Noah's Ark location

Ark location

A lady called Kerensa asked a fascinating question. It concerned an absolutely astonishing ancient riddle. She referred to American marine salvage expert David Fasold who says that he was poring over the 275 BC writings of a Chaldean scholar named Berosus.

Berosus wrote about the "Magur", or survival vessel of the Deluge (popularly known today as Noah's Ark).

But the puzzle was this: Berosus said it was 5 stades in length by 2 stades in breath.

"Now, wait a minute," thought Dave. "That would make no sense. It would make the boat 3,000 feet long by 1,200 feet wide!"

Poor Berosus! Perhaps his brain was touched by the hot Middle East sun.

Anyway, Dave Fasold thought about this. Something about this "wild exaggeration" disturbed him. And he wondered, Why on earth should an otherwise learned man, writing with the ancient knowledge at his disposal, suddenly slip into such nonsensical twaddle?

Surely Berosus himself could hardly have believed the Ark to be that big!

Of course, Berosus' works had been retranslated a number of times before reaching us. Could it be that the original works of Berosus used a Chaldean symbol that had been mistakenly translated "stadia"?

Egyptian surveyors used a right-angle triangle, one corner of which was 36 degrees. This was called a “mr”.

Could a similar geometric figure have been used in Berosus’ original work?

NOT DIMENSIONS, BUT LOCATION?

Could Berosus be giving a geographical location for the Ark, rather than the Ark’s exaggerated dimensions?

The Chaldeans (directly descended, according to Josephus, from Arphaxad, born two years after the Flood - Josephus, ch. vi: 4) would surely have held sacred the knowledge of the exact location of the Ark.

Berosus was, after all, giving the Babylonian or Chaldean perspective on world history. And Fasold noted at least one Babylonian word preserved in the translation.

THE PRIME MERIDIAN

Now, about geographical locations. Every spot on earth is measured from the prime meridian - an imaginary dividing line that runs from north to south.

Today’s prime meridian of longitude, as we all know, runs through Greenwich in England. But in Berosus’ day the Chaldeans would still consider the world divided by their prime meridian, even though conquered by Alexander. Their meridian ran through Persia. The “world navel” was marked by Darius’ tomb just west of Persepolis. On the same latitude as the Cheops pyramid of Egypt, this geodetic center of the world would be 30 degrees 00’ N and 52 degrees 50’ E, on today’s maps.

A RATIO?

What was Berosus REALLY saying? It was just a faint whim, mind you, but could it be, from Berosus’ understanding, that “5 by 2” was a RATIO, pivoting on this world navel, to give the location of the Ark?

I am indebted to Fasold for taking me thus far. His investigation was brilliant. But from here on it became hazy and he lost me. I’d have to figure out the solution my own way... if at all. For now, it went into the “too hard” file.

Yet, in the succeeding months, this riddle just would not die. I found myself flirting with it - and time and again pushing it aside. On at least one occasion, a solution stared me in the face, only to slip away again.Then one morning, after eighteen months of this, all fell into place. What happened was simply staggering.

The result was this:

1. The 2 by 5 stadia was actually a geometrical puzzle/code detailing the degrees or coordinates of a triangle which pinpoints the Ark's location.

2. Both the Great Pyramid in Egypt and the Tomb of King Darius in Persia (Iran) were physically constructed with reference to their distance and angle from the location of Noah's Ark in Turkey.

3. The three locations were triangulated, by using the series of Fibonacci golden ration numbers - up to 4,000 years before Fibonacci was even born!

When my team and I explored the mountains of eastern Turkey, at an elevation of over 6,000 feet, we were finally able to put this to the test.

And in the mountains of Ararat, I found myself standing on a rise overlooking a dried mud flow.

Silhouetted against it were the decaying remains of a gigantic boat. This boat-shape and the line of Berosus were literally side-by-side.

KERENSA'S QUESTION

Anyway, back to Kerensa's question. "So, I'm just wondering," she wrote, "Who cracked the Barosus code first - was it you or was it David Fasold?"  

I wrote back to Kerensa that Dave Fasold cracked it first. But he did not reveal HOW.