In Chechnya, enthusiasts and scientists continue to explore Noah’s Ark on Mount Sadoi-Lam in the Cheberloevsky district of the republic. Three years ago, a lonely local resident, Marat Makazho, found here an amazing formation of layered limestones, surprisingly similar to wooden beams.
I was just walking through the alpine meadows in the mountains, a little above Lake Kezenoyam. I admired the beauty of nature and explored the area. The strange elevation above the plateau aroused my interest. From there it was very nice to admire the surroundings, I often came to just sit there. Then he began to look at the stones and noticed that they were very even, smooth and beautiful in this place. It’s as if they were specially tailored to each other. I became interested in their origin, without completely understanding what I was dealing with, simply out of curiosity. This is how this story began,” Marat told Komsomolskaya Pravda.
"Gate of the Ark" Photo:
The man spent the next year in libraries, researching historical sources and geological manuals. Who could grind limestone so delicately? For what? And what kind of man-made structure could be located on a plateau high in the mountains?
The insight came with the thought that it might not be a stone at all, but petrified wood. That's when I first thought about the Ark. At first I was skeptical about this,” says Marat. - I often went to the mountains and explored. But the deeper I studied the topic, the less doubts remained. The final conviction came when I saw something that I can’t call anything other than familiar. It was similar to the “phenomenon” from canonical legends: slightly gloomy weather, the sky overcast with clouds. I walk to the plateau in thought. And then a ray of bright light bursting out from behind the clouds falls on the place that we now call the “gates of the Ark”!
Marat Makazho talks about Noah's Ark in Chechnya.
Mufti of the Chechen Republic Salah Mezhiev about the discovery of Noah's Ark
Marat spent another year studying theological literature and the history of the search for the Ark. Of course, most clerics claimed that the ancient ship of the prophet stopped on Mount Ararat. But long searches and scientific research yielded nothing. Formations truly similar to the ship were never found, and archaeologists and geologists, not finding the skeleton on the mountain, moved to other areas of Turkey. Another part of Islamic scholars indicates that the Ark could have stopped in another place.
According to one of the widespread theories put forward by Islamic scholars, the ship could have sailed further north and run aground in the Caucasus Mountains, the Mufti of the Chechen Republic Salakh Mezhiev explained to Komsomolskaya Pravda. - Moreover, here, in the North Caucasus, there are people who bear the name of the prophet. In Arabic, Noah is called Nuh, or Noh. And true Vainakhs know that the real name Chechen people- Nokhchi. That is, in other words, the sons of Noch.
Using this map, everyone will be able to find a unique phenomenon discovered by Marat Makazho Photo: Personal archive of the hero of the publication
The coincidences amazed Marat. And two years later he publicly said that he had found Noah’s Ark. An initiative group immediately gathered around him; enthusiasts, having looked at the phenomenon with their own eyes, without regret invested their own funds in its study, and soon excavations began.
The unique natural object amazed even scientists. They suggested that multi-layered limestones were formed under enormous water pressure. Most likely - at the bottom of the Tethys Ocean, which existed in the territory millions of years ago North Caucasus. But the origin of the “nails” that dot the limestone layers is more difficult to explain.
Photo: Personal archive of the hero of the publication
An expedition from the Crimean branch of the Russian Geographical Society and specialists from the Central Research Institute of Geology of Nonmetallic Minerals came to us. The scientists, over a glass of beer, honestly said that they were amazed by some of the details, and education in the mountains of Chechnya is really worthy of study, shares Marat Makazho. - But the analysis of limestone samples did not give positive results for us. Therefore, we cannot yet announce the find to the whole world. We continue excavations.
At the same time, the scientists themselves speak of the Chechen enthusiast with great warmth and respect his beliefs.
Even scientists find it difficult to answer the question about the origin of the nails with which the limestone is studded. Photo: Personal archive of the hero of the publication
Marat is a very interesting, smart person. Doesn't look at all like the local madman who wrote a beautiful legend and believed in it, says geologist and speleologist Gennady Samokhin, who heads the expedition of the Crimean branch of the Russian Geographical Society. - As a scientist, I, of course, cannot seriously assume that this is the mythical Noah’s Ark. But the object he discovered is indeed extremely interesting and deserves detailed study. I sincerely wish him luck in his research.
