Cudi Dagh Not High Enough ?
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Letters David Larsen on firm ground to dismiss most of them Pasadena, California as not reliable (the word ‘crackpot’ is UNITED STATES of AMERICA David’s). Nowhere did I call anyone a liar, but for the record, I believe the accounts of Chuchian,1 Liedmann,2 Cudi Dagh not high Gurley, Navarra,3 and Behling4 are clearly not true. Two, Gurley5 and enough ? Liedmann confessed to lying. At least 1 one of the above suffered from mental Bill Crouse suggests there is com- problems. pelling evidence, from ancient histori- cal accounts prior to the middle of the With regard to the WWII aviator, th Vince Will, I have read his account and 13 century, that Noah’s Ark rested on have no opinion. I will only say that Cudi Dagh (Cudi Dagi), a mountain in what he saw was evidence for him. southern Turkey about 300 km south We have no photos or other evidence west of Mount Ararat. Crouse cites several geological Bill Crouse replies: to corroborate his story. I believe David misread my account reasons why remains of the Ark might of the Turkish soldiers (p.16). If they not still be on Ararat, and then seems First off I would agree with David to infer that because the remains of that Mt Ararat is a mountain conducive saw anything it was probably the Ark- shaped stone building on Cudi Dagh. the Ark are not found on Ararat that to preserving an object the size of it never landed there, suggesting that Noah’s Ark. If it were covered with It would have been clearer perhaps if I had written ‘…when they came upon after a proposed sub-surface survey volcanic rock it could easily have of the icecap; ‘Ararat should be com- become fossilized, and if it were buried what they thought was Noah’s Ark.’ By the tone of David’s letter it pletely discounted as the final resting perpetually in ice the wood would not place of Noah’s Ark’. This seems an rot. He also mentions that the size of seems he has an emotional commit- ment to the Ararat site. For reasons I illogical conclusion given that he has Ararat renders it a good hiding place. just cited several reasons why, if the It is definitely a massive and complex can’t go into here, I also have emotional ties to Ararat. I wish it would be found Ark had landed on Ararat it would not volcanic structure but it is still finite. still be there! One Turkish officer in the commando there, and I am still intrigued by the so- 6 Crouse lists several ancient pagan, force stationed in that area told me called Ararat Anomaly. Perhaps we will soon have a definitive answer. Christian, Jewish and Islamic ac- he trained his men on the mountain counts and suggests that the historical and there were very few places he Bill Crouse evidence from these ancient references had not been. The mountain has that the Ark landed on Cudi Dagh eas- been searched by fixed wing plane Richardson, Texas UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ily outweigh historical evidence that it on numerous occasions as well as by landed on Ararat. high-powered helicopter. My point is, References I suggest that there are two geo- the mountain in the last 20 years has graphical arguments which, when con- been thoroughly searched. Previous 1. Ararat Report, February–March 1990, p. 5. sidered in the light of three passages of writers have also exaggerated the size For this article I spent a day with Chuchian as Scripture, may rule out Cudi Dagh as a of the icecap not the mention that well as interviewing his employer and others possible resting place for the Ark. it has greatly shrunken in size over who knew him. the last several decades. The entire 2. Ararat Report, January 1987, p. 2. Liedmann First geographical argument icecap can easily (maybe not a good confessed to lying before the elders and pastor choice of words!) be searched in an of his church in Lubbock, TX, and later to the entire congregation. My source was the pastor Genesis 7:24, ‘ … the waters afternoon. Most of this ice is moving who is currently pastor of a large church in prevailed upon the earth a hundred down the mountain as several glacial Dallas, TX. and fifty days’ (i.e. until day 150). fingers with the possible exception of 3. Ararat Report, May 1993, p. 2. Genesis 8:4, ‘ … the ark two areas which may be stationary, but 4. Ararat Report, May 1993, p. 4. rested in the seventh month, on have now had preliminary checks with 5. Before