While I have been on my spiritual walkabout for almost a year now, I had read almost all of the bible. Some of the books towards the end of the Old Testament I have not gotten to, but they seem kind of boring to me. I did find the early books interesting to look at. While my former atheist self would summarily dismiss this story, the spiritual side of me wanted to tug on this string from an objectively interested party.
I believe we have found Noah’s ark. And, we didn’t, both at the same time. Long story short, I believe they found what the Jews found and the Jews used the stories they had heard for thousands of years to attribute what looks to be where a giant ark would be to then tell this story in their culture. So I believe we found what they did at the Durupinar site near Mt. Ararat in Turkey.
The main issue that cannot be resolved is the elevation where this was found was damn near 6400 ft.
I wanted to tie this story to Atlantis as well. And, it turns out – the timing of all of this is about the same. If you look at the story of Atlantis, its said to be about 9000 years before Plato, or around 11,000 years ago. This was around the time the last ice age ended – which one account had at 103,000 years long. Furthermore, during this time, the ocean was 400 ft shallower.
This led me down a rabbit hole of looking at geography for the last week or so. Wanting my hypothesis to fit. And, it might. I had started thinking there was a land bridge at the Strait of Gibraltar. However, no matter how many pictures I could find of topography, nothing really could support my thesis.
The idea was this was closed off during the last ice age. However, what it looks like COULD have happened was that there was a thin channel of water that was deep between the ocean and the Mediterranean. The red line shows where a land bridge could have been, but right where the CS is, apparently it never could have gotten completely closed. So you see where there could have been thin channels. In the yellow, my thought was that the Strait was deeper right there because of a waterfall effect and erosion on limestone.
When I looked closer, this is what I saw…
You can see that perhaps there was a waterfall from the Strait towards the Sicily Sill. But, I think the water in the Mediterranean was lower during the ice age due to loss of water from evaporation and the water flow in from the Atlantic didn’t replenish all being lost. This picture supports that perhaps there was another waterfall between the Sicily Sill and the rest of the Mediterranean.
This looks like this, from above – but also take a look at where the tectonic plates are at and look at how that first formation could have been a separate sea.
While the Sicily Sill didn’t close – this too could have been a waterfall into the lower basin. But look at those plates. And the “ark” site was found at the far right of the above picture. The question then became – where did the ark start? We all think of Jews and Israel with Abraham, but Noah predates that. I started looking at perhaps the Black Sea. Maybe Noah was from the shallow coastal Romania area?
If the ocean was 400 ft shallower, then much of this in light blue above would most likely be lower. You also have to see how Constantinople/Instanbul connects the Mediterranean to the Black Sea. Did Noah start here and wind up in the mountains of Turkey? The other problem with this is – the ark was 6400 ft high in elevation? No flood could lift an ark over a mile high.
So I start to think there was never an ark at that site. That people found the site and used the story of someone with an ark to talk about the history they heard. But the only way the ark could get that high is if the ocean was 1 mile higher than it was today. That’s…..not possible. I decided to even look at the seismic activity in the area.
Sure, it’s very active – but even a 10 on a Richter scale could not jut up land 1.2 miles above sea level. I hit an impasse. So I then decided to see if there were any other stories like Noah’s ark. Turns out, there was. Noah’s ark was written about the 6th century BC. But there was also a story called The Great Flood of Deucalion in Greek culture dating to about 476 BCE. The Jews and the Greeks both talking about a great flood many years ago – and an ark. Could be the same story?
You then look at Atlantis – written by Plato about 360 BC. And this was heard from his grandfather, who heard from an Athenian named Solon about 300 years before Plato – who heard it from Egyptian priests. And – this was to have happened 9000 years before him. Or, about 11,000 years ago.
So – what happened 11,000 years ago that could have caused Atlantis to “sink into the ocean” or an ark in several cultures to avoid a great flood – perhaps 11,000 years ago?
Now – since the beginning, I know some people are screaming “Zanclean flood”. Yes – I came across this in my reading on this, and I know that happened millions of years ago. But around 11,000 years ago – the ice started melting and with this, apparently the earth’s rotation was changing.
My theory started that there was a land bridge or the like that separated the Atlantic from the Mediterranean. I still might be right on this, but no evidence currently supports it. Just an observation at this point that is easily debunked if you look at current depths. However, science is about observation and evidence. My evidence of that is super thin, but the stronger case can be made for the waterfall theory – that for 103,000 years, these bodies of water were mostly separated, and the Mediterranean Sea was perhaps a few hundred feet lower to the Sill of Sicily, which was then perhaps a few hundred feet lower into the rest of the Mediterranean.
Some evidence exists in this form. Take a look at a city from 5,000 years ago called Pavlopetri off the southern coast of Greece.
You can see more underwater cities here.
The question then is – how are these cities perhaps 50-100 ft underwater, and when they were built, were they perhaps 100 feet above sea level? This was 3000 BC. The earliest known “civilization” is Sumeria from 4000 BC, about 6,000 years ago.
The “fertile crescent” was known for flooding. The Nile got a lot of its water from Ethiopia, then it flooded and went into the sea.
What’s also interesting about where the ark was “found” was it was near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers – very prominent in the bible. So if we are looking at Sumeria – or perhaps Saudi Arabia today, we can see how all of these bodies of water connect, and we know they are mountainous in Turkey.
But you also have this site – believed to be 9,000 years old – right off of the coast of Israel. Called Atlit Yam
A note with this site from the page “Researchers believe a sudden tsunami or rising sea levels ended it all”
You then also have “Cleopatra’s lost world, including her palace, temple structures, sphinxes, and even remnants of the Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The site went underwater following a series of earthquakes and tsunamis around 1,500 years ago.”