Enthusiasts have to work very carefully - they are afraid of damaging the shrine. Now they have managed to go 25 meters deep into the limestone. Members of the initiative group are confident that they will find voids inside - the interior of the legendary ship. And they hope that this discovery will prove to all skeptics that Noah’s Ark is really in Chechnya.
The most important test for the initiative group was the visit of representatives of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Chechnya. After him, the Muftiate of the republic has no doubt about the authenticity of the Ark.
After examining the object by our representatives, I can confidently say that Noah’s Ark is in Chechnya,” said the Mufti of the Chechen Republic Salakh Mezhiev. - This is our position. May Allah grant that studies of the skeleton found in the mountains finally confirm this! We believe and hope that this will happen soon.
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How many times has the Ark been found?
Attempts to find the Ark have been made since around the 4th century AD. According to biblical legend, he was supposed to stop on the slope of Mount Ararat. There are several other areas that are considered to be its potential location. One of the main places, according to seekers, is the so-called Ararat anomaly - the “contours of a ship” protruding from the snow on the northwestern slope of Ararat. Scientists explain its formation by natural causes, but research on the site is difficult, since the area is a military closed zone in the area of the Armenian-Turkish border.
1. One of those who “found” the Ark was Russian military pilot Vladimir Roskovitsky, who, while flying over Mount Ararat during World War I, saw what he called a “lying large vessel.” The pilot wrote a report about what he saw, and in 1917 Russia allegedly even sent an expedition there, which took several photographs of the Ark, but during the revolution the report on the expedition disappeared. Later, other pilots, in particular the Turk Durupinar in 1957, took photographs of a strange outline similar to a ship near Mount Ararat. Durupinar's photograph even ended up in Life magazine and became the reason for further expeditions, each of which announced the discovery of the Ark.
2. In 1955, the French researcher Fernand Navarra brought from Ararat the remains of a board that, according to him, was broken off from the wooden frame of the Ark. Some of the studies partially confirmed the age of the tree at 5,000 years, but all these conclusions were very subjective.
3. A joint Turkish-Hong Kong expedition to Mount Ararat in 2010 made a statement that they found Noah’s Ark at an altitude of 4000 meters frozen into a glacier and even entered some rooms inside the Ark, taking videos and photographs. However, there is a version that all this filming was edited to create a world sensation. Professional archaeologists do not take the claims of the Ark seekers seriously, considering all their discoveries to be a figment of the imagination.
Chechen history buff Marat Aslakhanov said he found the remains of Noah's Ark in the abandoned village of Khindoy on the border with Dagestan. He is confident that he is right, but professional archaeologists claim that this is impossible and call the news fake.
Chechen Ark
It took Aslakhanov four long years to excavate. During this time, he managed to dig 12 meters of petrified rocks in the mountains of Chechnya and eventually ended up inside the ark - at least that’s what the man calls the iron-shaped hill in the middle of the plain in the mountains. Its dimensions reach 1200 meters in length and 600 in width.
Aslakhanov called sedimentary rocks in the form of slabs the petrified wooden beams of the ark. According to his calculations, the thickness of the sides of the world's most famous ship is 25 meters. Therefore, Marat and his assistants are sure that there are voids inside the slabs. Additional suspicions are also raised by strange inclusions in the stones, which could be wooden nails.
It is interesting that the name of the village of Khindoi, where the ark was allegedly discovered, is translated as “place for collecting water” (“hi” - water, “do” - storage, place for collection). However, it is famous for the fact that many ancient military and residential towers, as well as crypts, were discovered on the territory.
Russia, Armenia or Türkiye?
The Bible says that Noah's ark actually stopped in the mountains - but did it really stop there?
“And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. The water continually decreased until the tenth month; on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains appeared.” (Genesis 8:4,5)
Mount Ararat is located on the border of Armenia and Turkey, but not in Chechnya. For several thousand years, inquisitive observers have been seeing strange growths here on one of the slopes, similar to an ark.
The Jewish chronicler Josephus, who lived in the first century BC, wrote: “One part of the ship can still be found today in Armenia. There people collect resin to make amulets...”
