Noah’s Ark Chapter 2 “1977- to Turkey”

Consulting with Members of the 1960 Expedition

Ron contacted all but one of the American members of the expedition and asked them everything they could tell him. When he told them he wanted to visit the site, they all basically told him he was crazy to do so. They were all adamant that nothing was there, that is, all except one man, Dr. Arthur Brandenburger, who still believed it was a ship. Dr. Brandenburger was the world's expert on photogrammetry, the stereo photo process used to take the high-altitude photographs of the boat-shaped object in Life Magazine and he had seen enough stereo photos to know when he saw something manmade.

Ron asked the members of the expedition how to get to the site. After all, "20 miles south of Mt. Ararat" is a pretty vague location in a region that is all mountains. But no one could tell him exactly how to get there because they had ridden on horseback for hours to the site, being led by the Turkish military.

1977- Ron Decides it is Finally Time to Go to Turkey

In 1977, for the first time, Ron felt like his children were old enough for him to either leave them alone at home or take them with him to Turkey. For the first time, he had 2 weeks of vacation. And for the first time, he had enough money to go to Turkey. His daughter, Michelle, was in boarding school in California and had stayed there that summer to work. Only the two boys, Danny and Ronnie were at home that summer.

It was now 17 years since he first read about the site. He told his children what he was about to do and to his dismay, the boys, Danny who had just turned 17, and Ronnie who would be 16 in 2 months, insisted on going too. Torn about whether to take them or not, he did the only thing he knew to do- he said a prayer that if the boys were supposed to go, that they would receive their passports in time, AND, that there would be seats available on the chartered flight to Istanbul from New York.

He had been told by his travel agent that he had booked the last seat on the flight and when he called to check on availability, he was again told that none were available. It was now within a week of his departure date. But two days later, he received a call from the travel agent- it seemed that two seats had come open at the last minute and did he want them?

There was still the matter of the boys getting their passports, a procedure which usually took several weeks. He took the chance and booked the boy's flight. In three days, Danny's passport was back. And the next day, Ronnie's arrived!

 The Strange Journey to Dogubeyazit, Turkey

On Aug. 9, 1977, they arrived in Istanbul. Things back then were a lot different than they are today; they had to take a bus to Ankara and then a train to Erzurum. This consumed three valuable days and they were still not in Dogubeyazit, the little town near the site.

In Erzurum, they took a taxi to Dogubeyazit, directing their driver to take them to a hotel there. But Eastern Turkey was no thriving tourist area. It is remote and dangerous. Very few people speak English. How would they ever find the boat-shaped object when they got there? Many people may find Ron's method of getting information strange, but again he did the only thing he knew to do- he prayed about it.

As they neared their final destination, the town Dogubeyazit, he told the boys to say a prayer that the taxi would stall at the place where they were to begin looking. After all, their taxi driver spoke no English, they didn't know if anyone in the town would speak English and even if they did, would anyone know where this boat-shaped object was? It had been 17 years since the expedition had come there- perhaps the townspeople had forgotten all about it.

The Stalled Taxi on the way to Dogubeyazit

So, they all prayed- not some great elaborate prayer, but just short, silent prayers for help. To Ron's way of thinking, if Noah's Ark was real, then the rest of the Bible was surely just as reliable, including everything said about prayer. And as they approached the town, the taxi stalled.

Full of excitement at seeing their prayers answered, they all three climbed out of the taxi and piled a great number of rocks on the side of the road while the bewildered driver peered under his hood. When they all got back in the taxi, it started up and they continued on down the road.

Soon, it stalled again. With a little bit less enthusiasm, they again piled up rocks on the roadside. Again, the taxi started up when they all got back in. Finally, it stalled again, and thinking that perhaps they had just gotten a defective taxi, they each placed one rock in a pile on the side of the road. This done, they headed to the hotel.

It was very late when they arrived and as soon as they checked into the Erzurum Hotel in Dogubeyazit, they all fell asleep, completely exhausted from their long journey. The next morning, full of excitement, they got another taxi and headed back to the first pile of rocks, where they began walking in a perpendicular line from the road.

Day 1- Finding Giant Stones with Holes Drilled in Them

They soon came to a small village where several very intimidating men approached them, one with a shotgun. Communicating in "sign language", Ron convinced the men that they were just tourists, and the villagers appointed themselves their tour guides.

