Earlier on our site there was already a note about this expedition. Now everything is detailed.
In September 2014, the next, third in a row, Kosmopoisk expedition ended in search of the legendary Noah's Ark near the slopes of Mount Ararat, located in the Gelendzhik region of Russia. Several years ago, at the foot of this mountain, a team of divers led by Vadim Chernobrov found the skeleton of an ancient wooden object.
Why this particular place was chosen for the search, what kind of ship it was possible to find, what finds were brought to the surface, and about many other things, the Ufolenta correspondent asked the organizer of the underwater archaeological research.
"Expedition" Cosmopoisk "near Mount Ararat in the Black Sea" (M. Zubkova, 2007).
Vadim Alexandrovich, there are quite a lot of Ararat mountains, and only in Russia there are at least six of them. Why did you choose the Gelendzhik region? What other reasons, apart from the coincidence of the name of the "biblical mountain", became the basis for organizing the expedition?
- There are two reasons why we stopped near Gelendzhik. I have visited all six Russian Ararats and the Gelendzhik option is the only one that meets at least the minimum criteria. Among them, firstly, it is the only mountain where there are traces of large-scale water erosion or flooding on its slopes. And secondly, it is one of the few peaks whose name is ancient. Most of the other mountains with a similar designation got their name just a few centuries ago.
By the way, Mount Ararat, which is traditionally considered biblical, was named so only during the time of the Crusaders. In addition, the "Cosmopoisk" expedition did not find any traces of water there - that is, there was no "flood" during, at least, human history there. There is no such scientific theory that could substantiate how water could even reach its plateaus - such an amount of water on the entire planet simply does not exist.
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Why has no one noticed the obvious for many centuries? The most ancient mountain Ararat is located in Russia
There are also indirect reasons that tip the scales in favor of the Russian Ararat. For example, this year one of the local ethnographers began to study the history of "our" mountain and on the old maps of the Ottoman Empire it is designated as a "top rectangular wooden fence". This turned out to be consonant with the name of the Turkish Ararat (Tur. Ağrı Dağı). And the Black Sea itself may be what the Bible calls "Black Lake".
The press mentions that this is the third time you are conducting an expedition in the Gelendzhik region. What years did they go through?
- The first expedition took place in September 2007, the second - in October 2011 and the third - in September 2014, respectively. For the third time, it was the underwater expedition that passed, and before that, since 1999, we have been engaged in ground searches and investigated other mysteries in that area.
What did you find thanks to the 2014 expedition?
- Unfortunately, not as much as we would like. We have selected a good team of highly professional scuba divers from among the members of "Anapa-Kosmopoisk" and three divers from Lithuania. As soon as we started the dive, it turned out that the supposed skeleton of a wooden ship or building (which I will talk about later) was completely covered with sand due to the strong current in this place. It is not so difficult to clear the find from the layers, but it took additional time. The second task of the expedition was to search for other wreckage of the "ark" in adjacent areas under water.
On the second day of the expedition, a storm broke out, and in a day or two it intensified. This interfered with the work of divers, and it was decided to suspend underwater searches until next year.
And while we were waiting for the weather by the sea, we interviewed the local population along the way and found another clue in this story. We found eyewitnesses who said that in the 90s, during construction work near our camp, the remains of an ancient wooden ship were found. It became obvious that it was necessary to call archaeologists, but a rumor was spread in the village (apparently the builders themselves) that it was a great sin to dig such ships. The pit was filled up … Geographically, this place is located not far from the ancient skeleton that we have already discovered at the bottom, so I do not exclude that they may be related.
September 2014. Expedition to find Noah's ark.
I am in favor of carrying out excavations only officially and at the state level, so we, I hope, will interest both archaeologists and the owners of a building that has already appeared nearby in order to still extract this object from the ground and explore.
The press mentions some butterflies that circle over the top of Gelendzhik Mount Ararat and then fly away. How does this relate to the legend of Noah's ark?
