All language subtitles for HistorysGreatest.Mysteries.S04E13.The.Search.for.Noahs.Ark.1080p.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H264-WhiteHat_track3_[eng]

Tonight, one of the Bible's
best known stories.

A catastrophic flood wipes out

nearly every living thing
on Earth,

except those saved
by Noah and his fabled ark.

NICOLA DENZEY LEWIS: Humankind
become evil and sinful,

and God decides to sort of
hit the reset button.

Could this tale
be more than mere legend?

And if the answer is yes,
what evidence supports it?

Research has found
that a piece of the ark

may actually have survived.

Now, we explore the theories
behind this biblical mystery.

ROBERT CARGILL:
Sir Walter Raleigh suggested

that we should be looking
for Noah's Ark

in a massive mountain range
in India.

NICOLA: It could be that
the story of Noah's Ark

is actually based
in ancient Greece.

SAMI JARROUSH: What in the world
is a boat doing

13,000 feet up
on a mountain in Turkey?

Was there really a great flood,
and if so,

what became of the ark?

[music]

Uzengili, Turkey, 1959.

Army Captain Ilhan Durupinar

flies an aerial
reconnaissance mission for NATO.

SAMI: Captain Durupinar's there

to take photographs
from his plane

in order to map a remote area

in the Turkish Highlands.

A few years prior,
there had been

three large earthquakes
that altered the terrain,

so the government
wants updated images.

LAURENCE: The flight is routine

until he spots
something strange.

SAMI: He's flying over basically
the middle of nowhere,

when he sees a startling
and unusual formation

amongst the rocks below,
which of course, he photographs.

LAURENCE: When the film
is developed,

the captain is surprised to see
what appears to be the remains

of a large ship far inland
and 6,500 feet above sea level.

What in the world would a boat

be doing way up there?

He doesn't know it yet,
but he may just have stumbled

onto the answer--
some people think--

of a great biblical mystery

that has been out there
for thousands of years.

LAURENCE: The mystery
of Noah's Ark.

SAMI: The story of Noah's Ark

is told in the biblical
Book of Genesis.

After God creates the universe

and mankind begins
with Adam and Eve,

they go on
to populate the Earth.

Ten generations later,
Noah's born.

LAURENCE: According to Genesis,
during Noah's time,

God loses faith in humanity.

NICOLA: Humankind become evil
and sinful,

and God sees all this and is
very, very displeased by it.

And he essentially decides
to sort of hit the reset button.

He's going to wipe out
all living things

that he has created
and start afresh.

LAURENCE: God spares Noah
and his family on one condition.

He must build an ark
and stock it

with pairs
of every animal on Earth.

SAMI: So, the ark
is a giant ship.

It's designed to survive
this cataclysmic flood

that's about
to cover the Earth.

God gives Noah
extremely detailed instructions

on how to build this ark--
how many floors it should have,

to how many rooms,
what type of wood to use,

and even its exact dimensions,

515 feet long, 86 feet wide,
and 51 feet tall.

ANTHONY HURST: According to
the Book of Genesis,

the flood lasted
for 40 days and 40 nights.

Eventually, as the waters
receded back into the Earth,

the ark came to rest

on the mountains of Ararat.

SAMI: And actually,
there is a mountain today

called Mount Ararat,
it's a huge peak in Turkey.

And Durupinar's aerial photo

is taken just a few miles
south of there.

LAURENCE: For centuries,
religious scholars

and historians view the story
of the Great Flood

as a metaphor,
a warning that God punishes sin.

But curiously, the flood
is also mentioned

in both the Torah and the Quran.

Could these photos be proof that
Noah's tale is, in fact, true?

Durupinar's photos create
a real kind of firestorm

of controversy and excitement,

especially when
they're featured in a story

that Life Magazine
puts out in 1960.

People are super excited,

because if these photos
actually show Noah's Ark,

then they can prove
that everything

that's written in the Bible
about this whole event

is actually true, right?

This is a historical event
that actually happened.

LAURENCE:
Inspired by the article,

a team of Americans
led by Ron Wyatt

begins researching the site
in the 1970s.

SAMI: One of the first things
the team learns

when they arrive is that
the locals call the mountain

where the Durupinar site
is located Mount Cudi.

Why is this important?

Well, the Quran also tells
the story of Noah's Ark,

and in the Quran's version,
the ark comes to rest

on a mountain
called al-Gudi.

