Ararat anomaly

Picture of the Ararat anomaly taken by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency in 1949

The Ararat anomaly is an object appearing on photographs of the snowfields near the summit of Mount Ararat, Turkey (historical Western Armenia) and advanced by some Christian believers as the remains of Noah's Ark.

Overview

The anomaly is located on the northwest corner of the Western Plateau of Mount Ararat (approximately 39°42′10″N 44°16′30″E / 39.70278°N 44.275°E / 39.70278; 44.275Coordinates: 39°42′10″N 44°16′30″E / 39.70278°N 44.275°E / 39.70278; 44.275) at about 15,500 ft (4,724 m), some 2.2 km (1.4 mi) west of the 16,854 ft (5,137 m) summit, on the edge of what appears from the photographs to be a steep downward slope. It was first filmed during a U.S. Air Force aerial reconnaissance mission in 1949 — the Ararat massif sits on the former Turkish/Soviet border, and was thus an area of military interest — and was accordingly given a classification of "secret" as were subsequent photographs taken in 1956, 1973, 1976, 1990 and 1992, by aircraft and satellites.

Six frames from the 1949 footage were released under the Freedom of Information Act to Porcher Taylor, a professor at the University of Richmond in Virginia, and a scholar at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies specializing in satellite intelligence and diplomacy, in 1995.

A joint research project was later established between Insight Magazine and Space Imaging (now GeoEye), using the IKONOS satellite. IKONOS captured the anomaly on August 5 and September 13, 2000. GeoEye has constructed a computerized video of the imagery it captured of the anomaly. The structure appears at approximately halfway through the video. The Mount Ararat area also has been imaged by France's SPOT satellite in September 1989, Landsat in the 1970s and NASA's Space shuttle in 1994, as well as military satellite images captured by the CIA's KH-9 (Keyhole 9) in 1973 and KH-11 (Keyhole 11) in 1976 and 1990–1992.

The Defense Intelligence Agency believes the anomaly shows "linear facades in the glacial ice underlying more recently accumulated ice and snow".^[1]

See also

• Searches for Noah's Ark
• Durupınar site
• Creationism
• David Fasold
• Deluge (mythology)
• Flood geology
• Gilgamesh flood myth
• Pareidolia

References

1. ^ "Insight on the News", Nov. 20, 2000.

External links

• Claim CH502.1: A 1949 USAF aerial photograph of the Western Plateau of Mount Ararat shows an elongated box-like object which could be Noah's ark
• Satellite closes in on Noah's Ark mystery, CNN
• Researcher Claims Noah's Ark Find a Big Hoax, Christian Broadcasting Network via archive.org