All language subtitles for Forbidden History S06E05 Search for Noahs Ark 1080p DSCP WEB-DL AAC2 0 H 264-BTN_track3_[eng]

Narrator: on a remote hillside
Near mount ararat in turkey

Lies a huge
And mysterious boat shape.

Many scientists believe it's
Just an unusual rock formation,

But some investigators
Claim that, amazingly,

It's the physical
Remains of noah's ark.

Man: well, we made it, guys.
This is it.

We are standing on noah's ark.

If this was a natural rock
Formation, it would be a jagged,

Irregular shape or a jumble of
Just little rocks and boulders.

Instead, you actually see
The boundaries of the boat.

I had to investigate it.

Narrator:
According to the bible,

It was here,
In the mountains of ararat,

That the ark landed with
Noah's family and breeding pairs

Of all
The world's animals onboard

After surviving a great flood
Sent by god

To destroy the entire world.

Now we are in the middle
Of the ark,

And it fits the biblical size.

Narrator: what is the truth?

Are there other, more convincing
Geological explanations,

Or are these really
The remains of noah's ark?

Despite what the bible says,
There is actually

Zero archaeological
Evidence for noah,

An ark, or a flood.

Sometimes, there's is no truth,
But I am a huge believer

That there are usually
Some grains of truth

In most myths and legends.

*

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Captions paid for by
Discovery communications

*

Narrator: on a hillside
Near mount ararat in turkey,

This mysterious boat shape
Is believed by some to be

The actual historical remains
Of noah's ark.

The world is fascinated
By stories, myths,

And legends from
The holy grail to noah's ark,

And we're forever trying to find
Proof that these things exist.

I think the hunger
For the search

Is the fact that people
Are searching for god,

And so,
If someone finds the ark,

Then it could be proof

That god exists.

Narrator: over the years,
Many religious explorers

Have searched the middle east,

Hoping to prove that the story
Of noah's voyage on the ark

During god's great flood
Is the literal truth.

It's been a big thing
Among adventurers for centuries.

In fact, marco polo,
Way back, said,

"The ark is on mount ararat."

And he said, "Unfortunately,

The mountain
Is too snowy to climb."

Narrator:
During the 1970s and '80s,

Astronaut james irwin,

Who'd become a born-again
Christian

After returning from the moon,

Made many expeditions up
Mount ararat

In search of the ark,

But failed to find
Any evidence of it.

Today, the unusual boat shape

Discovered nearly 20 miles
South of mount ararat

May be the best hope of proving
That noah's ark actually existed

And that, amazingly,

Its remains have survived
To the present day.

*

Today, the leading investigator
Of the site

Is devout christian,
Andrew jones.

Accompanied by research teams,

He's been visiting and studying
The site for more than 20 years.

I first came here in 1997,
And I was in college,

And it was like
A dream come true.

It was the most exciting trip
Because you're thinking

You're walking on the remains
Of noah's ark.

Now, I've been here about
16 or 17 times since 1997.

There's always something
New that happens on each trip,

And now, of course, this trip,
We're focused on

Radaring the site
And getting survey

Work done aboveground,
And so that's exciting.

We're just really wanting to see
What's below the ground,

And so that's why
We are here today.

Narrator: armed with the latest
Scientific equipment,

Andrew jones' mission
On this trip

Is to finally
Gather enough evidence

To convince skeptics that
The boat shape near mount ararat

Is more than just
An unusual rock formation.

He's hoping to prove
It really is noah's ark.

*

So all of ararat's in turkey.

It's a 16,000
Or 17,000-foot volcano.

It's a stratovolcano, and it
Has a year-round glacier on top,

So you see
The snow up there,

And we're working
Across the valley

From mount ararat
At the durupinar site.

Narrator: back in the 1980s,

The durupinar site was declared
A national protected area

By the turkish government,
And as a result,

Today andrew jones
And his team

Are able to drive right up

To the once
Difficult-to-access site.

In fact, we have just arrived
At the visitor's center.

Now, the turkish government
Built this building in 1987

When they dedicated a national
Park here for the tourists.

