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SUN. 10/08/2000

Welcome to Noah's Ark Country!

We started out the day looking for the anchor stones of Noah's Ark.  There are pictures of large stones, with a hole in them, that some researchers have postulated may be the anchor stones of Noah's Ark.  We visited the village of Kazan, where some of the local boys were interested in our video camera.  Later we drove close to the bottom of Mt. Ararat, where some village girls were enthralled by their visitors.

In the village of Kazan, we were invited into the house of a local woman where she makes bread every morning.  The oven is in the ground, to the left of the woman; the fuel is tezik, or animal dung, seen on the far right of the image in a small dark block.  The bread is flat, and cooks in just over three minutes.  We were offered many samples, which we accepted.  It was delicious.

We drove up towards Mt. Arat, and reached an elevation of just over 6,000 feet, according to our GPS.  The view on the left is of the South/Southwest face of the Mountain.  Digital Rancher Tod Mesirow takes advantage of the beautiful day, and the natural force of the wind to fly his kite.

After much searching, and the help of Ahmet, the propietor of our hotel, Sim-Er, we found the reputed anchor stones of Noah's Ark in the town of Arzep.  They were arranged in no particular order, though at first they appeared to be ordered.  The crosses were reportedly carved onto the stones by Armenians that used to live in the area.  A village boy rode up on his horse to visit us while we shot.

On our way out of town Berta spotted a stone with a hole that was incorporated into a wall.  We stopped to take video of the stone, and this digital still as well.

Tomorrow we return to the Durupinar site to take GPS readings that will give us a three-dimensional display and accurate location, and then we travel on to Ezurum, where we're scheduled to interview Dr. Salih Bayraktutan about the search for Noah's Ark.