Walking over miles and miles of rugged terrain, one of the men motioned for Ron to take his photo by a very large standing rock. Only when he looked through the viewfinder did Ron realize that this "rock" was identical to the anchor stones found in the Mediterranean Sea that he had seen in archaeological books. That is except for one thing- this "rock" was many, many times larger.

When he examined it more closely, he saw that it had 8 crosses carved on it. When the villagers saw Ron's interest in this, they showed him several more in the area- all exactly like other ancient anchor stones except many, many, times larger- and all with crosses carved on them (all but one had 8 crosses.)

It was the holes in these stones that convinced Ron that these were once used as drogues or anchors on an ancient ship. The holes were all wider on the inside than on the outside. This would have allowed a rope to be attached with the knot inside the hole. In water, the rope would swell. The swollen knot would then be secured inside the hole thus preventing chafing and wear on the rope.

They were all terribly excited by what they had seen, but the boat-shaped object was nowhere in sight. As they continued to walk, they showed Ron and the boys a very ancient grave-yard which had strange "monuments" in it which looked like simple representations of a 3 story boat. Were these things connected to Noah's Ark? Ron believed they were. So, he photographed and filmed everything with his 8mm movie camera (no video cameras back then) and they decided to head back to the hotel for the night.

Day 2- An Ancient House and Massive Expanse of Fences

The next morning, they returned to the 2nd pile of rocks and began to walk perpendicular to the road again. This pile wasn't too far from the first and they soon found themselves looking at the walls of a very, very old stone house whose floor seemed to be set about 4 feet into the ground. The roof was gone and it was apparent that no one had lived here for a great number of years.

Radiating out from the house was a very large pattern of stone fences which seemed to go on for miles. These, too, seemed to be covered by several feet of dirt with only their top few feet extending above the earth.

Ancient Tombstones by the House

But the most interesting feature of this site was what was in the near the house. There were 2 large stones, one setting upright and one lying flat on the ground. Carved on these stones were a most exciting picture. Across the top of each was an arc-shape; below this was a curly-cue which looked like an ocean wave. Atop it was a very simple boat-shape. Walking away from this boat and wave were 8 people- the first and the largest was a man; next and second largest was a woman; the next 3 were all the same size and all smaller than the largest woman, and they were men; and the last 3 and the smallest, were 3 women. It seemed quite obvious to Ron that these were iconographic representations of the 8 survivors of the flood, all walking away from the ship with a rainbow overhead.

When he studied these 2 large monuments more closely, he noted that on the one lying on the ground, the largest woman (the one representing Noah's wife) had her eyes closed and her head tilted downward.

On the larger one which was still standing, he saw that both the 1st woman and the 1st man (Noah) had their eyes closed and heads tilted downward. Since these were in front of the house, he believed they were the actual tombstones of Noah and his wife. The iconography showed that first his wife died, and on her stone, only her eyes were closed. When Noah died, both of them were represented as dead.

In describing the pictographs on the tombstones, Ron said these below photos are similar in design:

What Ron and the boys had found these first two days were extremely important, Ron felt. While they didn't prove anything about the boat-shaped object, they were clear indications that a family of eight people had lived in this exact area at some very remote time in antiquity. The 8-cross design on the anchor stones showed that someone during the Christian era had identified these huge rocks with the ark and its eight passengers.The

Fences- Evidence of Noah's Animal Husbandry

They only had one morning to examine everything pertaining to the house, but the thick walls and the vast pattern of stone fences was pretty compelling evidence. The Bible gives reference to Noah being a "husbandman":

GEN 9:20 And NOAH BEGAN TO BE AN HUSBANDMAN, and he planted a vineyard: 21  And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. 22  And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. 23  And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.

This passage tells that Noah was in a tent, not a house such as Ron had found. But Ron learned that the inhabitants of this region, as in other pastoral societies, still live in tents in the summer and in thick stoned houses in the winter. This seems perfectly consistent with the mention of a vineyard, which would have yielded its fruits in the warmer season.

"Husbandry" is defined as "farming, as of livestock" (Random House Dictionary). After the flood, it makes perfect sense that Noah  bred the animals and cared for them until the point in time that their numbers were sufficient enough to eliminate the likelihood of their becoming extinct.

With only two of each unclean animal, if even one should not survive, that animal would become extinct. And the extremely large pattern of stone fences radiating out from the house, and extending on for a good distance seemed consistent with this type of activity. The depth below the present ground level of the house and fences shows their great antiquity. Over the years, windblown dust and dirt raised the ground level, thus burying or partially burying ancient surface structures.

What Did Noah Wear?