*

So we have arrived.

Thank you.

Morning, zafer.

-beautiful day, huh?
-yes, it is.

-welcome.
-good morning.

Good morning.

Narrator: once their equipment
Is unloaded,

Andrew's investigation team
Heads straight out to the site

To begin work.

He's hoping that their latest

State-of-the-art
Scientific equipment,

Including
Ground-penetrating radar,

Will be able to convince
Even the most die hard skeptics

That noah's ark
Really has been discovered.

*

Christian archeology
Is a weapon of faith

In the arsenal of proving
To this modern, scientific world

That the stories
In the bible are real,

And the ark has become
A totemic part of that.

*

Jones:
Well, we made it, guys.

This is it.

We are standing on noah's ark.

Can you believe it?

We've got a busy day
Ahead of us.

*

If it is a boat,
If it is an ark,

We're hoping to see, basically,
Striations that would correlate

To what would be the beams
And ribs of a boat.

That would be
One major indicator.

Narrator:
To skeptics, however,

The site
Has clearly been shaped

By natural geologic processes.

When we look at a site
Like durupinar,

And you look at the geology

And the geologic history
Of the area,

We know that there was
Glacial movement there,

Making it very possible
A large rock

Fell off the side
Of a mountain,

And it got surrounded by rocks
That are different hardnesses.

Only is this case,

It just happens to be
Sort of the outline

Of what we think of
As a boat shape.

Jones: to me,
If it is noah's ark,

Then that's a big plus
For proving that,

You know,
That the bible is true.

If we start digging and find
Just natural layers of rock

And dirt down there,
It would be very disappointing.

I mean, I've looked at this
And studied it

And investigated it
For half my life.

*

Narrator: can andrew
And his research team

Find sufficient scientific
Evidence to convince skeptics

That the site is the last
Resting place of noah's ark

And isn't just
An unusual rock formation?

Detailed analysis and precise
Measurement of the boat shape

Will provide important clues.

*

*

Narrator: christian
Archaeological investigator

Andrew jones
Is in eastern turkey,

Near mount ararat,

With a scientific research team

Trying to prove that the story
Of noah's ark

Is the literal truth.

According to the bible,
After god killed the sinful

By flooding the entire world,
Noah's family,

Plus breeding pairs
Of all the world's animals,

Landed safely in the ark
In the mountains of ararat

Before they began
To repopulate the planet.

Selwood: noah is one of
The great figures of genesis.

He is the righteous man.

He is the man who was chosen
Out of everybody else

Because of his piety
And his beliefs

And his upstanding nature
To save the world.

If he really did what he did
And he saved mankind

And for want of a better word,
Animal-kind, as well,

Then you can't get any guy
On the planet

That's done more for us
Than noah,

So, you know, hail noah.

Narrator:
Andrew jones is convinced

That this remarkable story

Isn't just a biblical legend.

He believes
It's factually accurate.

According to the bible,
He was a great man of faith

Because god said he was gonna
Destroy the world with water,

The whole world,
And noah had to believe that.

There was no evidence
That this would happen,

But god said, "Build a boat,"

And so I can just imagine him
Being made fun of

And ridiculed for building
This giant boat on land,

But, you know, ultimately,
By obeying god, he was saved.

And at the end of the story,
The bible says that the ark

Landed
In the mountains of ararat,

And so, where is this boat?

And so that's what we're here
Looking for.

*

Narrator: most scientists
Believe this unusual boat shape

Is simply a rock formation
Shaped by an ancient landslide,

But andrew is hoping
His research team

Can gather enough scientific
Evidence to convince skeptics

That it really is noah's ark.

How you doing, seth?

Just finished 120 scans.

You finished 120 scans?

-yes, a million points of data.
-wow.

And those points,
It basically creates

A 3d model
Of the object you're shooting.

Exactly, we put them
All together,

Stitch them all together,
And it also takes pictures

While it's doing it,
So it'll colorize it

So it looks realistic.
-that's amazing.

I can't wait to see
The results of this.

