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Earth Observation Magazine - February 1998 Volume 7, Number 2 The Magazine for Geographic, Mapping, Earth Information EOM FEBRUARY 1998 CONTENTS [abstract] The Ararat Anomaly By Anthony Montasano 'Noah's Ark' may reside on a site first identified by Defense Intelligence Agency aerial images. Further evidence thought to be captured on Spot satellite image of Mount Ararat. EOM is published 12 times a year by EOM, Inc., 13741 E. Rice Place, Suite 200, Aurora, CO 80015; Phone: 303-690-2242; Fax: 303-690-2522. Copyright 1997 by EOM and EOM, Inc.

*Spy photos sharpen focus on Noah's Ark Reported By: Weekend News Today Source: The Washington Times 11/18/97 - Dino A. Brugioni, a retired CIA photographic specialist who was directed to study the high-resolution photographs of the unusual Mount Ararat site two decades ago, say soon-to-be-released U.S. spy photographs of the odd formation high on Turkey's Mount Ararat could reveal something far more explosive: the remnants of Noah's Ark, the ancient vessel from the Bible that safely preserved a pair of every creature on Earth in the midst of a global flood, The Washington Times reported Tuesday. A series of images snapped by a U-2 spy plane at the end of a 3,000-mile reconnaissance flight from what was then the Soviet Union to Turkey caught the attention of a photo interpreter in his section. For more than two decades, highflying U.S. reconnaissance aircraft and satellites routinely photographed the "Ararat Anomaly" site. But over the next few months, the CIA will begin releasing more detailed high-resolution spy pictures of the distinctive formation near the summit. High-level U.S. government interest in the search for Noah's Ark led to a study by the CIA's National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC) of the Ararat Anomaly back in the 1970s, and the Defense Intelligence Agency conducted a second, more recent analysis. The Bible in Genesis tells of God's command to Noah to build an ark 300 cubits in length, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high. (A cubit is an ancient measurement of about 20 inches, making the ark approximately 500 feet long, 83.3 feet wide, and 50 feet high.) God then made it rain for 40 days "and the waters increased and bore up the ark and it rose high above the earth ... so mightily upon the earth that all the high mountains under the heavens were covered," the Bible says. According to the CIA, the U-2 photographs of the Ararat Anomaly will be released in the next few months as part of a batch of hundreds of thousands of spy photographs taken on U-2 and SR-71 spy plane missions between the 1950s and mid-1970s. CIA spokesman Tom Crispell said the release of the U-2 photographs will contain pictures of the Ararat Anomaly. But other photos taken by KH-9 and KH-11 high-resolution spy satellites are not likely to be made public any time soon, intelligence sources said. World famous linguist Charles Berlitz's 1987 book "The Lost Ship of Noah" describes several expeditions, including a 1916 discovery by the Russian Imperial Air Force, which sent 150 men up the mountain to explore a large object measuring as long as a city block. The ark, the book said, was found to have hundreds of small rooms and several that were quite large, as if designed to hold beasts larger than elephants. It included a 20-square-foot doorway. Other rooms were lined with tiers of cages and everything was heavily painted with a waxlike substance resembling shellac. The wood used throughout was oleander, a member of the cypress family and the "gopher wood" of the Genesis account. Because of its frozen condition under 50 feet of ice, the boat had been perfectly preserved for several millenniums, the book reported. Getting to the site on Ararat's southeastern slope is a mountaineer's nighmare, as it takes three days to scale the 16,945-foot mountain, a dormant volcano whose peak is usually hidden by clouds. Even in peak climbing season during July and August, the remote mountain is loaded with obstacles: winds reaching up to 150 mph, snow, mist, wild animals, falling boulders and even bandits who prey on travelers. The mostly Muslim Turks had long been reluctant to allow exploration of Mount Ararat because a discovery of the ark would not square with an account in the Koran which says the ark came to rest on Mount Judi, 200 miles southwest of Ararat. Because the ark is in a politically sensitive area bordering Russia and Iran, Turkish authorities closed the area in 1990. The search for the ark on Mount Ararat has been greatly complicated after the Turkish government closed off the area to visitors. The government cited problems with Kurdish rebels and the site's proximity to borders with Iran and Armenia.

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