his death, Gurley was a subscriber to the seventeenth day of the month, penetrating radar. Ararat Report and he often corresponded. He upon the mountains of Ararat’ (i.e. I am sorry that David took my confessed to me personally that the story he day 150). wrote about the Russian discovery was entirely dismissal of eyewitnesses as flippant. I Genesis 7:24 and 8:4 indicate, fiction. can assure the readers of TJ that I spent in my opinion unequivocally, that the hundreds of hours tracking down and 6. Maier, T.W., Anomaly or Noah’s ark? Insight 16(43):10–14, November 20, 2000. Ark rested on the same day that waters comparing stories. I also believe I am began to subside.2 The maximum TJ 16(2) 2002 59 Letters floodwater level then could have been month. References little more than the draft the Ark (15 That the mountains ‘were seen’/ cubits/6.7 m) above the summit alti- ‘became visible’ about 74 days after 1. Crouse, B., The landing place, TJ 15(3):91–94, tude of the mountain on which the Ark the Ark grounded is indisputable. 2001. rested. If the Ark rested on Cudi Dagh 2. Hunter, M.J., Scriptural constraints on the Now, the summit altitude of Cudi (1,782 m) then Mount Ararat and the variation of water level during the Genesis Flood, CEN Tech J. 14(2):91–94, 2000. Dagh is 1,782 m above mean sea other high mountains surrounding it, 3 3. Road Map Turkey, 1:1,000,000, Kummerly & level. as well as other mountains that are Frey, Bern Edition, 1989. The current volume of ‘free’ water higher than Cudi Dagh would have 4 4. Baumgartner, A. and Reichel, E., The World in the world’s oceans and seas (which been visible prior to the grounding of Water Balance, Elsevier Scientific Publishing must be the same as the volume the the Ark. Co., Amsterdam. floodwaters at their maximum level Within a radius of 50 km from 5. Hunter, M.J., Is the pre-Flood/Flood boundary on day 150) when displaced onto the Cudi Dagh there are six other moun- in the Earth’s mantle? CEN Tech. J. 10(3):344– present land surface, would cover tain peaks, all of which are higher 357, 1996. The water depth estimate in this the Earth to a depth of about 3,000 than Cudi Dagh.3 One of them, Tanin reference (11,710 m) assumes a flat Earth surface. In this letter the 3,000 m estimated m, almost twice the present height of Dalgari, only 47 km to the east of depth is determined allowing for the volume 5 Cudi Dagh. Cudi Dagh, is 3,231 m above sea of land above sea-level. If a correction is made for the vol- level, nearly twice the altitude of Cudi ume of sediments which would have Dagh! washed off the land during Stage III If the Ark was resting on Cudi Dagh of the Flood, and are now buried in from day 150 on, one might assume off-shore sedimentary basins, this that at least the six higher mountains depth would be greater. within 50 km of Cudi Dagh would have Genesis 7:24 and 8:4 and the been easily visible above the water present volume of ‘free’ water thus horizon from day 150 to day 223. constrain the summit altitude of the mountain on which the Ark grounded Conclusion to a minimum of about 3,000 m above sea-level. If the Ark rested on Cudi Notwithstanding the geographic Dagh (1,782 m) as suggested, and as- and Scriptural arguments outlined suming that the present relative height above the historic accounts still remain. relationships of the mountains, and the Cudi Dagh is located at the southern absolute heights above mean sea-level edge of the Turkish mountains, at the have not changed significantly since northern end of the Mesopotamian Bill Crouse day 150 of the Flood, the waters would Plain of Iraq and Syria. It is 23 km from have had to fall about 1,200 m before the ancient city of Cizre (Turkey) on the Ark could have grounded. Even the Tigris river. AI Malikiyah (Syria) if the initial subsidence rate was ten and Zakhiu (Iraq) are other nearby Bill Crouse replies: times the average, it would take 8.8 population centres. days to fall to the level of the summit Some travellers from the Middle Max Hunter’s arguments about of Cudi Dagh. East and Europe to Asia may have altitudes and water levels, it seems followed the Tigris River along the to me, are of no avail to support his Second geographical argument southern edge of the Turkish moun- case for the Ark landing on Mt. Ararat tains. Cudi Dagh then may have been if there is no geological evidence to Genesis 8:5, ‘And the waters close to a major trade/tourist route.