The Genesis Bible describes in detail the story of a man named Noah (a 10th generation descendant of Adam) who built the Ark and saved himself, his family and animals during the flood. He settled in Armenia and became the progenitor of mankind, at least of his white race, primarily the Armenians.
In this description, there are many inconsistencies, inconsistencies that call into question the authenticity of the story itself. But you need to read the Bible very, very carefully, since every word, every statement in the book has a deep meaning, which is not always clear to us. Despite centuries of experience in Bible study, it is inexhaustible.
Using engineering and technical expertise, I tried to clarify the main episodes of this story, taking into account numerous studies and scientific comments. The assumptions made as a result represent a scientific and technical hypothesis confirming the authenticity of the epic of Noah. Let's consider the main components of this version.
The flood was
American scientists from Washington and Northwestern Universities, their English colleagues from the University of Manchester have discovered huge reservoirs of water at depths of 90-1500 km.
Many scientists believe that there was actually a flood, and not one. A catastrophic eruption of hot salt water with steam could have occurred from underground reservoirs of the earth, the level of the World Ocean rose, a rainstorm gushed from the condensed steam, which most likely lasted 40 days and 40 nights. These natural disasters led to the Flood. And then the water went back … Nowadays, more and more so-called "black smokers" are found at the bottom of the ocean - strange holes from which water with a temperature of 400 degrees gushes with a spring.
American science fiction writer Isaac Asimov writes in his book In the Beginning: “On the northeastern coast of the Persian Gulf there is a junction of giant tectonic plates of the earth's crust, so it is likely that their shift caused an earthquake and the accompanying tidal waves that swept the coast bay . The St. Petersburg scientist Anatoly Akopyants also informs about this: “Noah's ship went up to Ararat up the Euphrates. He was driven by a surge wave caused by an unexplained natural cataclysm in the Persian Gulf region adjacent to Mesopotamia about 4.5 thousand years ago, which reversed the course of the Euphrates River.
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It is quite possible that this super-earthquake was triggered by one of the largest planetary catastrophes - the fall of a large celestial body on the Earth's surface, which occurred just 4300-4500 years ago. Most likely, this giant meteorite broke into several fragments before falling, and they reached the Earth in different parts of it. A global catastrophe has occurred, which is mentioned in various legends.
One fragment of a celestial body could have fallen in the Mediterranean Sea off the southern coast of today's Israel, another in the Persian Gulf region or somewhere near it. In this place, the joints of large tectonic faults pass, under which there are huge volumes of hot salt water. As a result, a cosmogenic tsunami first arose (it is being studied by specialists from the Holocene Impact Working Group), on which the release of water from underground reservoirs of the Earth was "superimposed", which formed such a super-catastrophic phenomenon called the flood.
The resulting surge wave, coming from the Mediterranean Sea and from the Persian Gulf, picked up Noah's Ark and carried it to the Ararat mountains. Simple arithmetic calculations show that during the flood, the speed of the surge current (conditionally equal to the average swimming speed of the Ark) was about 5.5 km per day, the average rate of rise of the water level was about 18 m per day, or 0.75 meters per hour. Such relatively low speeds led to a rather calm sailing of the Ark.
Not a ship, but rafts
According to the "technical task" given by Providence, Noah was ordered to build an Ark 138 meters long, 23 meters wide and 14 meters high. At the same time, Noah did not need a ship with a control system (keel, rudders, sails, etc.) and navigation, which was very difficult both in construction and in navigation. The specific construction of the Ark is not described in the Bible; most likely, it was difficult for the authors to do this. Difficulties also arose with the translation of the used term "tevah", which seems to mean "chest" or "box". By the way, the wicker basket in which the baby Moses was found was also called “tevah”. In the Latin and English translations, the word "ark" was used, which means "box", in the Slavic - the word "ark".
I came to the conclusion that Noah's Ark is not a long "box", and not a ship in its modern concept, but a floating craft of a peculiar design. Its base consists of individual rafts, connected by flexible joints (a towing option is quite possible). They are a chain of 6 square rafts 23 meters long and 23 meters wide with a total length of 138 meters (originally 300 cubits). Each raft has a three-story room, sealed from all sides, except for the bottom, 18 - 20 meters long and 6 - 16 meters wide, fixed on the sides by inclined logs tied at the top and bottom, which forms a triangular cross-section, resistant to external influences (winds, waves) structure with a total height of 14 meters.