Narrator: after fully
Surveying the site

With the high-resolution
Mapping scanner,

The team is soon able to
To build

A preliminary 3d picture
Of the parts

Of the boat-shaped formation
That are visible aboveground.

*

So the results we've gotten,
We're extremely pleased with.

Right now,
This is bird's-eye view,

And you can see that
This is kind of the bow

Of what we believe
To be a ship structure,

And this is
The back side of it,

And then this is
The limestone structure

That they believe this boat
Got impaled on

As it came down the mudslide,

And then you can kind of see
The surrounding topography.

You almost can kind of visibly
See the mudslide

Coming down the hill here.

With these ravines and cracks,

You can kind of see
A little bit of the motion

And how some of that
Is kind of parting

And going around the structure.

We can't make the determination
Whether it's noah's ark or not.

What we can do is provide
Archaeologists the details

They need to plan
And then be able to do that

Invasive excavation,

Try to see
What's actually under there.

Narrator:
As excavation of the site

Is not yet
Officially approved,

Over the coming days,
The team plan to build up

A picture
Of the site belowground

Using ground-penetrating radar,

But their 3d mapping
Of the site aboveground

Has already helped highlight
One very significant fact.

Intriguingly, the boat shape
Very closely matches

The dimensions of noah's ark
As described in the bible.

Here we are walking down
The starboard side of the ark,

And over here is
The middle of the structure,

And you can see how massive
The ark would've been,

And it fits the biblical size.

Narrator:
According to the bible,

Noah's ark
Was 30 cubits high,

50 cubits wide,
And 300 cubits long.

In modern terms,
Roughly 50 feet high,

85 feet wide,
And 510 feet long,

Which is vast.

In modern times, the largest
Wooden ship ever built

Was the early 20th century
American schooner

The wyoming, and noah's ark,

Supposedly built
Thousands of years earlier,

Would've been even bigger.

I think the idea
That you could've fitted

Two of every animal,

From the tiniest insects through
To giraffes and elephants,

Onto a single ship and given
The technology of that time,

You know, we're really
Stretching the imagination

To breaking point here.

Many scholars have looked
Into the feasibility

Of whether noah
Or someone like him

Could've built an ark
Of this size

And scope to do what
It was supposed to have done,

And the answer always comes back
To a resounding no.

It's not possible.

Narrator: in modern times,
However, a complete,

Full-sized replica of noah's ark
Has been constructed.

The ark encounter is
A christian theme park

Opened in kentucky in 2016.

To build something like noah's
Ark would've had to happen

On basically a military scale.

You need organization,
Structure, hierarchy,

Logistics, planning,

So noah would've had to have
Been in charge of all of that.

The modern replica
In kentucky required

Over 3,300,000
Board-foot of timber,

Over 1,000 craftsmen
Were employed,

And it is the largest
Timber-frame structure

In the united states.

These people built the ark
Using modern tools,

Electricity,
Gasoline, vehicles.

For noah to do all that
With bronze age tools

Would basically mean he was
Like kind of a superman,

And then, on top of that, he has
To become a sea captain

Of the largest vessel
Ever built and a zookeeper.

*

Think of all that coming
Together,

And it just boggles the mind.

Narrator:
Andrew jones, however,

Believes noah and his family
Could have built the ark

And remains convinced that

The boat-shape formation
His team is investigating

Is the physical
Remains of noah's ark.

Jones: if this was
A natural rock formation,

You would not get
This shape of a hull.

It would be a jagged,
Irregular shape

Or a jumble of just little rocks
And boulders in a mudflow.

Instead, you actually see
This man-made object,

The boundaries of the boat.

Narrator: hoping to discover
Features of noah's ark

That may be
Buried underground,

Andrew and his team
Continue surveying the site

Using ground-penetrating radar.

Can they prove that this is
The last resting place

Of noah's ark,

Or will geological evidence
Point to more plausible,

Natural explanations
For the site's

Unusual characteristics?

*

*

Narrator: christian
Archaeological investigator

Andrew jones
Is at the durupinar site

In eastern turkey.