Subsequently, Marco Polo also spoke about the ark on the slope: “You should know that in this country, Armenia, on the top high mountain Noah’s Ark rests, covered with eternal snow, and no one can climb there, to the top, especially since the snow never melts, and new snowfalls add to the thickness of the snow cover.”
If you use your imagination, you can really see the stern and bow of a huge ship in these protrusions.
Photo source: YouTubeIs it possible?
“360” decided to ask an expert whether it would be possible in this case to discover the remains of the biblical ship in Russia? And can they be found anywhere at all? The reaction of the archaeologist, Doctor of Historical Sciences, corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute, head of the Phanagorian expedition Vladimir Kuznetsov was unambiguous. The interlocutor of “360” did not believe that this news was not a hoax. He called the legend of Noah's Ark nothing more than a myth, and advised not to believe people who claim to have found it.
“This is absolutely unrealistic, since it is a myth created as a result of the endless floods that occurred in Mesopotamia - between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Don’t believe anything: I can tell you, as a professional historian, that, unfortunately or fortunately, this is impossible,” said the archaeologist.
According to Kuznetsov, an amateur historian could have found some kind of crypt, which are scattered in large quantities throughout the settlement.
“He could not and did not find any ark. This is all fiction, especially since he (Marat Aslakhanov - approx.) is not a professional, but who knows what. Don't believe any of this. Another thing is what exactly he found, you have to go and see. But the fact that this is not Noah’s Ark is one hundred percent. There are a lot of all sorts of antiquities there, I could have found something - some kind of crypt, for example, or something else,” the expert concluded.
The mystery of Noah's Ark has been attracting not only theologians, but also scientists for many years. Both among those and among others there are enough people who dream of proving that the Ship, thanks to which humanity was saved from the Great Flood, is not a myth. Until now, researchers on the topic assumed that the Ark should be looked for on Mount Ararat, where, according to the Bible, it landed. However, none of the expeditions even 50 percent confirmed the existence of the Ark, despite the fact that many of its supposed fragments were found, as well as the outline of the vessel itself on Mount Ararat. Therefore, hypotheses about his whereabouts continue to appear.
In the Chechen Republic, the topic of the Ark was taken up by local seeker Marat Makazho - after he found strange fossils on the Sadoy-Lam mountain of the republic.
While walking, I noticed layers of rock protruding from the mountain, similar in texture to logs, he recalls. - The stones fit together evenly and tightly, like beams in a ship. I did not find any admixtures of local clay in the stones themselves; they looked man-made.
Photo: Marat Macajo claims that these fossils were once the logs of the Ark. / @ kp.ru
The dimensions of the fossils, as well as the footage from a quadcopter, which made it possible to see that the mountain has an outline big ship, prompted Marat to think that this might not be just a ship.
The dimensions of the hill are quite suitable for the dimensions of the Ark described in Scripture, argues Marat. “I started asking the elders living near Mount Sadoi Lam. And they said that during the construction of the mosque almost 100 years ago, two giant wooden beams were found on a high plateau. According to them, the tree seemed to come out of nowhere. The beams were so large that no one could lift them - they dragged them with difficulty, and now our mosque stands on them. Other residents with whom I spoke recall many strange and even mystical stories associated with Mt.
However, Marat still cannot convince archaeologists to start excavations:
They shrug their shoulders and do not believe in the very possibility of finding the mythical, as they say, Ark.
Marat's hope was given by an expedition of the Russian Geographical Society, which plans to go to Chechnya and study the fossils in more detail. In the meantime, the “discoverer” of the Ark is excavating himself with the help of his like-minded people and is trying to attract specialists to the topic by publishing videos of his observations on the Internet. We asked Professor, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences and Chief Researcher of the Geological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Trifonov to look at one of these records.
“It’s more like limestone deposits, which have their own special origin in the Caucasus,” he commented. - These structures were formed at the bottom of the Tethys Ocean, which existed on the site of the North Caucasus millions of years ago. Such artifacts rarely end up this high, but due to the movement of tectonic plates, this is quite possible and most likely. Visually, it may resemble wood, but due to exposure to the environment, it can weather and take on a surprising shape.
