Joanna Lumley: The Search for Noah's Ark (Review)

This documentary aired on ITV-1 at 9:00pm on Sunday 23rd of December. The production was an interesting, reasonably balanced and informative account of what many people believe are the remains of Noah's Ark - but the detail was rather lacking. I have just a few points to make. First, as you will discover from the ancient history paper posted previously on this blog, Mount Yigityatagi in south-east Turkey, taken as the real location of the Ark's landing place, is confirmed through a study of ancient near eastern iconography. The cosmic twin-peaked mountain was where the 'cosmic egg' and 'tree of life' first resided. The sacred mountain was seen as a prop which separated 'heaven and earth', and on this hill 4 elements arose along with their 4 consorts. Comparison of ancient Minoan, Egyptian and Syrian icons and texts suggests that what Fasold and Wyatt discovered in the mud-flow probably is the Ark, having been transported in the mud from the twin peaks. That remnants of the Ark were still visible in the first and second centuries is confirmed by historians such as Josephus, who mentioned pilgrims scraping off bits of it as talismans. Second, the Scriptures clearly teach that the flood of Noah was a global cataclysm lasting over a year. There would be no rationale to include birds on the Ark, or to emphasize that all the high hills under the whole heaven were inundated, if it were only a local catastrophe. For more in-depth information on this whole topic, I would recommend the books Earth's Catastrophic Past Volumes 1 and 2, written by Dr. Andrew Snelling and Nissen, H. (Trans. Skondin, T.) (2004). Noah’s Ark Uncovered: An expedition into the ancient past.