So there are plenty of examples in this region of cities/towns disappearing due to floods and earthquakes.
I believe that tsunamis are what caused a lot of issues. Let’s look at ice age coverage back then.
One thing to note about this – is that I believe then that Europe and the US were connected. This helps support the thesis as to why ceremonial burial was found 12,000 years ago in the south part of South America – where the Bering Strait people could not have been there. Some thought perhaps maybe early pioneers boated west from Africa and landed there, but it makes more sense if people had walked west from Northern Europe across an ice bridge.
That being said, the theory goes like this.
- Global water levels with the ocean were 400 ft less. And, consider the earth rotation changes (this did happen like 13,000 years ago), and this rapidly heats up the northern hemisphere.
- Giant ice sheets break off, and cause massive tsunamis, which brings in trillions of gallons of water over the waterfall of the Strait of Gibraltar. This then floods over the waterfall of the Sicily Sill.
- Quadrillions of gallons of water flood in and cause seismic activity and while sea levels may have risen centimeters per year, on average, perhaps tsunamis and ice sheets bringing water levels up 10-20 feet rapidly as seismic activity sunk areas in created massive loss of life.
- “Atlantis” could be a parable about cities living then that were completely wiped out.
- “Noah’s ark” could be a story that was passed down into all cultures about how humanity survived these massive floods.
- North Africa was green 11,000 years ago and went through a humid period for thousands of years – and this was also marked by massive monsoons. Noah’s ark had talked about rain for 40 days. This timing could place it back 11,000 or so years from now during that period.
- The Sphinx is about 60 ft above sea level and has signs of water erosion at its base. It is thought the Sphinx is much older than ancient Egypt and thus could date back to the humid period. Flooding of the Nile from massive monsoons could have also flooded this area.
With Atlantis – you have this evidence from West Africa. This is called “The eye of Africa”
The problem you run into with this is the same issue as the ark. This is 1600 ft above sea level. And what I THINK happened here was something similar to the ark. I believe they found this site 11,000 or so years ago and it LOOKED like it could have been an ancient city. It’s called a richat structure. And – early explorers could have found this site in Mauritania and thought it was an ancient city, and this story was conflated with many stories of cities being swallowed by the sea. Could there have been ancient man living here with water with this? Sure – consider the monsoon years for thousands of years. But also consider that this could have run dry like the rest of northern Africa which had these settlers moving in all directions away from it trying to find better land.
Furthermore – we also know that what makes this look like Atlantis is the richat structure, which was formed by volcanoes. What if there exists a richat structure underneath the water somewhere in the Mediterranean. For that 103,000 years of the ice age, perhaps on the east side of the Mediterranean a richat structure existed. And, with all of the tsunamis, floods, and earthquakes – the caldera/richat was sunken into the Mediterranean forever, and this is the true explanation for Atlantis?
While the Mauritania one passes the eye test, no one can convince me that a structure 1600 ft above sea level “sunk into the sea”. It is likely that Atlantis was written about with a richat structure – but that structure was perhaps off the coast of Sicily. Or Greece.
When you look at the sea levels – you can see the yellow is about 300 ft deep. The red is even shallower. Now consider 11,000 years ago that yellow was all 100 ft above sea level. To me – this perhaps can make Atlantis perhaps Malta.
Looking at the picture above – look at the depth of the sea here – and consider 11,000 years ago that light brown could have all been above the mediterranean sea levels. Consider how volcanic this area is. And – consider how a massive tsunami perhaps with 50-100ft waves could have completely washed out everyone living in this brown area that was above sea level. While deep channels exist – look at all of the land structures that are underwater now that could have been above water then. And – consider how a caldera/richat structure could have been in this region to be “Atlantis”.
Conclusion
I think if people wanted to find evidence of Noah’s ark, as written in the bible, it has been found. In the sense that I believe what they found was what was found in 600 BC or so and the great flooding and ark stories taught to the Jews and Greeks are the same story. However, if there was an ark 11,000 years ago that saved lots of people and animals, it is not 6400 ft up in the mountains of Turkey. I believe the story has roots – a big boat, a tsunami, monsoon rain – and whether it was God punishing humans for being too raunchy, or whether it was Zeus punishing the Greeks – the same lesson is to be had. Live morally or a God of sorts will destroy you. The Old Testament is a lot of fear-based motivation. Do as God commands you, or you will burn in Hell eternally.
I believe there were great floods in the Mediterranean at the end of the ice age. And – if great floods wiped out 95% of the human population then, you can perhaps see how some people may have constructed boats to survive tidal waves and then rebuilt at other places. It makes sense that about 11,000 years ago stories of Atlantis being sunken into the ocean could have been a society off of the cost of Greece or even Malta.
The issue is – if I am correct, people will spend eternity trying to prove things that don’t exist. It doesn’t lessen the lesson presented by Noah’s ark. The issue was that humanity had become depraved and needed a reset to live more wholesomely. Atlantis perhaps reminds us that nature can and will control all. God’s wrath from floods and earthquakes are thus always a reminder that “God” is mighty and powerful. While ancient people may have sacrificed crops or done “burnt offerings” to a God they wanted to get favor with – or in some cultures even sacrificing people – it stands to reason that people would sacrifice something of value to gain favor. This can be found with religion in the form of fasting or even giving something up for lent.
The lessons – in a nutshell:
- Live as “God” intended – or he will wipe out humanity.
- To be a good human, you must be willing to sacrifice – or face wrath
Both of these lessons you learn from the Old Testament. These stories show how the Earth is mighty with powers of nature. And – these peoples back then used these lessons as a fear tactic to have society function properly. The 10 commandments are essentially a way to run society.
While the New Testament dealt more with love and caring for humans on a micro level, it seemed the macro sense to instill a form of fear gave society a backbone to build upon.
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