Leslie and David's Wanderings: 30 March 2022 Ark Encounter

Having traveled down I-75 from Cincinnati several times in the past and seeing the Ark Encounter park from the road, we were curious about it. David’s step sister had said that it was very good in the past as well. So, we planned a day while we were in the area. The park is set up like a Christian amusement park with zip lines and other fun things to do with the kids. The center piece is a full-size replica of Noah’s Ark. Per the dimensions in the Bible, 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. A cubit is the length from one’s elbow to the tip of the middle finger. So, the length will vary from one person to the next. The Arc Encounter decided to use a royal cubit which was used in many ancient projects. A royal cubit is a cubit plus a hand width or about 20.4 inches. The Ark they built is 510ft long, 85ft wide and 51ft tall. Standing at the stern of the boat, it is very impressive in size. Beyond these measurements, there is not much else in the Bible on the construction of the Ark. They used information from ancient ship wrecks and other documents to decide how to build the Ark. The hull is composed of 3 layers of wood that was engineered to allow expansion, contraction, and bending due to stress based on ancient ship wrecks. The Ark had no propulsion but did incorporate features to keep the Ark pointed into the wind. There are three decks inside based on the Bible. The interior organization of the Ark is all supposition on their part since there is no information in the Bible about the interior architecture. They show how the animals could have been caged, fed, watered and cleaned up after. Based on fossils identified after the flood, they estimate 1,398 species of animals were on the Ark, including 85 kinds of Dinosaurs. We had never considered dinosaurs being on the Ark! In total, they estimate there were 6,744 animals on the Ark. It’s not entirely clear on the exact number since the Bible states there was one male and one female of each kind of “unclean” animal and 7 (not sure if that is 7 pairs, or 7 individual) of each kind of “clean” animals. So, the number could have been over 8,000 animals. They believe that many of the larger animals would have been represented by smaller juveniles. With only 8 humans (Noah, his wife, their 3 sons and their wives) on board, that’s a lot of animals to keep up with each day. But they also would have had a means for feeding most of them using multiday feeders and watering systems. They showed the living quarters for Noah’s family on the bottom deck. But considering that is where the least about of rocking would have occurred, it made sense. They believe, based on Bible passages, that Noah built the Ark in 75 years. It took the foundation 3 years to build the Ark exhibit. They used many ancient technics for the construction but also included modern approaches where safety and comfort of the public was needed. The flood occurred when Noah was 600 years old and lasted for about one year. Several of the exhibits in the Ark describe the basis for their design as well as the scientific proof of the occurrence of the flood. We were fascinated with the exhibits and read our way through all of them.