In 1856, three "atheist foreigners" hired two guides in Armenia for an expedition with the aim of "refuting the existence of the biblical ark." Nothing is known about the results of this expedition, there is only one thing: Before his death, dozens of years later, one of the guides admitted that "to their surprise, they found the ark." Or what resembled it. An attempt was made to destroy it.
Further attempts and climbing the mountain gave the same result: the ascents observed a large wooden vessel near the summit. This was reported in 1916 by the Russian pilot V. Roskovitsky. The expedition, equipped by the Tsarist government, set about searching. Results: The ark was found, examined and photographed. Only the coming year of 1917 completely and reliably hid in its confusion not only all the materials of this expedition, but also the slightest hint of its existence.
In the summer of 1953, an American oilman, flying in a helicopter in the same area, took six clear photographs of a ship, or something very much like a ship. And a little later a photograph appeared in print with clearly distinguishable outlines of the ship, taken from space.
1955 year. Fernand Navvarr dug out a timber and several planks from the ice. The studies of these specimens carried out in Bordeaux and Madrid have established an approximate age of about 5000 thousand years. Other trophies discovered in the seventies confirmed the antiquity of the specimen.
In 1974, the Turkish government, having placed observation posts on the border line on Ararat, closed the area of the mountains to any visits and expeditions. The search for the ark was cut short.
So what is on Mount Ararat after all? Was there a Noah's Ark, described in many scriptures of different religions, and featured among the legends of different peoples?