So, they think Cudi
is actually al-Gudi.

So, the team now believes that
they're able to connect the site

back to the Quran and the Bible.

Everything seems
to be adding up.

And so, they embark
on this arduous hike

all the way up the mountain

convinced that they're on
the right track.

NICOLA: Near the Durupinar site,

they actually discover
several very large boulders

with holes bored through them.

And the marine archaeologists
who are part of the team

are very excited about this,

because they look at them
and they recognize them,

and they say,
"You know what these are?

These are something called
drogue stones."

LAURENCE: Drogue stones
are ancient anchors.

SAMI: Archaeologists
have found evidence

of drogue stones used as anchors
in some of the oldest shipwrecks

in Egypt and the Mediterranean.

So, could these stones
be the anchors

used on Noah's Ark?

LAURENCE:
Next, the team examines

the strange
boat-shaped formation

with ground-penetrating radar.

SAMI: While they're performing
the scan,

the team is excited
to note the measurements

of this formation.

In the Bible, the ark
is 300 cubits,

or about 515 feet long.

This structure on the mountain
is 538 feet long.

It's almost an exact match,

and they can't believe
this coincidence.

DUSTIN GROWICK: The scan
also reveals

what appears to be
a manmade internal structure.

The team believes this could be

fossilized remains of chambers

inside the ark.

SAMI: If this is an ancient ark,

it's unlikely that any wood
could survive

all these thousands of years.

So, this might be
an incredible stroke of luck

if some of the remains have been
petrified or fossilized.

NICOLA: The team drills down,
they take some samples.

When the samples are analyzed,

they're found to be nothing
other than soil

and regular sedimental rock.

In other words, it seems
to be just a natural formation.

LAURENCE: But that
doesn't end the hunt

for the ark in this area.

SAMI: See, there are two things
researchers can look for.

Now, the boat itself
is one of them.

But another avenue to explore

is looking for evidence
of a giant flood.

Large-scale natural disasters
leave traces behind

that can last
thousands of years.

And interestingly enough,
research has found

that a massive flood
may indeed have taken place,

and it happened right near where
Durupinar's photograph

was taken in Turkey.

In 1997, a team of geologists,
geophysicists,

and oceanographers
led by a couple of Americans,

William Ryan
and Walter Pitman,

analyze the area
around the Black Sea.

And they find evidence
for what they call

the Black Sea Deluge.

SAMI: At the bottom
of the saltwater Black Sea,

they find remains
of freshwater animals

dating back to around
5,000 or 6,000 B.C.

And soil samples
and bedrock tests

also prove that this once
was a freshwater lake,

and then it changed
very quickly.

NICOLA: So, the theory runs
that about 8,000 years ago,

there was a huge glacier,

and suddenly,
that glacier collapses.

It causes this massive upsurge
of the Mediterranean Sea

that floods
all the surrounding areas,

including what's now
the Black Sea.

SAMI: Every day, the equivalent

of 200 Niagara Falls' worth
of water floods in,

and this goes on for
300 days straight-- madness.

The existing freshwater lake
that will become the Black Sea,

it gets bigger and deeper
at the rate

of one mile a day.

If you lived in this region,
in just a matter of hours,

your home could be
at the bottom of the sea.

LAURENCE: In 2000,
marine archaeologists

led by former Navy Officer
Robert Ballard

find evidence of a flooded
ancient human settlement

over 300 feet down
on the bottom of the Black Sea.

The flood was actually the size

of Colorado before receding.

It could have affected thousands
upon thousands of people.

LAURENCE: According
to the study's authors,

any survivors could possibly
have passed the flood story

down through the generations.

SAMI: Now, we may have evidence
of a great flood right here,

and this reignites interest
in the Durupinar site.

NICOLA:
The Turkish government sanctions

further ground-penetrating
radar studies in 2014,

in 2019, and again in 2021.

So, as the technology advances,
the scans get better,

and we're finding evidence
for straight lines.

Now, any time you have
a straight line like that,

it could be the result
of human occupation.

LAURENCE:
Although Turkish authorities

currently restrict access
to the site,

some remain hopeful
that evidence of the ark

may eventually be found.

SAMI: So, there's pretty good
evidence

for a large ancient flood
here in Turkey.

And if it turns out
that this is a boat

that dates to the same time
as the flood,

then pretty good chance
that we found the inspiration

for Noah's Ark.

