US professor in Ağrı to look for Noah’s Ark

AĞRI

An American researcher is in the eastern Turkish province of Ağrı is looking for evidence of Noah’s Ark in the Mount Ararat region.

Professor Paul Esprante recently attended the three-day international symposium on Mount Ararat and Noah’s Ark, organized with the participation of 108 scientists from Turkey and abroad.

Esprante, who is from the U.S. state of California, told Anadolu Agency he intends to find evidence of Noah’s Ark during his short stay in Turkey.

“My purpose is to visit the sites around the mountain to find clues about catastrophic events in the past,” he said. Esprante spoke about his desire to work with local scientists, geologists and archeologists.

“I think that rigorous, serious scientific work is needed in the area and I would like to collaborate on that. We have technical resources and we can work together with local experts,” he said.

‘Too early to know what to find’

Esprante said the result of his findings would be published in books, publications and journals. “But at this point it is too early to know what we are going to find,” he added.

“Once the scientific community knows [about the existence of Noah’s Ark in Mount Ararat], we can make it available to the general public,” said Esprante.

The story of the great floods and Noah’s Ark has been mentioned in all Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

In the Quran, it is mentioned that Allah informed Noah about an impending flood that would engulf the entire Earth, save him and all those who were with him in his ark. Noah then proceeded to build his vessel in which he stayed with members of his family along with pairs of all animals and birds.

The search for Noah’s Ark has been made for centuries, but so far no physical proof has ever been found.

Istanbul University Prof. Dr. Oktay Belli, one of the attendees of the symposium, said he had been actively carrying out archaeological excavations and surface surveys in the Eastern Anatolian region for 47 years.

He said he had attended 33 international congresses but the one in Ağrı was the most precious for him among them.

“Noah’s Ark and the flood is not a myth but a real incident mentioned in all holy books. It happened in Anatolia. It is a part of our nation’s culture,” Belli said.

He also said the recent symposium on Noah’s Ark had been very fruitful as dozens of scientists had made a total of 108 presentations and analyzed different aspects of the incident.