In the above Scripture, we also included the entire passage which tells about Noah's getting drunk and having his "nakedness" seen by Ham. We included this because of one tiny point: The pictographs on the "tomb-stones" in front of the house show the men wearing a type of tunic. This is entirely consistent with Noah's nakedness being seen when he got drunk. If he had had on pants or slacks like men wear today, he would have remained covered, no matter how he "sprawled out" in his drunkenness. But with a tunic (like a dress), this would not be the case.

A Giant Altar and Its Complex

The house is located in an incredibly beautiful plain which runs east/west. To the north and south are mountains. Unlike our country, everything is rock in this region. And especially in this isolated area, except for the village where the anchor stones were located, all that could be seen were rocks, rocks and more rocks.

But when Ron and the boys looked behind the house to the north, they saw a very beautiful mountain ridge. Directly behind the house, this ridge had 2 small hills which met and formed a valley in between them on the side of this ridge. And right in the middle of this mountainside valley, Ron saw a very large squarish rock which looked as if it had been purposely set in its location.

Behind this large rock, the valley formed a natural amphitheater. On the side of this very large rock was a complex of small fenced in areas. If this was really Noah's house, this certainly looked like a very large altar with room for a large number of people to sit behind it as the sacrifices were made.

GEN 8:20  And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

I do not suggest that this site was the first altar that Noah offered upon after leaving the ark. The significance is, I believe, that Noah continued to offer sacrifices and he and his family constructed this site as the family gathering place for their offerings. As the family grew, this area would have accommodated a vast number of people and was conveniently located just above the fenced areas where the cattle were raised.

At the very least, Ron believed this area belonged to close descendants of Noah because of the tomb stones depicting the 8 survivors of the flood.

The altar itself measures 12' x 12' x 12' and it has one step. When we stood upon it, it was obvious that whoever stood upon this altar was quite a bit taller than we are for the step is about 3 feet high.

The complex of pens adjacent to the altar also indicates that whoever arranged the rocks in this pattern was very,  very strong, because today many of the large rocks could not possibly be moved by humans without mechanical assistance. At one point, a very large boulder is balanced upon several upright stones, forming a covered area that a 6 foot tall man can walk under without stooping.

Also in this complex are 2 very large stones which display features which indicate that they were used for the slaughter and bleeding of animals. (Gen. 9:4)  One is consistent with the size of smaller animals like sheep and goats; the other, much larger, is consistent with the size of larger animals, such as bullocks.

They both have a series of chiseled-out indentions leading from the ground to the flattened, slightly angled top. These "indentions" are the size that is consistent with animal hooves- perhaps the animals were led up the side of these rocks to the tops, which also contain chiseled out basins with drains which are consistent with areas for bleeding the animals prior to offering them on the large altar stone.

According to the Biblical account, specific parts of the animal were offered as sacrifice, then other parts were cooked and eaten "before the Lord". (See Leviticus, chapters 1-9.) Even though the sacrificial system was not given until many years later to the children of Israel, since Noah communicated with God, he surely knew he was to remove the blood from the animal before offering it or eating it.

Day 3- the "Boat-Shaped Object"

Ron filmed and photographed everything. There is actually much more than we have listed here, but these are the most important items. At the end of day 2, they had seen more than enough to make the trip worthwhile. The next day would be their last.

Arising the next morning, the boys were tired and stayed in the room. They had traversed across a great number of miles in the previous 2 days and Ron knew they needed a break. So he got a taxi and returned to the last pile of rocks. They had worked their way backwards from the 1^st pile to the last. And this one was quite a distance from the others. It headed through the town and up into the mountainous terrain.

This time, Ron had the taxi drive as far as he could go in the direction that was perpendicular to this rock-pile. They travelled up into the mountain range to the south, as far as there was a dirt road. When it ended, Ron began to walk. With mountains everywhere, he wondered if he would ever be able to spot the boat-shaped object if he looked right at it.

But after a long walk, he saw it. And what he saw convinced him more than ever that this object was the remains of a ship. But, what he saw also convinced him that there was only one way to explore its true nature and that was by an excavation to remove the soil which covered it. Or so he thought.

VIDEO: See actual footage of the things they saw in 1977:

Attacked at Their Hotel in Dogubeyazit

He returned to the room and they packed. He checked out that night so they could leave early in the morning. But that proved to be a big mistake. In 1977, there weren't any tourists to speak of in this region. It is desolate and very foreboding. The Kurdish villagers had been watching Ron and the boys, waiting to make their move.