LAURENCE: But this is not
the only candidate--

not by a long shot.

LAURENCE: When evidence
of a massive ancient flood

is discovered near the Black Sea
in 1997,

many believe it may be proof
the story of Noah's Ark is real.

This story is famous in three

of the world's major
Western religions.

It's in the Jewish
and Christian scriptures,

and it's also in the Quran.

But each of these books

only give archaic

or vague locations

for precisely where
this might have taken place--

names of mountains and regions
that have been lost to time.

LAURENCE: But one additional
ancient text may hold clues.

SAMI: There's an early
Roman historian named Josephus

who was writing around
the same time

that some of the Bible
was written

in the first century A.D.

ROBERT: Flavius Josephus
is the most important

source of information about

Judaism outside of the Bible

that we have.

NICOLA:
Josephus is actually Jewish,

but he's raised
and educated in Rome.

And one of the things
he seeks to do in his writings

is to kind of explain
the Jewish people

for a Roman audience.

The particular book that
Josephus writes still exists.

It's known as
"The Antiquities of the Jews."

In researching it, he talks
to other Jewish historians

and combs through
all these ancient documents,

as many as he can find.

Based on his research,
Josephus believes

he's found a new location
for the story of Noah,

the ark, and the Great Flood.

He believes it all took place
in the Kingdom of Armenia.

While researching his book,
Josephus comes across

the writings of
a Babylonian historian

whose name is Berossus.

Now, Berossus is writing
between 300 and 200 B.C.

SAMI: According to Berossus,
the remains of Noah's Ark

are still around in 200 B.C.

Berossus writes, quote,
"The ark, grounded in Armenia,

some part still remains
in the mountains of Armenia."

NICOLA:
Armenia is very mountainous,

and where would you start
to look?

As amazing as this little
kind of piece

of historical lore goes,

it's still really very vague
and unspecified.

LAURENCE: Instead, Josephus
tries to track the ark's pieces.

ROBERT: Josephus cites Berossus
as saying people

are going up into these
mountains in Armenia

to grab chunks of the ship,

taking them as keepsakes
and amulets.

SAMI: Eventually,
according to Josephus,

most of the ark
ends up in a city

in the Kingdom of Armenia
called Carrhae.

During Josephus' time,
he says they're still showing

pieces of the ark to visitors,

and if true,
this could be a tremendous lead.

Who knows, maybe today
some traces of the ark

could still be found there.

But there's one problem.

In 1260, the Mongols invade
and burn down Carrhae.

LAURENCE: Luckily, the trail
doesn't end there.

According to the Armenian
Apostolic Church,

a piece of the ark
may actually have survived.

ANTHONY: The Armenian Apostolics
believe

that in the fourth century A.D.

a holy man by the name

of Jacob of Nisibis

climbed a sacred holy mountain
in Armenia,

and there,
he found a piece of Noah's Ark.

SAMI: Now, once again,
we don't know

precisely where
this mountain is.

But we do know what happens
to the piece.

Jacob brings it to
the Cathedral of Etchmiadzin

in the Armenian Mountains.

ANTHONY:
The Cathedral of Etchmiadzin

still exists today in Armenia.

It dates back
to the year 301 A.D.,

and it is believed by many

to be the oldest Christian
cathedral in the world.

LAURENCE: And the cathedral
claims to still possess

Jacob's piece of Noah's Ark.

There was an ornate reliquary

built in the Cathedral
of Etchmiadzin in 1698

that supposedly housed
this piece of wood.

DUSTIN: No one's ever tested it
and we don't know how old it is.

We're not even sure what kind

of tree it comes from.

ANTHONY: It is unlikely
that it will ever be allowed

to leave the cathedral,

since it is a precious
religious relic.

But maybe someday,
science can definitively link it

to the Great Flood.

DUSTIN: Even if you accurately
date this piece of wood,

that doesn't necessarily mean
it's part of the story

from the Bible.

But there's possible evidence
that Noah's Ark

is based on a real story,

and it's not because
of an object.

It's because
of the story itself.

NICOLA: Sure enough, there is
another ancient flood story.

This one is older
than Christianity,

it's older than Islam,

and it comes
out of ancient Greece.

LAURENCE: The ancient Greek
flood story

is surprisingly similar
to the biblical account.

So, once again,
in this you have a man,

a flood, and a boat.