He's trying to gather convincing
Scientific evidence

That this mysterious boat shape

Is the physical remains
Of noah's ark

And isn't just an unusually
Shaped rock formation,

As many scientists believe.

Jones: so we're standing
On the pointed,

Uphill end of the ark.

What's really interesting
About this boat formation

Is that the pointed end
Is uphill.

Now, you might be wondering,
"Why does that matter?"

Well, some critics believe that
This site was formed naturally,

And in that case, they say that
There was a rock and a mudflow,

And this mud went around this
Rock and formed the boat shape.

Now, the problem
With that theory is that

This is the complete opposite.

If that did happen,
The rounded end would be uphill.

In this case,
The pointed end is uphill,

And so we believe that
This formation is actually

Because of the boat,
Because of noah's ark,

And not because
Of any natural processes.

Narrator:
One prominent geologist

Who's taken an interest
In the durupinar site

And who strongly challenges

Andrew jones'
Interpretation of it

Is david montgomery,
Professor of earth sciences

At the university
Of washington.

*

Montgomery:
I'm the kind of geologist

That's known as
A geomorphologist.

That's somebody who studies
The evolution of topography,

How earth's surface features
Are formed.

Well, there's a report done
By turkish geologists

That have examined that outcrop
And concluded

That the form is actually
A piece of limestone

That has been rafted
Down the mountain

On what's known
As an earthflow,

Which is a major landslide
Kind of like a glacier

Made out of mud,
If you will.

It's a piece of miocene
Limestone,

10, 20 million years old,
Fossiliferous,

So there's fossils in it,

And it's, you know,
It's a hard stretch to think

That you would make
An ark out of rocks.

Narrator:
As a christian creationist

Who believes that the bible
Is the literal truth,

Andrew jones has
Many disagreements

With mainstream geology,
However.

According to geologists,

The earth is nearly
Five billion years old,

But according to creationists,
The earth was created by god

In just seven days
Around 4,000 b.C.

*

So if you're gonna take
The bible at just what it says,

Then the earth itself
Would be around 6,000 years old.

The boat would've been a lot,
You know,

1,500 years after that,

So you're looking at a 4,500,
5,000-year-old object,

And so that would be, like,
The conservative,

Creationism point of view
On how old this is.

Now, we haven't tested it.

We haven't done in excavations.

And I believe in
The bible accounts.

I believe, you know,
It would match,

But obviously, no excavations
Have been done yet to see.

Narrator: andrew's beliefs about
Noah's ark and creation

Rely on the assumption that
The world's sedimentary rocks,

Among which the ark
Now supposedly rests,

Were laid down just
A few thousand years ago

During the great flood.

Janulis: I respect
The christian faith,

But the creationist narrative

Just does not match up
To the science as we know it.

It just takes something like
Looking at the cliffs of dover

And realizing that
Every piece of chalk there is

The skeleton of a once-tiny
Microorganism that slowly,

Slowly built up over
Millions of years,

And when you look at something
That's 500 foot tall

And you realize that deposited
At maybe a millimeter a year,

You start to realize the scale
Of what we're talking about

And how immense the scale
Of geologic history is.

Narrator: however, andrew hopes
That his new scientific

Investigations
At the durupinar site

Will prove that
The creationist belief

And the reality
Of the great flood

And noah's ark is accurate.

*

Since andrew's team hasn't
Received official approval

To excavate the site,
Ground-penetrating radar

Is the next best option

To try to find
Convincing evidence belowground

To help prove that the site
Isn't a natural rock formation,

But really is noah's ark.

Sohlstrom: is it a boat?
Is it not a boat?

Is it a natural structure?
Is it not a natural structure?

We're all hoping it's not
A natural structure,

But we got to get the data back
And get it processed.

Narrator:
The preliminary results

Of the ground-penetrating
Radar survey

Will be ready
In the next few days.

If the survey does indicate

Boat-shaped features
Belowground,

That will be
A major step forward

For andrew jones and his team.

But until any subsequent
Excavation

Is able to prove
What's underground,

Skeptics will still point
To other perceived flaws

In the belief that the story
Of noah's ark

Could possibly be true.

