The incredible adventure starts with a story by Ed Davis of his first hand visual experience seeing the Ark.
They arrive at a village with mud and rock adobe living spaces. Davis sees hand-carved latches and lock pins, ancient oil lamps, clay vats, bowls, jars, and crude tools and what appear to be prehistoric farm implements. Davis sees a three-foot-tall cage that appears to be petrified with vertical bars made of twisted branches that are hard as a rock.
The ark could was embedded in a glacier and could only be seen during certain warm years.
Davis notices a peculiar vineyard built around a remote village. The village is called, "Where Noah Planted the Vine".
Davis' journey will traverse three caves enroute to Doomsday rock. The first cave is located in a maze of low ravines deep in the foothills. They follow a path called the "Back Door" to the second cave. This was hostile territory, and they were on constant watch for Russian soldiers. The path is treacherous with hairpin switchbacks along the razor edge of a sheer cliff. They arrive at the second cave. There is a strong smell of sulfur present. They must be "roped together to scale an increasingly chaotic tangle of narrow ledges, steep ridges, and high cliffs". There are Russians stationed below. They reach the third cave hidden in a snow bank. In each cave, a mysterious chef has prepared a meal of goulash for them. Davis sees beautifully etched paintings of lions and other animals. They climb up a jagged moraine called the Doomsday rock - "a great, bulbous outcropping, dropping off on one side into a mile-deep chasm."
Davis sees a horseshoe gorge. Davis sees "rocks, ice, and mountainside melding as one in the deep gorge" rendering everything into an inky black. Then Davis sees the ark, "A huge, rectangular structure lying on its side, like a battleship stuck on a sandbar." Davis exclaims, "Its enormous!"
"Davis blinked his eyes, then realized he was looking into the craft, its dark, yawning maw easily stretching one hundred feet into the cleft of the ice. Twisted, gnarled timbers, splintered up and out where the hull had split apart, framed the hole."
Davis could see, a half-mile from the main section, another massive structure settled in among the boulders, its timbers ripped and protruding to one end, exactly as the first.
Davis gazes deeper into the cross-section cutaway of the main hull and sees 1. three distinct floors 2. frail-looking partitions and walkways 3. on top, a raised roof that ran the better length of the structure.
Davis creates a map of his journey, and in 1999, Team Iran is assembled. I won't share the adventures leading up to team Iran, read the book. Dan Toth, Dan Holbrook, Darrel Scott, Todd Phillips, Larry Williams, Bob Cornuke, and Dick Bright attempt to find the Ark using a five day visa. They believe they know the exact location of the Ark and attempt to be the second group witnessing the structure. The location is Mount Sabalon in Iran instead of Mount Ararat in Iraq. They discover, Urartu, original location was in Iran and later moved. They discover an ancient myth claiming the name of the mountain was "Noah's Mountain". Their hopes are running high. They are racing against time, Dan Toth is using GPS and Russian maps; under pressure, they get lost and don't start up the right trail until after hiring local guides. They don't use GPS and the maps and rely on the local guides; the mission looked to be in jeopardy. The guides take them back to a fork in the road and follow a "road by a river". They ascend to 11,000 feet. They see what they believe was the Doomsday rock spoken by Davis. They believe the gorge is two or three miles away. Toth identifies the gorge as "Davis Canyon," and there is no Ark. They leave realizing that time is up. The book ends and it needs to continue.
I think the Ark was higher up on the mountain based on Davis Account. I hope they try again.
They arrive at a village with mud and rock adobe living spaces. Davis see's hand crave latches and lock pens, ancient oil lamps, clay vats, bowls, jars, and crude tools and what appears to be prehistoric farm implements. Davis see's a three feet tall cage that appears to be petried vertical bars make of twisted branches that were hard as a rock.
Davis notices a parculiar vineyard built around a remote village. The village is called, "Where Noah Planted the Vine".
Davis journey will traverse three caves on route to Doomsday rock. The first cave is located in a maze of low ravines deep in the foothills. They follow a path called the "Back Door" to the second cave. This was hostile territory and they were on constant watch out for Russian soldiers. The path is treacherous with hairpin switchbacks along the razor edge of a sheer cliff. They arrive at the second cave. There is a strong smell of sulfer present. They must be "roped together to scale an increasingly chaotic tangle of narrow ledges, steep ridges, and high cliffs". There are Russian stationed below. They reach the third cave hidden in a snow bank. In each cave a mysterous chef has prepared a meal of goulash for them. Davis see beautifully etched paintings of Lions and other animals. They climb up a jagged morained called the Doomsday rock - "a great, bulbous outcropping, dropping off on one side into a mile-deep chasm."
Davis sees a horseshoe gorge. Davis sees "rocks, ice, and mountainside melding as one in the deep gorge" rendering everything into a inky black. Then Davis sees the ark, "A hugh, rectangular structure lying on its side, like a battleship stuck on a sandbar." Davis exclaims, "Its enormous!"
"Davis blinked his eyes, then realized he was looking into the craft, it dark yawning maw easily stretching one hundred feet into the cleft of the ice. Twisted, gnarled timbers, splintered up and out where the hull had split apart, framed the hole."
Davis could see a half-mile from the main section, another massive structure settled in among the boulders, it timbers ripped and protruding to one end, exactly as the first.
Davis gazes deeper into the cross-section cutaway of the main hull and sees 1. three distinct floors 2. frail looking partitions and walkways 3. on top a raise roof that ran the better length of the structure.
Davis creates a map of his journey and in 1999 Team Iran is assembled. I won't share the adventures leading up to team Iran, read the book. Dan Toth, Dan Holbrook, Darrel Scott, Todd Phillips, Larry Williams, Bob Cornuke, and Dick Bright attempt to find the Ark using a five day visa. They believe they know the exact location of the Ark and attempt to be the second group witnessing the structure. The location is Mount Sabalon in Iran instead of Mount Ararat in Iraq. The discover Urartu original location was in Iran and latter moved. They discover an ancient myth claiming the name of the mountain was "Noah's mountain". Their hopes are running high. They are racing against time, Dan Toth is using GPS and Russian maps, under pressure they get lost and don't start up the right trail until after hiring local guides. They don't use GPS and the maps and rely on the local guides, the mission looked to be in jeapordy. The guides take them back to a fork in the road and follow a "road by a river". The ascend to 11,000 feet. The see what they believe was the Doomsday rock spoken by Davis. They believe the gorge is two or three miles away. Toth identifies the gorge as "Davis Canyon" and there is no Ark. They leave realizing that time is up. The book ends and it needs to continue.