The protagonist
of this peculiar story

is called Deucalion,

and Deucalion lives in a very
mountainous region of Greece

called the Peloponnese.

SAMI: Zeus, god of lightning,
the leader of the Greek gods,

becomes enraged because mankind
is corrupt and evil.

And according to the story,
Zeus unleashes a massive deluge,

with the rivers and the sea
flooding everywhere.

NICOLA: Deucalion builds
what is described

in the flood story
as a giant chest,

and he and his wife
climb into this chest,

and they float around
through this deluge

for nine days and nights.

Finally, it touches down
on solid land

on a mountainside,
and just like Noah,

Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha
are the only human survivors

of this great flood.

SAMI: Deucalion's flood
is one of the key stories

in Greek mythology,
and it's pretty interesting

that this same tale pops up
in more than one place.

But again, makes you wanna ask,
is this just a myth?

LAURENCE:
Then, in the early 1600s,

a key new piece
of evidence emerges.

NICOLA: There's a man
called Thomas Howard.

He's a British nobleman,

and he is like many
of the elite men of his day,

very interested in going on what
was called "the grand tour."

That is, he would travel
to all the archaic regions--

Italy, Greece,
what's now Turkey,

and he would, on this tour,
bring back as many antiquities

as he could possibly
carry back with him.

LAURENCE: In 1627, he buys
two small pieces of marble

with ancient Greek writing
on them.

SAMI: They've given
to a respected English scholar

named John Selden,
who begins working

on a translation of the writing.

NICOLA: As Selden starts
this process

of translating these texts,

he realizes
that he has in his hands

something really interesting
and really important.

What he's got is a listing
of historical events

since ancient antiquity.

Since these marble pieces
originated

on the island of Paros,

he calls this
the Parian Chronicle.

SAMI: And right there
on the Parian Chronicle

amongst all the other
historical events

is an entry
for Deucalion's flood.

There it is, just carved
in stone with a date

that may just prove this version
of Noah's Ark is actually real.

LAURENCE:
When the Parian Chronicle

is discovered in ancient Greece
in the early 17th century,

some scholars believe
it could hold the answer

to the mystery of Noah's Ark.

The biblical story could in fact

be inspired by the story

of Deucalion, or it's possible

that they both related
to the same historical event.

Either way, according to
the Parian Chronicle,

Deucalion's flood
was an actual historical event,

and it took place
in 1581 B.C.

SAMI: When historians
get a look at that date,

they get pretty excited,

because there's a real-life
event

that fits that timeline,

which could well have inspired

this widespread flood myth.

There's a huge natural disaster
that is so catastrophic,

observers as far away as Egypt,

and even China
record its impact.

It's called the Minoan eruption,
on the Greek island of Thera.

LAURENCE: Thera is an active
volcanic island

in the Aegean Sea.

And right there, at some point
in the late 1500 B.C.,

this volcano suddenly erupts.

What's even deadlier
than this eruption

is actually the tsunami
that it creates.

SAMI: It has an estimated
wave height of 400 feet

radiating out
from the eruption site.

This floods and destroys
everything

for hundreds of miles
in every direction,

and many believe the destruction
of the island of Thera

inspired Deucalion's flood.

LAURENCE: If this
is Deucalion's flood,

what became of his version
of the ark?

NICOLA: Depending on which
ancient author you believe,

there are four possible
locations for the mountainside

where this chest of Deucalion
comes to rest.

Of the four, there's only one
that shows evidence

that dates back to around
the second millennium B.C.,

Mount Parnassus.

LAURENCE: Mount Parnassus
features an ancient settlement

called Delphi, most known today
for its famed oracle.

SAMI: If there were
any survivors of the flood,

this is one of the best
candidates

for where they might
have set up a new town.

But so far,
no ark, no boat,

no giant chest
has been found in Delphi.

LAURENCE: But could there be
an entirely different location

where Noah's Ark came to rest?

According to famed
17th century explorer,

Sir Walter Raleigh,
the answer is in the Bible.

NICOLA: Late in life,
Raleigh sets on writing

a very ambitious project

called "The History
of the World, in Five Books."

Sir Walter Raleigh
is a Christian,

and he really kind of goes back
to what he sees

as the most important
historical text,

and that's the Old Testament,

starting with
the Book of Genesis.

And he takes a close look
at the story of Noah's Ark.