As long as they were staying in the hotel, they were spending money, paying taxis and guides. But these bandits wanted it all and as soon as they realized Ron and the boys were about to leave, they attacked.

Ron penned the following account of what happened next:

"The afternoon after we had bought the [bus] tickets in the morning, five large threatening Turks came into our rooms and passing their hands back and forth across their throats with appropriate audio to indicate the use of their knives, they demanded our money. I reached into my pocket where a canister of mace had been kept for just such an emergency. Three of the intruders fled out the door, and as we would have equally suffered from the spraying of the mace in such a small room, I put it back into my pocket and physically evicted the two remaining villains.

Making threatening gestures and sounds, they went down the stairs. Danny, my oldest son, and Ronnie were awakened by the scuffle and we decided it would be best if we grabbed our stuff from the room that had a rudimentary fire escape. We barricaded ourselves in the room across the hall that had no way our assailants could get in through the window as the window in this room was one story above the lower floor’s roof and possessed no fire escape.

Then, the lights went out, indicating the cooperation of the hotel personnel in the attack and a veritable swarm of Turks came cascading up the stairs at the end of the hall. We had no time to get all our belongings transferred to our fortress and ..., as we found it necessary to climb down the side of the building through the window to escape these determined antagonists, we ended up losing all our luggage and belongings, including my keys which cost me dearly to replace.

We were able to carry most of our cameras strapped to our shoulders and backs, and all but one roll of our exposed movie film.... Just below the window of the room was a freshly tarred roof. In desperation, I tore open one of the pillows we had brought along, set it afire and dropped it on the roof below, hoping to attract the attention of the police or fire department. But the fire went out instantly upon striking the roof. I next tore the pages of a book we had purchased in Ankara, on the fly leaf of which Prince Yameni of Saudi Arabia had penned an open invitation to visit his country and which I would give my eye teeth to replace! Tearing the pages so the book wouldn’t snap closed and extinguish the fire, I lit it, held it until it singed my fingers in order to give the fire a chance to get a start that would prevent its suffering the same fate as the fire in the pillow– but all to no avail. A brief flare of light, then poof– total darkness.

It was at this point that Danny suggested the window as an escape route.... Meanwhile, Ronnie was tying bed sheets and blankets together then tying them to the foot of one of the beds, then throwing the loose end out the window. I slid out into the darkness and down into what may well have been the waiting hands of the antagonists that may have anticipated our purpose....

A quick check for enemies lurking in the darkness, a hushed whisper of “all clear” and Ronnie and Danny came tumbling down with what, in my desire to avoid making the attackers aware of our actions, sounded like two claps of thunder.... We scurried to the edge of the roof with the intent of jumping to the ground and beating a hasty retreat but were stunned to discover that we were two stories above the ground. Below us in the darkness growled several of the native wolfhounds the local merchants keep fenced in all around the sides of their shops at night to discourage thievery....

I looked for some other means of getting down from the roof. The building next door was about sixteen feet away but had a balcony that could possibly be used to get to the front of the building and down to the street.... We stumbled over the cover of the hole through which the workers had apparently reached the roof. Lifting it, we peered into the darkness and decided this might be only slightly safer than trying to jump to the balcony of the next building, risking a fall into the snarling hounds below. We next turned to the windows leading back into the hotel.... The first two appeared to give access to a dining area that was lighted by a small night light.... The next window looked dark.

I lifted Ronnie up to where he could look in. He reported that it was a regular hotel room but he couldn’t see if there were people in the beds or not, but the door to the hallway was open! I pried it open, lifted Ronnie up and told him to try to see if the room was occupied. If not, I told him to go in quietly. He went in and quickly I lifted Danny up. I passed the items we had managed to salvage to them and, with their help, I then climbed into the room.

Realizing the likelihood of discovery awaiting just outside the door, we got everything in readiness for instant action. Holding a can of mace in one hand and the aforementioned knife in the other, after a quick look into the darkened hallway, I led the way into unknown terror. We quietly passed along the hallway, at the end of which only a single flight of stairs separated us from the loud pounding and shouting at the room we had left only minutes (seemed longer) before. Had the bandits looked down the hall, they couldn’t have missed seeing us....

We darted down the remaining flights of steps and were out onto the street. Sudden loud yelling and the blowing of a car horn greeted us. They had left a lookout! There was then an answering clatter of sticks and pipes as our attackers surged down the stairs in noisy pursuit. We darted across the street, aided by the darkness, then down another street.... Down the back street we could hear the rapid approach of the pursuers.

