TURKEY - Tablet Revealing Path to Noah’s Ark
Scientists have recently unlocked the secrets of the world’s oldest map, a 3,000-year-old clay tablet known as the Imago Mundi, which is believed to show the location of Noah’s Ark.
The map is thought to show the entire known world at the time, with Mesopotamia at the bottom center.
[A] passage reportedly instructs those on the journey to go through “seven leagues to see something that is thick as a parsiktu-vessel.”
The term “parsiktu” appears on other ancient Babylonian tablets, referencing the scale of a vessel meant to withstand the legendary Great Flood. Researchers believe that Urartu, also known as Ararat, is linked to an ancient Mesopotamian poem recounting a family who, like Noah, landed their ark to preserve life following the 150-day flood. As the flooding ended, they were safely stationed at one of the peaks of Urartu, which aligns with “Ararat,” the Hebrew term for the mountain where Noah’s Ark is said to have come to rest after the flood.
Biblical texts recount that Noah’s Ark came to rest on the “mountains of Ararat” in Turkey following a flood lasting 150 days that drowned the Earth and every living thing not housed inside the wooden ship. The supposed ark site in Turkey aligns with dimensions stated in the Bible—“300 cubits, 50 cubits, by 30 cubits”—translating to around 515 feet long, 86 feet wide, and 52 feet high.
A team of experts led by Istanbul Technical University has been excavating the mountain for years. In 2023, they revealed they found clay, marine materials, and seafood. These findings placed humans at the scene between 3,000 and 5,000 years ago.
-www.jpost.com, 30 October 2024
Arno's Commentary
When it comes to discovered artifacts, Noah’s Ark is one of the favorites of those who write about or claim to have discovered something of significance, utilizing virtually unlimited imagination. Yet, nothing has been found in their pursuits, and only speculation remains.
When it comes to Noah’s Flood, we indeed have ample evidence that waters have covered the highest mountains globally.
Even on Mount Everest, the highest peak on earth, marine life has been documented: “There are indeed fossils of marine animals at the top of Mount Everest, whose summit is more than 29,000 feet above sea level—specifically, trilobites, brachiopods, crinoids (which are related to starfish), conodonts (extinct eel-like creatures) and ostracods (tiny crustaceans)” (www.turnto23.com).
We read in Genesis 6:7-8: “And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” Yet the Lord ends with the declaration: “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Gen. 8:22).
Our highest authority is our Lord Jesus Christ, who used the event of the global Flood in His prophetic speech: “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark” (Matthew 24:36-38). We note the simplicity of life during Noah’s time … just normal, day-to-day activity: eating and drinking, marrying and giving into marriage, but then the unexpected took place—the supernatural.
And so it will be at the moment of the Rapture, when believers will be gathered into His presence. Then judgment—the Great Tribulation—will take place on planet earth.
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
