Archaeologist Robert Ballard is best known for discovering the wrecks of the Titanic and the German battleship Bismarck. Now, Ballard has his sights set on proving the existence of a different treasure buried in the deep sea: Noah’s Ark.
In 2000, Ballard announced the theory that a great flood overwhelmed the region of the modern-day Black Sea 7,000 years ago. Now, after investigating that theory for more than a decade, Ballard says technology has uncovered evidence that melting glaciers could have flooded the region, supporting the biblical theory of the Great Flood.
Ballard says it would be “foolish” to expect to discover Noah’s Ark itself. However, he does expect to find evidence of the civilizations that existed around the same period of time.
But if one does want to see the Ark, that’s possible now, too: After 20 years of work, Dutchman Johan Huibers finally has completed a full-size replica of Noah’s Ark–precisely according to the Bible’s instructions. (Almost, that is: Huiber’s boat is filled with stuffed animals, not real ones.)
CT previously has reported on a similar Ark replica planned for construction in Turkey, as well as on previous expeditions to search for the real-life Ark. However, many amateur expeditions are “stirring up dust and little else.”
(Editor’s note: This article has been updated. An earlier version of the post incorrectly stated the battleship Bismarck was a U.S. ship, not a German one.)
