The Famous Biblical Story
Regardless of all of the question marks about the story’s accuracy, it’s one of the most notorious tales.
According to the story God was fed up with the wickedness and corruption of the people that he decided to destroy the world, only sparing Noah, his family, and some animal species.
The Stories Don’t Match
Georgie Hagopian of Armenia claimed that he saw the ark as a young boy. However, his story had quite a few inconsistencies. Each time he told his story he gave a different year, he's said he's seen the ark in 1902, 1906, 1908, and 1910.
Which is it? Hagopian has even claimed to have climbed on the roof of the ark with his uncle. Naturally, many find the story hard to believe.
Before The Bible
Scholars are aware that the Bible is not the origin of the story of the flood.
Most believe that it came from Mesopotamia, which modern-day Iraq and Iran, where there are 9(!) known versions of a massive global flood that destroys everything.
Old Meets New
Genesis states that Noah’s ark's final resting place to be the ‘mountains of Ararat.’
So, this leads many to believe that the ark should be found in the place that bears the same name today. Not a farfetched idea.
A Story Told By Many
The story of Noah and the ark has high significance in Jewish, Christian, Islam and Baha’i religions. There are many similarities between their versions of the tale, but interpretations have subtle differences among the different cultures.
For example, Christian scholars compare Noah’s salvation to baptism, and Muslims believe that the ark was more like a traditional ship “shaped like a bird’s belly.” Baha’is on the other hand, consider the story to be purely symbolic.