We widened the distance between ourselves and them and they soon went back to get their cars. With this reprieve, we armed ourselves with fist-sized stones and took to the back road out of town. Before leaving for Turkey, we had anticipated the possibility of problems but nothing this dangerous..."

It was not over yet. They approached a taxi driver and said, “Erzurum?” hoping he’d drive them. “No” was the adamant answer. Ron flashed a one hundred dollar bill, thinking that would easily do the trick. “No!” was still the answer. Two blinding lights suddenly appeared up the road. They heard men’s voices yelling something at them in Turkish. They remained stationary and two men began walking towards them. Yelling at Danny and Ronnie to run, Ron positioned himself between the men and his sons then lurched at the men, spraying his can of mace. In the frenzy that followed, he heard the boys yelling, “They’re police, Dad! They’re police!” Not only were the two policemen overcome by the mace, but Ron’s eyes were also burning fiercely.

Through his tears he saw a bayonet-mounted M-1 rifle lying on the ground. Thoughts of Turkish prison crossed his mind. But when the air cleared, the two policemen began shouting to each other and suddenly burst into laughter. Realizing that they were tourists, they escorted them to their headquarters where Ron learned that they were the border patrol watching for drug smugglers.

The post commander spoke enough English to understand their situation and he arranged for someone to drive them to the bus station. It was a long night but they finally reached safety.

VIDEO: See the hotel and where they fled:

Leaving Turkey

Once they were safely out of town, they realized how truly dangerous the region was. Ron determined that his boys would never go there again (Ronnie did come back in the 90s, after this was written) and after all they went through, they would never see the "boat shaped object" in person. 

When they arrived back in Ankara, Ron picked up a newspaper whose headline had caught his attention. He would always remember the day Elvis died.

VIDEO: Ronnie Wyatt, youngest son of Ron Wyatt, telling of the miracles he saw on that trip 

How to Proceed to Study the Boat-Shaped Object

Ron had gone to Turkey for one reason- his own personal curiosity. What he saw fueled his resolve to investigate the site more thoroughly. But as a private individual, he had no idea where to start. He knew the site needed to be excavated but how could someone like himself get permission to do so? And how could he interest important scholars and archaeologists in the site when most people believed that if the ark existed at all, it had to be on Mt. Ararat?

Meeting Dr. William Shea

In 1978, someone told Ron about another man who was interested in the boat shaped object, a man who is an MD and an archaeologist. This man is Dr. Bill Shea of the Biblical Research Institute in Silver Spring, MD.

In Nov. of 1978, Ron finally made contact with Dr. Shea, who had written an article about the site in Sept. 1976. Though he had not been to the site, he knew the men who had gone on the 1960 expedition and saw their photos and documentation. He, like Ron, believed that the site should be thoroughly investigated. In his written article comparing the boat-shaped object to the current thought that the ark HAD to have landed on Mt. Ararat, wrote:

"To conclude, one might put these two sites in perspective by reflecting upon what would have happened had this formation been found on Agri Dagh [Mt. Ararat]. I may be wrong, but I suspect that news of it [the boat shaped formation] probably would have been heralded far and wide as the discovery of the site where the Ark had rested. What a difference a mountain makes. CREATION RESEARCH SOCIETY QUARTERLY, Vol. 13, Sept. 1976, "The Ark-Shaped Formation in the Tendurek Mountains of Eastern Turkey", by Dr. William H. Shea.

Dr. Shea also mentioned that he too believed that the Royal Egyptian Cubit was used in giving the measurements of the ark:

"Assuming a Mosaic authorship for these measurements probably would indicate that they were given in terms of the Egyptian cubit of 20.6 inches rather than the shorter Mesopotamian cubit."

After Ron and Dr. Shea communicated and Ron shared his information from the Aug. 1977 trip with him, Dr. Shea began to apply for permission to excavate. The reply was negative. As far as Ron was concerned, there was nothing else he could do.

VIDEO: Ron discusses that 1977 trip, meeting Dr. Shea and his future plans:

Praying for an Earthquake

This boat-shaped site was massive. Ron was just one man. How could he ever learn what was underneath the soil covering the boat-shaped formation? He turned to the only thing he knew- prayer.

He enlisted several friends from church and work, asking them to pray for an earthquake to reveal what was within the boat-shaped object. When speaking about this years later, he noted that he realized what he was praying for had the potential to cause great damage to people in the region. At that time he amended his prayers to ask that no one be hurt or have their homes damaged.

Continue to Chapter 3