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Lynchburg man looking for Noah's Ark

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  • Lynchburg man looking for Noah's Ark

    Lynchburg man looking for Noah's Ark
    By _Christa Desrets_ (mailto:[email protected])

    Published: January 31, 2009

    It's one of the most familiar Bible stories.

    Saddened by the wickedness of man, God directs the righteous Noah to
    build an ark for his family and two of each species of animal.

    Together, they ride the ark through 40 days and 40 nights of
    torrential rains that God unleashes upon the Earth. And when the
    waters subside, Noah and the animals return to land.

    `That seems almost like a fairy story,' said archaeologist Randall
    Price, who is director of Liberty University's new Center for Judaic
    Studies. `But we believe it was an actual event.'

    This summer Price, 57, plans to continue on a journey to prove just
    that as he joins an expedition to Mount Ararat. His team believes that
    it is there,in Eastern Turkey, where Noah's Ark remains preserved
    underneath layers of rubble and ice.

    `There's a whole trail of history pointing to it (Mt. Ararat),' Price
    said in a recent interview. `But in our age, people tend to think it
    ismore of a story like =80=98Jack and the Bean Stalk.' Our aim is to
    show that the Bible is good history.'

    He pointed to Genesis 8:4, which states, `and on the seventeenth day
    of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat,'
    in The New International Version of the Bible.

    For centuries, expeditions have set out to find Noah's Ark but
    havebeen unable to find any concrete evidence, beyond that of an
    unwavering faith, to support its existence.

    Retired Continental Airlines Pilot Richard Bright, 64, has visited
    Turkey more than 30 times over the past 25 years in search of the
    vessel.

    `We've received many leads over the years, dating back intoantiquity,'
    he said in a phone interview Friday. `We've had so many reports over
    the years, and they talk about the same mountain.'

    Last fall, a new tip peaked both his and Price's interest.

    A Kurdish shepherd told them that he had seen the ark, and even
    climbed on top of it, when he was a boy.

    The team hypothesizes that the ark is preserved in several pieces
    beneath a glacier on the mountain, and every so often the glacier
    recedes, exposing part of the vessel.

    `That's when he saw it as a boy,' Price said, adding that they had
    interviewed the shepherd and could find no reason to dis-trust him.

    The shepherd asked for nothing in return, and agreed to lead Bright to
    the site where he said he had seen the ark.

    Bright first climbed to the site in September. Then a team including
    Price, the shepherd, a mountaineer and several others made a follow-up
    ascent to 15,000 feet later the same month.

    They found the spot, Price said, but it now is covered by an estimated
    60-foot-deep pile of boulders. Price believes the landslide may have
    resulted from attacks against Kurdish rebels on the mountain, or
    perhaps from explosives that were set off to cover up the ark.

    `It's a very delicate and almost clandestine environment,' he said of
    the area, which is near the Turkish border to Iran and Armenia. `The
    danger level is high.'

    But his team has negotiated with government and military authorities
    and gained access to work at the site starting this spring, Price
    said.

    That's when the team of archaeologists, geologists, explorers and
    other volunteers plan to start removing boulders.

    By summertime, they hope to reach the glacier and use ice-melting
    equipment to access what they believe is preserved beneath. If a
    structure is found, they plan to take samples to have analyzed and
    dated.

    But that may not be proof enough for some. Bright said people would
    have to make up their own minds.

    `We intend to, God willing, find enough of it to at least show thatwe
    have an ancient structure,' he said. `If we find a great big structure
    up there that fits the dimensions, and if there are compartments in
    there, and it's ancient - What else could it be, way up there,
    thousands of feet in the air?' Work also must be done leading up to
    the expedition.

    Price estimated that the team needs to raise about $60,000 to pay for
    permission to use the site, to buy the necessary machinery and to fund
    about two months of work on location.

    Bright said a discovery would `mean so much to so many, many people
    worldwide.'

    `Keep your ear to the road, so to speak, this summer,' he
    said. `Because there will be discovery. The only thing that's holding
    us back is to finance the machinery that we need.'

    Lynchburg News Advance
    ©2009 Media General Communications Holdings, LLC
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