It is much easier to build such a structure than a ship, and, most importantly, it is ideal for drifting. The raft is practically unsinkable. All water entering from the outside leaves through the slots in the bottom. If Thor Heyerdahl successfully completed the sea voyage on a raft, then why couldn't Noah have done it even earlier, especially since he was not faced with the task of sailing somewhere specifically, the main thing was to wait and survive. By the way, Heyerdahl in 1947 sailed 8000 km in 101 days on a controlled raft, Ziganshin in 1960 on an unguided barge without food and water covered 2800 km in 49 days, Nansen's ship "Fram" at the end of the 19th century drifted in the ice of the Arctic 3 years and covered a distance of more than 3000 kilometers, Papanin's expedition in 1937 covered 2500 kilometers on a drifting ice floe in 274 days,and in 218 days Noah's Ark sailed in a drifting mode of 1200 kilometers (average speed 5.5 km / day).
It is possible that to simplify the conditions of keeping animals and to eliminate possible conflicts between people, Noah and his sons split up: Ham occupied 2 rafts, Shem occupied 2 rafts, Noah and his youngest son Japheth sailed on the remaining 2 rafts.
Construction site - Rudjm el-Hiri megalith area
For the preparation and implementation of the construction of such a large object as the Ark, as well as for the collection and maintenance of domestic animals and wild animals, a fairly significant and relatively flat surface is needed, which, at the same time, should be near the source of timber, as well as at a sufficient height above sea level and with a less hot climate.
Such a locality was found. Perhaps Noah and his family lived there. This is the area of the Golan Heights next to a man-made megalith under the Arabic name Rujm el-Hiri ("stone wall of a wild cat"). Megalith consists of several concentric rings with a mound in the center, composed of large basalt boulders. Its outer diameter is 160 m and is commensurate with the length of the Ark. Megalith was built before Noah and has survived to this day, although it was significantly destroyed. Its purpose is not yet clear. Next to him, Israeli archaeologists have found an ancient man's dwelling - dugouts. In Armenia, near the city of Sisian, by the way, there is also a similar ancient monument - the megalith Zorats-Karer (Karahunj), built at about the same time as Rujm el-Hiri. According to one version, Karahunj was an ancient cosmodrome.
With the absolute height of the Rudjm el-Hiri megalith area of about 1000 m above sea level (like Yerevan), the destructive wave of supertsunami from the fall of a celestial body could pass below, the Ark was picked up and carried to the Ararat mountains by a calmer current that came from the depths of the Earth.
At the same time, other options for the construction site of the Ark are not excluded, including in Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia).
Timber and device
Perhaps, in the construction of the Ark, Noah used the existing experience in raft-building, about which little is known today, while he significantly improved the design. Noah's rafts were built from solid Lebanese cedar logs, which, in comparison with other types of local timber, have the lowest density (specific gravity) - up to 400 kg / cu. m in a dried state - with a height of up to 50 m and a trunk diameter of up to 2.5 m. In the Bible, the term "gopher" is used as the name of the tree, but no one took the liberty of translating it. However, based on the practical suitability of the timber available for the construction of rafts, the most suitable local tree is the Lebanese cedar. The logs were sanded, dried and repaired. By the way, the balsa used by Heyerdahl is much lighter, only 160 kg / cu. m, and modern pine,as the closest analogue of cedar, it has a density of 500 kg / cu. m, which should be taken into account when calculating the carrying capacity and seaworthiness of the rafts.
On the rafts, in accordance with the "technical task" of Providence, sealed rectangular rooms were built, tied from the sides and fastened at the top with long logs, which gave the entire structure a triangular shape, the most stable during various vicissitudes of long sea voyages. At the same time, flexible joints between the rafts gave the Ark the necessary resistance to waves and kept it from collapse.
Other options for the construction of rafts are also possible.
Living conditions
As you know, God forbade Noah to leave the Ark, which in the case of a completely sealed "box" or ship makes it very difficult to remove human and animal waste. From this point of view, the raft allows them to be removed through slots or through special holes in the bottom. According to Heyerdahl's observation, water never flows upwards.