ANTHONY: During
Sir Walter Raleigh's time,

people believed that the ark

landed in the mountains

of Ararat in Turkey.

But Sir Walter Raleigh came up
with a shocking proposal.

SAMI: According to his research,

the story of Noah
and the Great Flood occurred

some 2,000 miles away
from Turkey in India.

LAURENCE: Raleigh finds
several key clues

that suggest India.

ROBERT: The Bible talks about
the descendants of the Flood

traveling to a place
called Shinar--

it's a name for Mesopotamia--

from the East-- Mekedem.

Now, Walter Raleigh
asked the question,

why would the descendants
of the Flood

be traveling to Shinar

from the east if Mount Ararat

is to the northwest?

So, he suggested that we should
be looking for Noah's Ark

in a massive mountain range
to the east of Mesopotamia.

And that would be
the Himalayas in India.

SAMI: The other thing
he's looking for is vineyards,

because in the Bible, it says
that one of the first things

Noah does when he lands
is plant a vineyard of grapes.

LAURENCE: Raleigh points
to another written account

to support his claim.

Raleigh reads a history

of Alexander the Great's
conquests in India.

Now, it says that after
a successful campaign in India,

quote, "did Alexander
feast himself and his army

ten days together finding
therein the most delicate wine."

This pretty much seals the deal
for Raleigh.

Of course, today we'd say
his argument is a little thin.

LAURENCE: But there may be
more substantial evidence

to prove his theory.

SAMI: Raleigh doesn't seem
to be aware of this,

but there's a well-known story
of a massive flood

in Indian folklore.

LAURENCE:
The Indian flood legend

appears in a sacred text
known as the Matsya Purana.

ROBERT: In this story,
Vaivasvata Manu

is warned by Vishnu,
one of the chief Indian deities,

of a great flood.

Manu survives the flood
by crafting a giant boat,

and saves humanity.

SAMI: Yet again,
the similarities to Noah

are uncanny, and so
we find ourselves wondering,

was Raleigh actually right?

Did the Great Flood
take place in India?

LAURENCE: In 2017,
Indian archaeologist B.B. Lal

believes he's uncovered
the answer.

B.B. Lal is the former
director general

of the archaeological survey
for the state of India,

and he was doing research
in the Indus Valley

looking at the civilizations
from 4000 to 1000 B.C.E.

Now, he's actually trying
to solve a different mystery.

This ancient culture
describes a great holy river

in northwestern India
called the Saraswati,

but it's not there anymore.

It's said to have just
disappeared.

Now, he discovers that there
was a massive tectonic shift

around 2000 B.C.
that suddenly obstructed

the Saraswati River's path
into a nearby valley,

flooding it in a massive deluge.

Lal believe that this explains
both the fate

of the Saraswati River
and Manu's flood.

He believes he's proven
that Manu's flood is real.

LAURENCE: If correct,
could this be the origin story

of Noah's infamous flood?

B.B. Lal passes away,
unfortunately,

in September of 2022,
before he's able

to further develop
his Indian flood theory.

But it is kind of interesting
to see

how this well-known
English researcher

and this great
Indian archaeologist

both point to the same
conclusion 400 years apart

using very different methods.

The Indus Valley
remains a hotbed

of archaeological exploration.

So, who knows what
they might turn up?

DUSTIN: Maybe one day
we'll find out

that both Raleigh
and Lal were right,

and this is the location
of the Great Flood.

In 1985, the long hunt
for Noah's Ark

takes a sudden turn when
a 4,000-year-old clay tablet

is discovered in the attic
of a British Air Force veteran.

It takes many years
to translate,

but some believe it could
finally solve the mystery

of where the Bible's
Great Flood took place

and where the ark itself landed.

NICOLA: In the 1980s in England,

a man by the name
of Leonard Simmons passes away.

Simmons had led a really
interesting life.

So, he had been
a Royal Air Force officer,

and as such, he traveled a lot

around the world,

around the Mediterranean Basin,

and he had collected

on his travels
a lot of different artifacts

which he brought back
to England with him.

SAMI: Simmons' son
Douglas would like to know

what some of these things are,
so every so often,

he'll take one and bring it
to the British Museum.

One day in 1985, he arrives

with a tiny clay tablet,

maybe four inches high,
not very big.

It's covered front and back
in cuneiform script,

the writing
of ancient Mesopotamia.

