Who died first, Noah or his wife?
On the morning of day two, Ron and the boys returned to the second pile of rocks and began to walk perpendicular to the road. This pile wasn’t too far from the first and they soon found themselves in the same general area as the day before. They came to some walls of a very old stone house whose floor seemed to be about four feet underground. The roof was gone and it really looked ancient.
Radiating out from the house was a 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 tops extending above the earth. Parallel with many of the fences were irrigation ditches whose sides were lined with stones.
The double slash marks in some of the fences represent openings or gateways in the fences.
Ron also found what he believed were tombstones in front of the house. In the main yard of the ancient house there were two large stones, one setting upright and one lying flat on the ground. Carved on these stones were fascinating pictures. Across the top of each stone was an arc-shape which he believed represented a rainbow. Below this was a curled shape which looked like an ocean wave and atop this was a very simple boat-shape. It didn’t take a great genius to realize that this must have something to do with Noah’s Ark.
Walking away from this boat and wave were eight people. The first and the largest was a man which Ron believed repreÂsented Noah. Next and second largest was a woman, which he believed represented his wife. The next three were all men of the same size and all smaller than the first two figures. The last three were three women, all of the same height, the smallest of all the figures. Ron believed these represented the wives of Noah’s sons.
Ron assumed that these were iconographic representations of the eight survivors of the flood walking away from the ship with a rainbow overhead. The Biblical account tells us that these survivors were Noah, his wife, his three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, and finally, the three wives of the sons. He noted that the stone lying on the ground featured the larger woman whom he believed represented Noah’s wife, with her eyes closed and her head tilted downward. The largest man, whom he believed represented Noah, had his eyes open.
On the larger stone which was still standing, he saw that both the largest woman and the largest man had their eyes closed and heads tilted downward. He theorized that these were the tombstones of Noah and his wife and that the iconography indicated that the wife died first since on her tombstone only her eyes were closed. On the standing stone, both of them were depicted with eyes closed and repreÂsented as dead. There is no way to know for sure but it could indicate that Noah’s wife died before him. To me it seems reasonable and it sure gives us something to think about.
On top of the figures, on both stones, someone in the distant past had carved eight crosses just like on the anchor stones. This tells me that whoever did that felt they had something to do with Noah’s Ark also. So we are not being unreasonable in assuming that these stones have something to do with Noah’s Ark.
Ron has stated that the men on the tombstones were wearing tunics which were above the knee in length and the women were wearing garments that reached to their ankles. The muscles in the legs of some of the men figures were discernible. The men also had beards. Ron found similar depictions on Hittite stone monuments in area museums. Unfortunately these grave stones were destroyed in later years by the locals so we don’t have clear pictures of their content.
Because these stones are so ancient they probably do reflect the dress at that time in earth’s history and it does seem to agree with known Hittite stone monuments so I feel confident that we have an idea of what they looked like and how they dressed back then.
The ancient house is located to the North of the village of Kazan and is a short walk.
There is a mountain ridge that forms a natural amphitheater where large crowds could have gathered. Right in the middle of this amphitheater is a very large, rough cut square boulder which looks as if it had been placed right in the center of the amphitheater on purpose. Off to the side of this boulder is a complex of small fenced-in areas which appear to have been arranged to enclose animals. The whole area looks like a very large assembly area that could handle a lot of people around that immense altar.
It is tough to see it in the background but the altar stone is in the valley of the amphitheater. The ancient house is in the foreground.
The altar measures roughly 12′ by 12′ by 12′ and has one step which is about three feet high. The complex of pens adjacent to the altar seems to indicate that whoever arranged the rocks in this pattern was very strong because many of the large rocks could not be moved by humans today without machinery.
Also in this complex are two very large stones which display features which could be consistent with their being used for the slaughter and bleeding of animals.
After this description do you have a picture in your minds of what the area looked like? Can’t you just imagine Noah and his family offering sacrifices there and over the years Noah bringing his family to hear stories about what the world was like before the flood and what it was like to ride out that terrible storm in the ark?
This whole area is called Sagliksuyu by the locals and Kazan by us foreigners. The locals say it means “The Place of Eight†but they don’t know how it got that name.
Sharon and I made the walk from Kazan across the field to the ruins of that ancient home. Locals have really destroyed most of the structure so it is hard to visualize what it might have looked like. After checking things out for a while Sharon sat down on a large square stone to take a rest and I continued to video. As I panned over to where she was sitting the lighting was such that I could see carvings on the side of the stone that she was sitting on. I went over for a closer look and sure enough, there were ancient carvings which were weather worn but still very visible. I mentioned it to her and we decided not to say anything until we told our guide what we had found. He was really excited about it and thanked us for not making it known to the locals. They said they would come back later and take care of it. You never know what you will find in that area of the world. Everything seems to be historical. Even some of the houses have stone monuments with ancient carvings on them used in their construction. It is a very intriguing area indeed.
As we were walking around the area a storm threatened to drench us all so we headed for what appeared to be a man-made stone cage in the side of the mountain. We took refuge there until the storm passed over. It felt a little strange being in that caged area. Could this be where animals from Noah’s Ark were kept? The stones were huge and would have taken some large individuals to put them into place. What a thrilling experience it was. Every place you went had a fantastic story to tell, an experience to share.
Like us, Ron was very excited about these new discoveries but he still had not found the main object of his quest, the boat shaped object. Would he ever find it? Only one day to go before they would have to go home. Time was running out.
And that’s a "Closer Look"
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