- In a guide to the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, published in the 1920s, we found an interesting entry related to this place. It was pointed out that "as is known" on Mount Ararat once a year, on a date known to all local residents, a large number of butterflies gather and then, at a single signal, the flock rises up and rushes south into the open sea towards Turkey, but without reaching to the coast, perish.
Everyone I have not asked about this story has not heard anything like it. I already began to think that either the butterflies have died out since then, or all have drowned, but this year we went to a local entomologist, who confirmed that such a phenomenon took place and he personally observed it, but did not think to fix the date, only remembered that it was in May.
One gets the impression that the ancestral memory pushes the butterflies to fly to some land or hill, which used to be on the site of the open sea. This is one more proof of the once major cataclysm that happened here.
What is your hypothesis about how the Russian "Noah's Ark" ended up in this place?
- I admit that in ancient times, a certain ship or something that sailed on the sea and was perceived by eyewitnesses as a ship, docked or was thrown ashore at the slopes of Mount Ararat. The survivors went ashore from this boat, and then this ship could break into pieces during a storm: one was on the shore, the other was under water. We discovered the underwater part in 2007, and collected information about the aboveground part this year.
Now I will tell you more about my hypothesis. I am far from wanting to confirm or deny everything written in the Bible, to believe or not to believe in it is everyone's personal business. I believe that at least some of the events described in this book took place in reality. Maybe with the wrong details, but it did.
I am far from thinking that the flood really happened, but I can well imagine a local catastrophe that took place here and echoed in ancient texts. One of the few suitable "regional floods" occurred in the Black Sea region about 8000 years ago. Surely the area was inhabited when it happened. According to one version, it was provoked by the fall of a large meteorite in the south of the Indian Ocean, west of the island of Madagascar.
First, a dam burst in the place where the Strait of Gibraltar is now (once instead of this strait there was an isthmus). Today the Mediterranean Sea has the same level with the world's oceans. Although earlier it was lower, and the bottom of the current Mediterranean Sea was almost dry.
The Black Sea in our time (blue) and at the beginning of the 6th millennium BC according to the Ryne-Pitman hypothesis.
When a huge wave rushed into the Mediterranean basin, many people died there. After that, the wave swept further through the present Dardanelles and the Bosphorus and began to fill the semi-dry lake that was on the site of the present Black Sea.
Today it is roughly known that an endless tide could last for about 40 days. For 40 days (or about a month) the water level rose by 180 m. This is not as much as it seems, but in some places the rate of water rise could exceed the speed of a pedestrian. So, for example, it could happen on flat areas. In mountainous areas, a pedestrian could easily get away from the advancing water and, accordingly, escape. Most likely, this was the case in the area of Mount Ararat. But on the flat part, where there were more settlements, the water advanced much faster, and there were no casualties.
People stayed in their houses, thinking that the flood would end, the water would subside and everything would return to normal. When they realized that the water would rise above the roof, then at that moment it was too late to leave, because as far as was visible to the very horizon, water was already everywhere at that moment. Many people are trapped and the number of victims now can only be roughly imagined. And, of course, those who survived those terrible days sincerely believed that this was not a regional flood, but a worldwide one. They had no other option.
Despite such a number of victims, people fled, climbed the highest mountains as they did not know where the water would stop. Before their eyes, whole hills were sinking under the water, and no one could give a guarantee that the mountain they had climbed would not remain under water. People began to pray frantically to all the gods. They sat on the peaks, shaking with fear.
I have repeatedly observed how during floods whole houses with people float on the water. In this case, we can assume something similar - one house was raised by mudflows and carried. Now we can assume how the legend about the salvation of Noah near Mount Ararat was born. Imagine that people are sitting on the slopes of Mount Ararat and see how either a rectangular boat, or an ark, or a ship without a rudder and without sails is sailing along the waves of a raging sea. It turns out, in fact, the canonical description of Noah's ark from the Bible!
It is unlikely that the ship was so large - 180 meters in length (as described in the Bible). Such dimensions are needed to fit literally all animals there, starting with elephants, lions, etc. In reality, they were not there. In this "house", most likely, there were people and animals domesticated by that time, and we know that this process began somewhere around the 5th-6th millennium BC. e.