NICOLA: Simmons meets
with Dr. Irving Finkel,

who is chief curator
for Near Eastern artifacts

at the British Museum.

And when Finkel starts working
with this text,

he is apparently really amazed.

POLLY: Finkel knows
that every single scratch

on this tablet is gold.

His eyes scan the first line,

and he's almost drowning
in excitement at this point,

because here in this tiny tablet
is an account

of a devastating flood.

LAURENCE: Finkel asks Simmons
if he can keep the tablet

to fully translate it,
but Simmons declines.

Finkel really wants
a crack at this tablet,

because he's devoted his life

to the study of these
cuneiform writings,

and he knows that
this is something special.

Finkel's department
at the British Museum

includes over 130,000
of these clay cuneiform tablets,

most of which were unearthed
in 1852 in Iraq.

NICOLA: Ancient Mesopotamians
used cuneiform

essentially to kind of
keep track of things

like provisioning--
how many ducks

were needed for a feast,
things like that.

SAMI: But they also
wrote down at least one

exciting historical tale--

one of my favorites,
the Epic of Gilgamesh.

LAURENCE: The poem recounts
the exploits of King Gilgamesh,

who ruled in ancient
Mesopotamia,

an area near modern-day Iraq.

NICOLA: The story begins
with a great flood

that is sent by the gods that
basically wipes out everything.

ROBERT: Most scholars believe
that the Epic of Gilgamesh

was written between
3,000 and 4,000 years ago,

and it plays out

almost identically

to the story of Noah's Ark.

But it's important to remember
that this story

was written 1,000,
if not more, years before

the story of Noah's Ark.

So, the big question
that we have is,

was there one original event,

or were there lots
of different floods

or different flood stories?

NICOLA: In the Epic
of Gilgamesh,

an immortal man by the name
of Utnapishtim

rounds up various animals

and brings them with him
into an ark.

Together, they survive
this catastrophic flood.

ROBERT: Utnapishtim's boat
comes to rest

on a mountain called
Mount Nimush.

And this story is so similar

to the story of Noah's Ark,
that many scholars believe

that the story of Noah's Ark
is a direct descendant

of the story of Utnapishtim
and the Epic of Gilgamesh.

That means Noah's Great Flood
actually takes place

in Mesopotamia
in modern-day Iraq.

LAURENCE: When Dr. Finkel
first examines

Douglas Simmons' clay tablet,
he hopes it holds answers

that Gilgamesh doesn't.

SAMI: The tablet
at the British Museum

that Gilgamesh is written on

is missing some
pretty critical lines.

It says "The ark that
you are to build,"

blank, "be equal," blank.

It's like going through a tunnel
with your cell phone,

you miss certain parts.

The tablet is broken,
the story is incomplete.

Finkel is hoping that this
new find from Simmons' attic

can fill in the blanks.

Finkel finally convinces
Douglas Simmons

to let him translate
the tablet in 2009.

And as expected,
it's a retelling

of the Mesopotamian flood story.

LAURENCE: Dr. Finkel
spends the next four years

decoding the writing.

SAMI: The tablet is so old

that he's having
a hard time reading it.

So, he has to have it 3D-scanned

in order to complete
the translation.

In 2013, he's finally ready
to publish his findings.

NICOLA: Finkel believes
that this was worth

the nearly 30-year wait,
because what he's got in there

is explicit instructions
for how to build the ark.

SAMI: I mean,
this is incredible!

A British tourist
buys a souvenir in 1948,

puts it in his attic,
where it sits for decades

until his death,
and the whole time,

he had the ark's
instruction manual.

LAURENCE: The tablet describes
in great detail

the measurements, materials,
and construction process.

SAMI: It reads more clearly
than most build-it-yourself

furniture instructions
these days.

It describes how to make
the ropes to bind it together,

how to space out and connect
30 ribs and 3,600 stanchions,

and how to waterproof it
with bitumen.

NICOLA: The boat built
as described is enormous.

It's 4,300 square yards,

about the size
of a modern football field,

and its walls are about
20 feet tall.

The length of rope
that's needed on this boat

would stretch from New York
all the way to Pittsburgh.

And the weird thing
about this boat

is that it's not rectangular,
it's actually circular.

SAMI: This is much different
from the vague metaphor

of the biblical story of Noah.

It also rings much truer.
It's more convincing.

The level of detail
of these instructions,

it seems like they're meant
to be followed.