The most famous part
Of the story, of course,

Is that the ark
Carried breeding pairs

Of all the world's animals.

The logistics of running the zoo
On noah's ark is impossible.

I can't even imagine
Trying to do it.

A lot of these animals
Are carnivores, too.

They need to eat meat.

Others are herbivores,
Such as cattle,

That go through hundreds

And hundreds of pounds
Of food a day.

Just the job of removing feces
Alone would take everybody,

All hands on deck,
Almost all day.

Do you really believe
That all those animals

Went peacefully into that ark

Without the lions
Having a go at the monkeys

Or the tigers
Killing the zebras?

Oh, come on.

Narrator: andrew jones
Does believe it,

But he recognizes that
Noah's voyage in the ark

With all the animals would
Have been a major ordeal.

You can only imagine being noah

With these animals for
The whole duration of the flood,

And I kind of picture

Noah wanting that door open
Right away.

You know, the bible says
It was one door,

And so, as soon
As he opened that door,

I bet you everybody,
Including the animals,

Just ran off the ark,
Just to freedom,

So I can picture
That happening right here.

*

Narrator: andrew is now
Going to examine

Some mysterious
Ancient stones nearby

In an effort to find
Corroborating evidence

To support his belief
That noah's ark

Survived
The flooding of the world

And its remains
Have been found.

But skeptics question whether
There is any scientific evidence

At all that there
Ever was a global flood.

*

*

Narrator: christian
Archaeological investigator

Andrew jones
Is in eastern turkey

Near mount ararat
Searching for proof

That this unusual boat shape
On the mountainside

Is the physical remains
Of noah's ark.

Andrew and his local
Turkish assistant,

Zafer onay, are taking
A short trip away from the site

To investigate a group
Of mysterious ancient stones

In a nearby village.

Andrew hopes they'll provide
Another promising clue

That noah's ark did land in this
Region after the great flood.

That's amazing after
All these years.

*

Narrator: remarkably,
Andrew believes the group of

Heavy stones found here,
Known as drogue stones,

Were once hung over
The side of noah's ark

To stabilize it as it navigated

The choppy waters
Of the great flood

Send by god to destroy
The entire sinful world.

[ wind blowing ]

I think so far they've found,
Like, 20 something,

26 or so of these.

You'll notice that these drogue
Stones have holes in them,

And so all the drogue stones
Would've been tied to the ark,

And this is one
Of the largest stones.

In fact, a third of it
Is below the ground still.

Gough: a drogue stone is a large
Standing stone,

A megalith with a hole
In the top center.

They appear to have been used
As storm stones,

Anchors for ships who were
Going through turbulent waters.

Now, we find these around
The mediterranean.

We have found them
In the nile river,

But the question is,

What are they doing
In the range of mount ararat,

In this part of southeastern
Turkey, which is arid?

There's no rivers.

There's no bodies of water,
Giving credence to the fact

That they could've been used
On noah's ark

Traveling across what is
Now southeastern turkey.

Narrator:
But as almost all these stones

Had lots of christian crosses
Carved on them,

Skeptics point
To a more mundane explanation.

They're simply
Christian tombstones,

Yet believers in noah's ark
Have another explanation.

Were these stones really used
To stabilize noah's ark

During god's great flood

And then later reused as
Gravestones by local christians

Who revered
Their connection to the ark?

Skeptics refute the suggestion.

One reason is because geologists
Say there is no evidence

For a global flood
At any time in history,

Indicating that the story
Of noah's ark cannot be true.

*

You really have to throw away

The last couple centuries
Of geology

And all the science and physics
And chemistry

And biology and paleontology

That goes along with that
To embrace the idea

That the world was shaped
By noah's flood.

Geologic history
Has a much longer

And more complicated story

Told in the sediments
Of the rocks themselves

Than could be recorded
Is a single global flood,

So if there never was
A global flood,

Are there geologically
Plausible explanations

For the story of noah's flood?

A very reasonable explanation
Behind flood stories

Can be the idea
Of a regional flood

That essentially
Took out the land

That people considered
To be the world -- their home.

