ArmenPress
April 27 2004
SATELLITE IMAGERY FINDS EXTRAORDINARY OBJECT ON MOUNT ARARAT
WASHINGTON, APRIL 27, ARMENPRESS: The US Trinity Corporation
announced Monday that they have collected new satellite images taken
over Mount Ararat in Eastern Turkey that will add a new twist to an
exploration that has been going on for centuries, AP reported. The
images, which were revealed at a press conference at the National
Press Club in Washington, DC, reveal a man- made structure at the
site where the Bible states Noah’s Ark came to rest.
The first pictures of the site, taken by the U.S. Air Force in
1949, revealed what seemed to be a structure covered by ice, but were
held in a confidential file labeled “Ararat Anomaly” for years. In
1997, the government released several of these images, but experts
deemed them inconclusive.
The summer of 2003 provided a great opportunity to take a new
series of photographs. It was the hottest summer in Europe since
1500, which caused a massive meltdown on Mount Ararat. Daniel P.
McGivern, president of Shamrock – The Trinity Corporation, who had
been searching for the Ark via satellite for several years, used
Digital Globe’s Quick Bird satellite to collect a new set of
satellite images. Quick Bird is the world’s highest resolution
commercial imaging satellite.
Mr. McGivern has compiled a team of scientists, archaeologists and
forensic experts to excavate the object and collect samples beginning
in August of this year. The goal is o enter what they believe to be a
mammoth structure some 45 feet high, 75 feet wide and up to 450 feet
long that was exposed in part by last summer’s heat wave in Europe.
“We are not excavating it. We are not taking any artifacts. We’re
going to photograph it and, God willing, you’re all going to see it,”
McGivern said.
“These new photos unequivocally show a man-made object,” said Mr.
McGivern. “I am convinced that the excavation of the object and the
results of tests run on any collected samples will prove that it is
Noah’s Ark.” The field manager for the excavation will be Dr. Ahmet
Ali Arslan, a native of Turkey who has traveled up Mount Ararat 50
times in 40 years and formerly worked in the Turkey Prime Minister’s
office. He plans to discuss the details of the excavation with the
Prime Minister next week.
In 1957, Turkish air force pilots spotted a boat-shaped formation
in Agri province. The government did not pursue the sighting,
however. The entire area, including Mount Ararat, was off limits to
foreigners because of Soviet complaints that explorers were U.S.
spies.
That ban was lifted in 1982, and since then teams of explorers
have visited the area but have been unable to substantiate any claim
of an ark. McGivern and Ahmet Ali Arslan, say satellite photos have
helped them pinpoint a more exact location.
The biblical account in the Book of Genesis says that after the
great deluge, the ark came to rest on the mountain with Noah’s family
and a cargo of male and female pairs of every kind of animal.
Geologists say even though there is evidence of a flood in
Mesopotamia in Sumerian times, it is not possible for a ship to make
landfall at an altitude as high as Mount Ararat.