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TUE. 10/10/2000

From Erzurum to Ankara

We spent the morning in Ezurum conducting an interview with the extremely busy geologist Dr. Sailh Bayraktutan, Director of the Earthquake Institute of Ataturk University, and the premier Turkish investigator of the search for Noah's Ark.  Dr. Bayraktutan has been involved in efforts to use scientific analysis to determine the truth about the Durupinar site, and other possible land places of Noah's Ark.  He's also involved in an economic development project seeking to bring a ski resort to Mt. Ararat, complete with a restaurant shaped like Noah's Ark, and a Noah's Ark Museum that would house the world's most complete collection of research on this topic.

After the interview, the team had lunch in a traditional Erzurum restaurant, a group of houses that have been converted into one maze-like establishment, with eating areas on the ground level and up in mini loft-like settings.  Like nomadic diners everywhere, we sit on cushions on the floor.

This old building is actually a shopping area in downtown Erzurum.

Then it was onto a Turkish Airlines Boeing 737, bound for the capital of Turkey, Ankara.  We enjoyed the first wet weather in what seemed like months.  Tomorrow and the next day we shift gears away from climbing hills and peering in caves thousands of years old to sitting calmly in offices interviewing archeologists and historians.