History of the search
 for Noah's Ark
475 B.C. A Chaldean priest reported that the remains of Noah's Ark could be seen at the bottom of a mountain glacier.
   
257 B.C. Berosus, a Caldean historian, wrote: "But of this ship that grounded in Armenia, some part if it still remains ... and some get pitch from the ship by scraping it off and use it for amulets to ward off evil.".  Also, 'It is said, moreover, that a portion of the vessel still survives in Armenia on the mountains of the Gordyaens, and that persons carry off pieces of bitumen, which they use as talismans.'
 
30 B.C. The Egyptian historian Hieronymus, author of the ancient history of Phoenicia
 
50 A.D. approx. 1st Century Jewish historian, and both a Jewish and Roman General, Flavius Josephus mentions the remains of Noah's ark 3 times.  Once, Josephus tells us that some persons were reluctant to come down from the Mount onto the Mesopotamia plain to settle because of fears of another Flood. Josephus also reported the ship was already being torn down. "It is said that a portion of the vessel still survives ... on the mountains ... and that persons carry off pieces of [it], which they use as talismans.
 
  Nicolaus of Damascus, in his ninety-sixth book, hath a particular relation about them; where he speaks thus: "There is a great mountain in Armenia, over Minyas, called Baris, upon which it is reported that many who fled at the time of the Deluge were saved; and that one who was carried in an ark came on shore upon the top of it; and that the remains of the timber were a great while preserved. This might be the man about whom Moses the legislator of the Jews wrote."

"... the country called Carrae: it was a soil that bare amomum in great plenty: there are also in it the remains of that ark, wherein it is related that Noah escaped the deluge, and where they are still shown to such as are desirous to see them"
 
180 A.D. Theophilus of Antioch wrote: "And of the Ark, the remains are to this day to be seen in the Arabian mountains"
 
4th cent A.D. Bishop Epiphanius of Salamis: "Do you seriously suppose that we are unable to prove our point, when even to this day the remains of Noah's Ark are shown in the country of the Kurds? Why, were one to search diligently, doubtless one would also find at the foot of the mountain the remnants of the altar where Noah, on leaving the Ark, tarried to offer clean and fatly animals as a sacrifice to the Lord God"
 
4th cent A.D. John Chrysostom: Do not the mountains of Armenia testify to it, where the Ark rested? And are not the remains of the Ark preserved there to this very day for our admonition"
 
610 A.D. Isidore of Seville: "Ararat is a mountain in Armenia, where the historians testify that the Ark came to rest after the Flood. So even to this day wood remains of it are to be seen there".

In 628 A.D., Isidore (560-636 A.D.) drew this picture of the Ark:

 
620 A.D. Byzantine Emperor Heraclius.  The historian Elmacin recorded in the 13th Century that in the 7th Century the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius had climbed Jabal Judi in order to see the place where the Ark had landed.
 
628 A.D.  Archbishop Isidore of Seville drew the drawing below in 628 A.D.
1100's A.D. Benjamin of Tudela, a 12th century historian wrote: "I traveled two days to Jezireh BenOmar (modern Cizre), an island in the Tigris, at the foot of Mt. Ararat...on which the Ark of Noah rested. Omar Ben al-Khatab removed the Ark from the summit of the two mountains and made a mosque of it."
 
1245 A.D. Jehan Haithon, a monk wrote: "Upon the snows of Ararat a black speck is visible at all times: this is Noah's Ark"
 
1269 A.D. The explorer Marco Polo reported finding the Ark after a 3-day climb in the "snowy reaches of a very high mountain. At the bottom of a summit, not at the peak."
 
1633 A.D. Adam Olearius wrote: "The Armenians, and the Persians themselves, are of opinion that there are still upon the said mountain some remainders of the Ark, but that Time hath so hardened them, that they seem absolutely petrify'd. At Schamachy in Media Persia, we were shown a Crosse of a black and hard Wood, which the Inhabitants affirmed to have been made of the Wood of the Ark".
 
1829 A.D. Frederick Parrot reported seeing wood relics made from the Ark at the base of Mt. Ararat in a cathedral that was destroyed in an earthquake in 1840.
 
1856 A.D. This is an unsubstantiated account.  The newspaper story has never been found. 

In 1952, Harold Williams wrote a story told by Haji Yearam, an Armenian Christian, in 1916. According to the story, Yearam as a boy helped guide three English scientists to the ark in 1856. Upon finding the ark sticking out of a glacier near the summit, the scientists, "vile men who did not believe in the Bible," flew into a rage and tried futilely to destroy it. Then they took an oath to keep the discovery a secret and murder anyone who revealed it. About 1918, Williams saw a newspaper article giving a scientist's deathbed confession, which corroborated Yearam's story.