It seems like
this is a literal boat

that is supposed
to be actually built.

So, the natural next step
if you've got these instructions

is to build it.

LAURENCE: In 2014,
a 4,000-year-old tablet

translated by Dr. Irving Finkel
reveals instructions

to build a massive boat.

NICOLA: Many people believe
that this tablet is proof

that Noah's Ark was real,

and that it was used

to survive the Great Flood

that was in Mesopotamia,
which is now modern-day Iraq.

LAURENCE: To test that theory,
a team of Indian archaeologists

attempts to build a version
of the ark.

They don't have the money

or the time to build

the full-size version.

So, they decide they're going
to make the replica

at one-fifth the size
of the original version.

SAMI: Even scaled down,

the finished product
weighs 35 tons

and is made of wood,

rope, and bitumen,

which is a form of natural tar

that will waterproof the boat.

NICOLA: So, this team
sets up shop.

They gather all the necessary
tools that they would need,

and they're really kind of
keeping it to the sorts of tools

and materials that would have
been available

in ancient Mesopotamia.

SAMI: No metal, no adhesive,
no power tools.

The wood acts as like
a sort of skeleton

that they wrap
over a mile of rope around,

kind of like a giant basket.

It's like
they're weaving it, almost.

Then, they add the bitumen last,
which waterproofs the hull.

LAURENCE: Finally,
after four months of building,

they construct a platform
with rollers

to launch their creation
into the Indian Ocean.

SAMI: It's the moment of truth.

Dr. Finkel himself
comes to India to observe.

The team is holding
their breath.

Will this bizarre-looking ship
actually float?

They manage to get it
into the water, and...

the ark floats!

I mean,
this is pretty incredible.

We're talking about
a set of instructions

that are thousands of years old,
and they work.

Dr. Finkel is ecstatic.

In press interviews,
he says a boat like this

could potentially have floated
all the way to New York.

DUSTIN: So now,
there's even more evidence

to tie the story of Noah's Ark
to Mesopotamia.

We have a legendary great flood

and instructions
for a seaworthy ark.

LAURENCE: But where could
that ark have ended up?

One man thinks he knows
the answer.

SAMI: Bob Cornuke
is an amateur archaeologist

who specializes
in biblical geography.

He spends over a decade
searching for Noah's Ark.

ROBERT:
Cornuke is a biblical apologist.

He wants to prove the Bible

to be true, so he starts out

looking for Noah's Ark

on Mount Ararat,

and of course,
he's unsuccessful.

Then he meets a man
named Ed Davis.

In 1943, Ed Davis was working
for the Army Corps of Engineers

in the Hamadan province in Iran.

According to Davis,
the locals take him

up to the top of a mountain
13,000 feet up,

and they show him
what they believe

to be the remains
of Noah's Ark.

DUSTIN: This sounds
like a tall tale,

but Davis takes
a lie detector test

and passes it.

And the more research
Cornuke does,

the more convinced he becomes.

LAURENCE: To try and locate
the mountain for himself,

Cornuke examines
a 1,000-year-old map.

NICOLA: The Hereford Mappa Mundi

is a massive medieval map

of the ancient world.

I mean, it's huge, it's like
four feet by five feet.

And right there in the middle
of this medieval map,

in the center of it
is Noah's Ark in Hamadan,

which is right next to where
Ed Davis is stationed.

SAMI: Cornuke is able to locate
a holy mountain in this area

known as Mount Suleiman,

which is also known
as the Throne of Solomon.

LAURENCE: Cornuke flies to Iran
in 2005

intent on climbing
Mount Suleiman.

SAMI: He climbs the mountain,
and at 13,000 feet up,

at the same elevation where
Ed Davis described the ark,

Cornuke finds several rocks
that are, quote,

"uncannily beam-like
in appearance," end quote.

He believes these
are petrified wood.

He also finds a worship shrine
littered with wood fragments.

So, Cornuke takes these rocks
to be analyzed,

and sure enough,
it's petrified wood.

He also claims to find
fossilized clams,

and to Cornuke,
this is evidence

of a great flood from
a couple thousand years ago.

LAURENCE: But not all
of Cornuke's evidence

can be proven.

POLLY: Cornuke has
the wood fragments dated,

and they turn out to be
only 500 years old,

so they can't possibly be
from Noah's Ark.