Narrator: geological evidence
Shows that one area of the world

That suffered occasional massive

And catastrophic
Regional floods in antiquity

Was the valleys of the tigris
And euphrates in mesopotamia,

Modern iraq,

Where civilization
Began over 5,000 years ago.

There is evidence within
The mesopotamian region

Of the flood of the tigris river
Dating to about 2,900 b.C.E,

So this we can date
By pottery shards

That are found just before
And just after this level,

This geological level
That gives us quite

A, like, firm date for that.

Narrator: at the time,
Around 5,000 years ago,

Local people affected
By this huge devastating flood

In mesopotamia

Could easily have believed that
The whole world was flooded.

If you're looking at
A worldwide deluge,

When you consider
What world means to a person

Who only has ever been within
A couple of miles, 10 miles,

Maybe even 100 miles of
The place that they were born,

That's a lot different
Than our global concept

Of the world today.

Narrator: the bible's story
Of noah's ark

Surviving a global flood

Was written a couple
Of thousand years

After the great flood
In mesopotamia,

But could the biblical account
Have been inspired by it?

The remarkable discovery

Of ancient
Mesopotamian clay tablets

Bearing the world's
Oldest writing

Has provided
Some tantalizing clues.

*

*

Narrator: amateur archaeologist
Andrew jones

Is in eastern turkey
Near mount ararat

Looking for decisive proof

That these are the physical
Remains of noah's ark.

His research team
Has almost finished

Their ground-penetrating
Radar survey,

Which they hope will identify
More boatlike features

Of the ark
Buried underground.

While waiting for the results,

Andrew is heading
To a nearby site

Where the graves of noah
And his wife

Are said to have been
Discovered a few decades ago.

*

Whatever noah was,
And I'm talking about

What the bible actually says,

He wasn't a human being
In any sense that we understand.

For a start,
He was 650 years old,

But also he,
According to some accounts,

Was a mere 12 feet tall,
Possibly even taller than that.

Narrator: andrew jones
Hopes any evidence

Remaining at noah's grave site

Will support the idea
That he was a giant.

If this part of the story
Of noah in the bible is true,

Then it implies that the rest
Of the story may also be true

And that noah's ark
Did land near here.

*

Jones: and so, the two big
Headstones were right there.

One was fallen over,
And then one was standing up.

Everything disappeared.
The headstones are gone.

It's all broken up.

Narrator: since its discovery
A few decades ago,

The site has been ransacked
By treasure hunters.

As well as the headstones,

They're said to have taken away
A huge sarcophagus.

Yeah, this 18-foot-long trench
Was created because in '83,

Some locals, with the help of,
They say, a foreigner,

Dug up this grave,

And it was a 15-foot-long box
They pulled out of it,

A stone sarcophagus,
And so that suggests

That whoever was buried in there
Was a giant,

Just like we were thinking
It says in the bible.

Narrator: skeptics are highly
Doubtful about this, however.

I think it's important not to
Equate the size of the tomb

With the physical size
Of a man because, after all,

We have tombs of popes
That lived in the renaissance,

For example,
And they're massive of scale,

But the pope was just
A regular-size man,

Maybe even shorter
Than we're used to, so...

Narrator: to skeptics,

Noah and his wife
Are just legendary figures,

Not real people who lived around
5,000 years ago.

Today, the most credible
Evidence challenging

The factual legitimacy
Of the noah's ark story

Comes from
The remarkable discovery

Of some ancient clay tablets

Bearing the world's
Oldest writing.

*

Dr. Selena wisnom,

An assyriologist at queen's
College university of oxford,

Is one of a handful of experts

Able to read the mysterious
Writing on the tablets,

Which come from mesopotamia,
Modern iraq,

Where civilization
Began over 5,000 years ago.

It's the earliest writing system
We have anywhere in the world,

So it gives us our oldest
Sources of information

For all kinds of facets
Of human life,

From the very invention
Of cities and agriculture

Right through
To the babylonian sciences,

Medicine, mathematics,
Astronomy, etc.