Haji said; "It was an unusually hot summer, so the snow and glaciers had melted more than usual. The Armenians were very reticent to undertake any expedition to the Ark because they feared God's displeasure, but the father of Haji thought that possibly the time had come when God wanted the world to know the Ark was still there and he wanted to prove to those atheists that the Bible story of the Flood and the Ark is true.

"They went inside the Ark and did considerable exploring. It was divided up into many floors and stages and compartments and had bars like animal cages off today. The whole structure was covered with a varnish or lacquer that was very thick and strong, both outside and inside the ship. The ship was built more like a great and mighty house on the hull of a ship, but without any windows. There was a great doorway of immense size, but the door was missing. The scientists were appalled and dumbfounded and went into a Satanic rage at finding what they hoped to prove nonexistent. They were so angry and mad that they said they would destroy the ship, but the wood was more like stone than any wood we have now. They did not have tools or means to wreck so mighty a ship and had to give up. They did tear out some timbers and tried to burn the wood, but it was so hard it was almost impossible to burn it.

"They held a council, and then took a solemn and fearful death oath. Any man present who would ever breathe a word about what they had found would be tortured and murdered"
 
1883 A.D. The Turkish government reported that an expedition located the Ark at 14,000 feet and saw animal cages and stalls.
 
1887 A.D. Indian explorer John Nouri made three expeditions, during which he claimed to have located the Ark -- and recommended removing it for the 1900 World's Fair.
 
1908 A.D. In 1970 an Armenian immigrant, Georgie Hagopian, claimed to have visited the Ark twice around 1908/1910 (1902 in another version) with his uncle. Hagopian claimed that he had climbed up onto the Ark and walked along its roof, and that many of his young friends had also claimed to have seen it.  He said; "The Ark was resting on a huge rock, bluish-green in color, but one side was on the edge of a steep cliff. The mountain was impossible to climb from the side. When he looked over the edge, he could hardly see the bottom of the mist.

"The Ark was very long and rectangular. Parts of the bottom were exposed and he could see that it was flat. The roof was nearly flat, except for a row of windows, 50 or more, estimated size 18 inches x 30 inches, running from front to back covered by an overhanging roof. The front was also flat. The side tipped out a little from the bottom to top.

"The wood appeared to be entirely petrified"

According to his memory, it was 1000 feet long, 600-700 feet wide and about 40 feet tall.  It was built with wooden dowels and the wood was too hard for a bullet to penetrate.             
 
1916-17 A.D. Russian and Turkish soldiers entered the Ark.
 
1943 Ed Davis, a US army sergeant based at Hamadan in Iran during World War II, reported that he had climbed Mt. Ararat with his driver's family in 1943. After three days climbing, the group camped 100 feet above the Ark, and was able to look down into it but not to approach closely.
 
1948 A Kurdish farmer named Resit reported seeing a boxlike structure above 11,000 feet on Ararat.  Resit said; "The prow of a ship protruding into a canyon was seen. The prow was almost entirely revealed, but the rest of the object still was covered."
 
1949 U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency photo - known as the "Mt Ararat Anomaly"
 
1953 George Green: Helicopter pilot Green described the Ark lying generally in a north-south direction, situated seemingly on a large rock bench or shelf on the side of a vertical rock cliff at the 13,000 to 14,000 ft. level. He photographed it, but his photos disappeared in British Guiana when he was murdered there in 1962
 
1980's Former astronaut James Irwin led two expeditions to Ararat in the 1980s, was kidnapped once, and like others found no tangible evidence of the Ark. "I've done all I possibly can," he said, "but the Ark continues to elude us."  Also, Ron Wyatt  explores Tenderuk mountains of eastern Turkey, 6,300 ft above sea level.  he reports on the Durupinar site.
 
1990 A.D. Laser enhancement of satellite image reportedly clarified a boxlike shape, broken in half.
 
2003 QuickBird Satellite imagery taken of the same anomaly of 1949 above.
 
2006 Team led by Dr. Bob Cornuke find an arkish object is about 400 feet long and consists of rocks that look remarkably like blackened wood beams while other rock in the area is distinctively brown.  The unusual object is perched on a slope 13,120 feet above sea level.  Bob Cornuke's team searched in the "mountains of Ararat" (plural) and not just on Mt Ararat, because Genesis speaks of it in the plural.  Genesis 8:4 says; "And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat." (KJV)
   
  CREDITS: Much of the above research is by Ron Stewart,  and Stephen Keohane of BibleProbe.com