MARTIN: Cornuke argues
that these wood fragments

most likely were just part

of a shrine that was built

and rebuilt basically

commemorating this area

of where the ark rested.

He believes that people
have been worshipping here

ever since the Mesopotamian ark
came here to rest

after the great flood.

DUSTIN: Further research
is still ongoing at this site,

and Cornuke hopes to one day
be able to go back to Iran

and pursue more evidence
on his theory of Noah's Ark.

LAURENCE: The search
for evidence of Noah's Ark

has crossed many countries
in Europe, Asia,

and the Middle East.

But according
to some theorists,

that search may be fruitless.

There are some compelling
arguments

for giant floods

in several different regions,

and in several different
mythologies.

But there are some academics

who are not swayed
by this evidence,

because according
to their own findings,

the story of Noah

and the Great Flood
never happened.

When William Ryan
and Walter Pitman

publish the Black Sea
deluge theory back in 1997,

which suggests Noah's Ark
is based on a real-life flood

in ancient Turkey and Armenia,
critics come forward

to suggest that maybe that flood

isn't all
it was cracked up to be.

NICOLA: Most people would agree
that something did happen.

You can see geological evidence
for it.

But probably it wasn't
cataclysmic.

It could very well have been

a change that took place

over a much longer
period of time.

And if it really happened
in around 8000 B.C.

in the close of the ice age,
it was really before

any significant
human activity in the area.

SAMI: Regardless of when
it occurred,

some experts believe

it was more of an inconvenience
than a disaster.

People could have just packed up
and moved up the hill

a little bit,
and they'd have been fine.

LAURENCE: Some feel the same way
about the ancient Greek flood.

DUSTIN: The volcanic eruption
on Thera

most definitely
destroyed that island

and took a lot of people
with it.

But the after effects
have been hotly debated.

SAMI: There may be evidence
of a destructive tsunami

hitting nearby Crete,
but others believe

that destruction was due
to an earthquake, not a flood.

As for Mesopotamia, there was
flooding there all the time.

Flooding was a very
necessary part

of Mesopotamian cultures.

The word Mesopotamia means
"between the two rivers."

It's actually this area
that lies

between the Tigris
and the Euphrates Rivers.

And the point of being
on that floodplain

is that twice a year,

these two rivers
would overflow their banks.

It was a necessary thing,

because it would make
the soil really fertile.

ROBERT: So, flooding in
a controlled manner

was a regular part

of the agricultural cycle.

But when the floods
get out of control,

when the levee breaks
and destroys a city,

to the people who are devastated
by these floods,

they see these as apocalyptic
world-ending events.

That can be true
without the story

of Noah's Ark being true.

LAURENCE: Other parts
of the story

have been questioned as well.

SAMI: So then,
there's the thing

about the animals,
you know, two by two.

This doesn't show up in every
single flood myth, by the way,

but as we know in the Bible,
Noah saves two of every animal.

And of course,
this didn't happen.

We have traced
the genetic origins

of, I don't know,
thousands of species,

and they simply didn't just all
come from one place.

ROBERT: If you put every species
of animal on the ark,

the ark as described
in the Bible

is nowhere large enough
to hold all of these animals.

And forget about
the animals' excrement

and the food for the animals.

You need a lot of food
every day.

And so, this becomes the problem

of a literal reading
of the story of Noah's Ark.

It just doesn't make any sense.

LAURENCE: But there is at least
one part of Noah's story

that rings true to most.

NICOLA: Ultimately,
we have to think,

what is the point of this story?

Why do so many
different cultures

tell different variants
of this kind of flood story?

Because it makes the same point,
all of them.

It tells us that,
again, as a species,

what we do best is survive.

SAMI: I'm pretty sure
that at many points in history,

a group of human beings
put their heads together

and figured out a way to endure
a massive flood.

It happened in 2004
in Indonesia.

It happened in 2005 after
Hurricane Katrina

in New Orleans,
and it certainly happened

5,000 years ago,
inspiring a story

that we still tell to this day.

One thing is for certain.

The hunt for Noah's Ark
continues.

Perhaps Turkish authorities

will find evidence

on Mount Ararat.

Perhaps Bob Cornuke will be able

to make a return visit to Iran.

And perhaps one day,
science will find

definitive proof
of the Bible's Great Flood

and of the ark itself.

I'm Laurence Fishburne.

Thank you for watching

"History's Greatest Mysteries."