Narrator: over the years,

Decipherment of
A number of mesopotamian tablets

Has provided dramatic evidence
About the likely origins

Of the biblical story of
The great flood and noah's ark.

This tablet is a replica of
An incredibly important tablet

Because it was the first one
To be discovered

That had any trace of
A babylonian flood myth on it.

It was discovered
In the 19th century

By a self-taught scholar,
George smith.

He was reading through these,
Working through it,

And then he came across
The reference

To a universal flood,

And this was incredibly
Exciting at the time.

Narrator:
Dating to around 1,800 b.C.

And now known to be
Part of the world's

First great work of literature,
"The epic of gilgamesh,"

This tablet was the first
Of many mesopotamian variations

Of the flood story
That have since been found.

*

Hoffman:
In all of the flood myths,

The plot is
Essentially the same.

There is a hero.

He's usually a good man,
A moral man,

A man that follows
The decrees of god or gods,

And he tries to save
A bit of the world,

Save a bit of humanity
And a little bit of the animals

That were populated on it

By putting them into a big boat
To escape a great deluge.

Narrator:
The similarities between

The original mesopotamian
Flood story

In "The epic of gilgamesh"

And the subsequent story
Of noah's ark,

Written in the bible
About 1,000 years later,

Are remarkable.

Wisnom: in both, a god tells
A human figure

That the flood
Is going to come,

Tells him how to get around it,
Tells him to build a boat.

In both versions, the god tells
The person to take onboard

Two of every kind of life,

All of the food
That they'll need,

Both cases actually giving
The very dimensions of the boat,

Really detailed instructions
About how to construct it.

Narrator: the boats of
The "Epic of gilgamesh"'s hero,

Utnapishtim, and another
Mesopotamian flood hero,

Atra-hasis, are also
Intriguingly similar in size,

If not in shape,

To the bible's description
Of noah's ark.

Utnapishtim's ark was supposed
To be a cube.

Atra-hasis had an ark
That was a kuphar,

Or kind of a coracle,

A round boat which had
Multiple tiers, as well,

And then noah's ark
Was supposed to be,

Like, three stories,
A long rectangle.

We've got a very specific size
For that, big door at the end.

What's interesting
About all of these is that

If we take
The understanding of the space

That was given to create
These in the stories,

They all tend to be about
The same cubic space,

If you will,
Which is really interesting.

It seems to suggest
That the stories

Descend one from the other.

Narrator:
There are many other details

In the stories that match.

For example, birds are sent out
Three times

From both the mesopotamian boat
And noah's ark

In order to search for land.

If we go down
To this line here,

This is where it describes
The sending out

Of the first bird.

[ speaking foreign language ]

So, "I let the bird out,
Setting it free."

[ speaking foreign language ]

The bird went off,
But it returned.

Narrator: to most experts,
The numerous similarities

Between the mesopotamian
Flood story

And the biblical story
Of noah's ark,

Written over 1,000 years later,

Are much too great
To be just coincidental.

Probably the reason why there
Are these similarities

Between these stories is
That the israelites were,

Actually, in babylonia
During the 6th century, b.C.

The babylonian
King nebuchadnezzar

Had sacked jerusalem

And then deliberately moved
The population around

And resettled them,

You know, closer
To the babylonian capital,

So the israelites would've
Been coming into contact

With these mesopotamian
Flood stories.

Narrator: christian
Archaeological investigator

Andrew jones, however,

Doesn't accept that
The bible's story of noah's ark

Derives from
Mesopotamian myth.

His research team has
Now finished

Their ground-penetrating
Radar survey,

And as a result of what
They've found underground,

Andrew is more convinced
Than ever

That these are
The remains of noah's ark.

*

*

Narrator:
Creationist andrew jones

Is in eastern turkey
With a scientific research team

Trying to prove
That this unusual boat shape

On a hillside near mount ararat

Is the remains of noah's ark.

Skeptics, however,
Remain resolutely unconvinced.

There is absolutely
No evidence of the ark

Existing
In eastern turkey, none.