In addition, the airing of one raft is much more efficient than the entire long "box". Although in this matter, everything is not so simple. For effective ventilation, 2 holes are needed - below and above. Only one thing is indicated in the Bible - from above. Therefore, if the Ark is a “box” or a ship that is sealed from all sides, then the lower opening in it, and, accordingly, ventilation is impossible, but if it is a raft, then it is real.
End of the voyage
At the end of the flood (218 days later) Noah's family and animals arrived safely in the region of the Ararat mountains. The surge current "brought" them, in my opinion, to Aragats, Ararat remained on the sidelines. Big Ararat (Masis) is too high, steep, rocky and impregnable.
Further such a scenario is most likely. When the water began to subside and a distant current appeared, the whole family was divided. Ham with his family and some of the animals sailed on two rafts to Mount Small Ararat (or Ararat), but from the other, southern, side. He became the progenitor of the Afrasian family of peoples. Traces of his raft, in my opinion, should be looked for in this area, most likely in the areas between 2000 - 2500 m isohypses, which are most suitable for mooring: gentle slopes, a rather large plateau, etc.
The second son, Shem, with his two rafts went to Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia) and became the progenitor of the Semitic group of peoples.
This scenario explains how both brothers got there after the flood. Within the framework of this hypothesis, other variants of the settlement of Hama and Sima are also possible.
On Aragats
The question of the arrival of any floating vessel to the shore is not an easy one. The shore must have certain characteristics, that is, be convenient for disembarkation. A ship with a draft of 3-4 meters closer than 100 meters to the shore will not work anyway. How to get animals ashore? The raft can come close to the coast, but the coastal relief should be quite gentle. There are known cases of the tragic death of people who tried to land on the coast on ocean rafts and crashed on reefs and rocks.
Therefore, I believe that Noah himself with his youngest son Japheth on two rafts, exactly one year after the flood began, landed on Mount Aragats, on the territory of the modern Armenian Republic, in the area of Lake Kari (at an altitude of about 3200 - 3500 m above sea level). Here, God revealed a rainbow as a sign of Noah's completion of a difficult journey, as a symbol of the Eternal Covenant between God and people. Then the families of Noah and Japheth with animals went down to the Ararat valley, to warmer places, similar in relief and climate to their homeland (Mesopotamia or Israel), becoming the progenitors of the Armenians and northwestern (Indo-European) peoples. Noah founded the settlement of Yerevan, lived for another 350 years and died at the age of 950.
As part of a prospecting expedition, I was on this southern slope of Aragats in the summer of 1965, and I can say that this area is very suitable both for "landing" a raft and for further walking on foot for people and animals. A rather gentle slope without rocks, an abundance of streams and rivers with melt water due to the fact that the lava "cover" of Aragats is predominantly waterproof and on the mountain slopes surface water runoff prevails.
The slopes of Ararat, on the contrary, are steep, there is no water on them, since the rocks that make up the mountain are “fractured” basalts and melt water immediately leaves the glaciers, forming mainly underground runoffs. By the way, they are the main source of water in a large artesian water basin under the Ararat valley. In addition, the hiking descent from Ararat would be much more difficult than from Aragats. Therefore, I think that Providence directed Noah's Ark to disembark precisely to Aragats, to the area with the most convenient berthing conditions and a relatively simple descent route to the Ararat valley.
Hypothesis requires proof
The above is only preliminary considerations, a scheme, a hypothesis that requires proof.
There can be three proofs. The first, the most accessible, is the finding of any traces of the Ark on Aragats in the area of Lake Kari, including at its bottom. The second is finding any traces of the Ark (rafts of Ham) on the southern slope of the Ararat mountain range, which is very problematic. Third, the most costly, but the most realistic is the construction and implementation of practical water tests of a copy of Noah's raft.
Each element of the "new" construction of the Ark, each episode of this biblical story deserves comprehensive research and calculations, excavations, and full-scale modeling. Including research and development of textual, source study, theological, as well as shipbuilding, geological, archaeological, geographical, oceanological and climatic. A computer simulation of the Ark design and testing is required. The ethical aspect of the feat and covenants of Noah also needs modern understanding. I support the idea of erecting a monument to Noah and his Ark in Yerevan.
Mark Milgram, mining engineer