IN SEARCH OF NOAH’S ARK: Wyatt’s quest: Part 7, Turkey’s decision 1987
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–Ron Wyatt traveled to Turkey in February 1987 after learning the verdict rendered by a panel of scientists and government officials on whether the boat-shaped formation near Dogubeyazit contained the remains of Noah’s Ark.
The governor of Agri district, Sevket Ekinci, welcomed Wyatt into his office. Researchers from Ataturk University and officials from the ministries of internal and foreign affairs had carefully reviewed the reams of evidence collected by Wyatt and others and agreed the object was indeed Noah’s Ark.
Ekinci wanted to discuss plans for dedicating the site — a ceremony at which Wyatt would be the guest of honor.
On June 20, 1987, a large number of dignitaries, military officers and journalists gathered on the mountainside overlooking the Ark. Gov. Ekinci delivered a dedication address and then turned a shovelful of dirt — breaking ground for a visitors’ center that was to be erected on the site.
After the ceremony, participants sat at banquet tables and chatted. As people began preparing to leave, Ekinci asked Wyatt to show the journalists how the radar unit could identify the underground structure of the ship.
Wyatt made several passes over the site and was surprised that one reading appeared to be especially close to the surface. On the governor’s order, a soldier drove a spade into the soil and dug up what appeared to be a flat rock about 18 inches long.
For 10 years, Wyatt had done everything short of digging. He had never been allowed to remove anything that was not on the surface. Now he stood there, holding in his hands what looked like a section of hand-hewn timber!
It was a dream come true! The wood had petrified, preserving it almost perfectly. The timber was symmetrical, and the grain of the wood could be plainly seen.
And if that wasn’t amazing enough, the governor told Wyatt to take the relic to the United States to have it tested!
In September, Wyatt took the specimen to Galbraith Labs, which had conducted painstaking analysis of the earlier samples he had brought back. Galbraith’s scientists tested for organic and inorganic carbon content, to see whether it really was petrified wood.
The results: Almost 99 percent of the carbon in the specimen was organic. The relic not only looked like wood; it was wood!
So much evidence. Metal detector and radar scans that revealed an underground formation that could not, under any circumstances, have been natural. Some of the best scientific laboratories in the world had confirmed the samples he brought back were man-made. Though Wyatt never got to excavate the site like he wanted, Turkey’s best experts and academics were persuaded. When you find evidence of an ancient shipwreck, in a mountain range hundreds of miles from the nearest sea, in the precise mountain range where the Bible says the Ark came to rest, what else could it be?
NEXT: Skeptics remain
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Based on accounts of Ron Wyatt’s expeditions archived by Wyatt Archeological Research at wyattmuseum.com.