I think it is just some form
Of rock structure that's formed

And looks like a boat.

Narrator: andrew's
Investigation team, however,

Has just finished surveying
The durupinar site

With ground-penetrating radar.

Taking a first look
At the data,

There's great excitement
That it may show hidden features

Of noah's ark
Buried underground.

When they get about
8 feet down, 8 1/2 feet down,

We're starting to see some
Parallel, vertical structure,

And then as we go down
A little bit deeper,

We get down to right
At about nine feet.

We actually see an intersection
Of that parallel

And a horizontal,

So we're actually
Getting right angles --

-whoa!
-...Underneath the ground.

-yeah, you see it right there,
-yeah.

Yeah, you got almost like
A little cavity

Where you've got a right
Angle being created.

Oh, there's, like, three
Or four right angles.

Mm-hmm.

So is there no way this could
Be natural or what?

Typically, you're not gonna
Find straight lines

And right angles
In a natural environment.

-that's great, wow.
-that's man-made items, yeah.

Narrator: it will take
Considerable time

For the raw data
To be fully processed,

So for now, the team's initial
Interpretation of the data

Is all there is to go on.

Well, this is just raw data.
It's not processed yet.

We can't tell what it is,
But typically,

Right angles
Don't exist in nature,

So this kind of leads
You to believe

That there may be
Something man-made under there.

I think it definitely
Gives enough to say,

"Hey, let's investigate
Further.

Let's start digging up.
Let's see what this is."

Narrator: skeptics, however,

Are concerned
That andrew jones and his team

Are simply finding
What they're looking for.

There's a phenomena
Called pareidolia,

And really it means
That you kind of see

What you want to see,

And if you've invested a lot
Of your personal identity

Into a faith
That has an idea such as,

"The earth is 6,000 years old.
There was a global flood,"

It makes sense that people
Who are out looking to prove

This are going to start
Finding evidence

That other people aren't seeing

And that doesn't hold up
To the science.

Historically, throughout
The history of archeology

Or the history of history,

When people want
To find something,

They often mistake what
They've found for the thing

They wanted to find.

Narrator: all in all, skeptics
Doubt there's any chance

That the story of noah's ark
Is the literal truth.

*

The geological evidence
From the durupinar site,

Along with the similarity of
Ancient mesopotamian flood myths

And the logistical challenges
Of building an ark

And populating it
With the world's largest zoo

Leads skeptics to propose
Other explanations.

Most likely, perhaps,
The story of noah's ark

Derives from a catastrophic
Regional flood in mesopotamia,

Or elsewhere in the middle east,
Thousands of years ago,

Which was vividly
Remembered in myth

And then passed down
To biblical times.

One of the important
Things to remember

With all of these myths
Is that,

No matter how old they are,
Underlying them,

There could be
Some element of truth.

In genesis, it says
That he should take

One pair of every animal,

Now that's not even
Remotely feasible,

But that doesn't mean that there
May not have been some story

That went down in myth
That people remembered

About some person
Or group of people

Saving some local animals from
A particularly disastrous flood.

And I suppose that some guy
Living on a farm

In the remote part

Of wherever it happened
To be at the time, mesopotamia,

Could've been a huge flood
To him and his neighbors.

They probably never ventured
More than 20 miles away

In the whole of their lifetime,

So that was the world to them.

*

Narrator: andrew jones, however,
Continues to search for proof

That the biblical story of
Noah's ark is the literal truth.

He remains hopeful that
If he can get permission

To excavate the durupinar site,
In the years to come,

He'll be able to find
Sufficient proof

To convince
Even the most staunch skeptics

That this unusual boat shape
Really is noah's ark.

Ultimately, we hope to find
A ship buried below the ground.

This would include rooms,

Floors that would match
The biblical account.

The bible talks it having three
Decks and rooms for the animals,

And so, that's what we hope
To find below the ground there.

Narrator: whatever the truth
May ultimately be,

Andrew jones' quest
To find definitive proof

For the existence
Of noah's ark,

The smoking gun that could prove
The bible is literally true,

Will undoubtedly
Long continue.

*