the North Caucasus, there are people who bear the name of the prophet. In Arabic, Noah is called Nuh, or Noh. And true Vainakhs know that the real name of the Chechen people is Nokhchi. That is, in other words, the sons of Noch.
The coincidences amazed Marat. And two years later he publicly announced that he had found Noah’s Ark. An initiative group immediately gathered around him; enthusiasts, having looked at the phenomenon with their own eyes, without regret invested their own funds in its study, and soon excavations began.
The unique natural object amazed even scientists. They suggested that multilayered limestones were formed under enormous water pressure. Most likely - at the bottom of the Tethys Ocean, which existed millions of years ago in the North Caucasus. But the origin of the “nails” that dot the limestone layers is more difficult to explain.
An expedition from the Crimean branch of the Russian Geographical Society and specialists from the Central Research Institute of Geology of Nonmetallic Minerals came to us. The scientists, over a glass of beer, honestly said that they were amazed by some of the details, and education in the mountains of Chechnya is really worthy of study, shares Marat Makazho. - But the analysis of limestone samples did not give positive results for us. Therefore, we cannot yet announce the find to the whole world. We continue excavations.
At the same time, the scientists themselves speak of the Chechen enthusiast with great warmth and respect his beliefs.
Marat is a very interesting, smart person. He doesn’t look at all like a local madman who composed a beautiful legend and believed in it, says geologist and speleologist Gennady Samokhin, who heads the expedition of the Crimean branch of the Russian Geographical Society. - As a scientist, I, of course, cannot seriously assume that this is the mythical Noah’s Ark. But the object he discovered is indeed extremely interesting and deserves detailed study. I sincerely wish him luck in his research.
Enthusiasts have to work very carefully - they are afraid of damaging the shrine. Now they have managed to go 25 meters deep into the limestone. Members of the initiative group are confident that they will find voids inside - the interior of the legendary ship. And they hope that this discovery will prove to all skeptics that Noah’s Ark is really in Chechnya.
The most important test for the initiative group was the visit of representatives of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Chechnya. After him, the Muftiate of the republic has no doubt about the authenticity of the Ark.
After examining the object by our representatives, I can confidently say that Noah’s Ark is in Chechnya,” said the Mufti of the Chechen Republic Salakh Mezhiev. - This is our position. May Allah grant that studies of the skeleton found in the mountains finally confirm this! We believe and hope that this will happen soon.