The house was most likely two-story. Such houses are still being built in the far north in Russia. This helps to save on heating costs. It is also a guarantee (“my house is my fortress”) that, in the event of an enemy attack, a two-story house is easier to defend than a one-story one. Because the windows of the first floor can be made small embrasures, and the windows of the second floor, where people live, are inaccessible to the attackers.
It was also normal for people and animals to live together and to warm each other with their breath: it was warmer together, more fun together. In the event of a flood, such houses are demolished in the first place, and they really float like a ship. Such a house looks like a rectangular rectangular ship protruding slightly above the water. It has sides, but at the same time, it is not a real vessel, because all vessels have a streamlined oval, lenticular shape. All ships have some kind of controls: rudders, sails (i.e. sails), oars. Houses don't have that.
Therefore, a version appears that those praying on the slopes of Ararat saw some kind of rectangular vessel floating on the raging sea, that is, a pure ark, behind which stood people and animals. Most likely, there were a couple of animals for each creature. While people were being carried across the sea, people had to eat something. In order to have enough feed, it was necessary to reduce the livestock, and at the same time feed yourself, so as not to die of hunger at sea. Therefore, for sure, the owner began to kill and eat all the extra, in his opinion, animals, leaving each creature in a pair, in order to start the farm anew.
Therefore, most likely, eyewitnesses distraught with fear on the slopes of Ararat saw the ark sailing to the mountain, people and each creature come out of it ashore. Naturally, such a miraculous salvation could not be without the will of God. And what he saw could not but become the reason for the emergence of a beautiful legend, very wonderful and very life-affirming.
Why was the place for the search for Noah's Ark chosen near the slope of Ararat?
- This choice stemmed from the legend itself. Now it remained only on the slopes of the mountain to find the remains of that very Noah's ark, the alleged vessel or not a vessel. To search for a specific place, we proceeded from the directions, from the directions of currents prevailing here. It turned out that in this place the current runs parallel to the coast. But in the place where it was planned to search for the remains of the ark or house, the current makes a sharp curve at about 90 degrees, and this sharp turn is in the place where the underwater reefs are located. That is, if something, some kind of raft or an uncontrollable vessel with a large draft, is submerged deep in the water, then it simply cannot pass over the underwater reefs.
Underwater survey of the search area by a diving team in 2007.
The house got caught on the reefs and, presumably, in this place they could stop. If they are washed ashore after they run aground, that's good. If not thrown away, then there you can swim to the shore a couple of tens of meters. In either case, their house sooner or later had to be broken by the waves. And further options are possible.
In any case, initially it was required to conduct searches near this turn of the current and the ridge of underwater reefs. That is, not all attention was paid to the entire coastline, which stretches along the slopes of Ararat, since this is a fairly large space. Mount Ararat is not gigantic, but not small either - 350 meters above sea level. It was just enough to save her. But compared to the Caucasus Mountains, it is not gigantic. Since the slopes of the mountain are large spaces, the search for the desired object was concentrated in the place where the current makes a turn and where the reefs are.
Rectangular object found at the bottom at the foot of Ararat (Fig. V. Chernobrov).
Have any detailed finds been raised to the surface and handed over to scientists for analysis, because now there is a very accurate dendrochronological analysis of the dating of wooden objects?
- The dendrochronological method can really give results. Unfortunately, there are more and more recommendations to give the found pieces of wood for radiocarbon analysis. But this method does not give a reliable result for petrified trees. For dendrochronological analysis, a tree cut is required. That is, it is necessary to cut the petrified tree at the bottom with a powerful saw, or to raise the log and cut it on the ground in order to photograph the annual rings. Both are very technically difficult undertakings that have not yet been implemented.
So far, 2 or 3 pieces of alleged petrified logs have been raised. But overlapping dendrochronological maps on separate pieces is extremely difficult: it is like a mosaic with many unknown details. Thus, unfortunately, the cut was not made for technical reasons. The question of how to do this in the future is being discussed. And it is discussed, first of all, with specialists in dendrochronology.
Author: Ilya Butov