As far as I know, there have been several similar cases. All of them have a distinctive feature: people see something visually similar to the remains of an ancient ship. The two most striking cases were recorded in Turkey, directly at the foot of and not far from Ararat. In one case, it was sediment that had formed relatively recently. They acquired their shape as a result of external influences, that is, washing and weathering. However, their structure was too strikingly different from petrified wood, which is most often quartzed (partially transformed into quartz - Ed.), and almost never remains soft, like the same limestone. In the second case, the structure was solid, these were quite old rocks that even aroused the interest of scientists. A group of geophysicists from Japan studied this formation and conducted experiments, but were unable to provide strong evidence.
How many times has the Ark been found?
Attempts to find the Ark have been made since around the 4th century AD. According to biblical legend, he was supposed to stop on the slope of Mount Ararat. There are several other areas that are considered to be its potential location. One of the main places, according to seekers, is the so-called Ararat anomaly - the “contours of a ship” protruding from the snow on the northwestern slope of Ararat. Scientists explain its formation by natural causes, but research on the site is difficult, since the area is a military closed zone in the area of the Armenian-Turkish border.
Photo: Alleged remains of Noah's Ark near Mount Ararat in Turkey / Mfikretyilmaz - own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org
1. One of those who The one who “found” the Ark was Russian military pilot Vladimir Roskovitsky, who, during World War I, while flying over Mount Ararat, saw what he called a “lying large vessel.” The pilot wrote a report about what he saw, and in 1917 Russia allegedly even sent an expedition there, which took several photographs of the Ark, but during the revolution the report on the expedition disappeared. Later, other pilots, in particular the Turk Durupinar in 1957, took photographs of a strange outline similar to a ship near Mount Ararat. Durupinar's photograph even ended up in Life magazine and became the reason for further expeditions, each of which announced the discovery of the Ark.
Photo: Turk Durupinar in 1957 took a photograph from an airplane of a strange outline similar to a ship near Mount Ararat
2. In 1955, the French researcher Fernand Navarra brought from Ararat the remains of a board that, according to him, was broken off from the wooden frame of the Ark. Some of the studies partially confirmed the age of the tree at 5,000 years, but all these conclusions were very subjective.
3. A joint Turkish-Hong Kong expedition to Mount Ararat in 2010 made a statement that they found Noah’s Ark at an altitude of 4000 meters frozen into a glacier and even entered some rooms inside the Ark, taking videos and photographs. However, there is a version that all this filming was edited to create a world sensation. Professional archaeologists do not take the claims of the Ark seekers seriously, considering all their discoveries to be a figment of the imagination.
In Chechnya, enthusiasts and scientists continue to explore Noah’s Ark on Mount Sadoi-Lam in the Cheberloevsky district of the republic. Three years ago, a lonely local resident, Marat Makazho, found here an amazing formation of layered limestones, surprisingly similar to wooden beams.
I was just walking through the alpine meadows in the mountains, a little above Lake Kezenoyam. I admired the beauty of nature and explored the area. The strange elevation above the plateau aroused my interest. From there it was very nice to admire the surroundings, I often came to just sit there. Then he began to look at the stones and noticed that they were very even, smooth and beautiful in this place. It’s as if they were specially tailored to each other. I became interested in their origin, without completely understanding what I was dealing with, simply out of curiosity. This is how this story began,” Marat told Komsomolskaya Pravda.
The man spent the next year in libraries, researching historical sources and geological manuals. Who could grind limestone so delicately? For what? And what kind of man-made structure could be located on a plateau high in the mountains?
The insight came with the thought that it might not be a stone at all, but petrified wood. That's when I first thought about the Ark. At first I was skeptical about this,” says Marat. - I often went to the mountains and explored. But the deeper I studied the topic, the less doubts remained. The final conviction came when I saw something that I can’t call anything other than familiar. It was similar to the “phenomenon” from canonical legends: slightly gloomy weather, the sky overcast with clouds. I walk to the plateau in thought. And then a ray of bright light bursting out from behind the clouds falls on the place that we now call the “gates of the Ark”!
Marat spent another year studying theological literature and the history of the search for the Ark. Of course, most clerics claimed that the ancient ship of the prophet stopped on Mount Ararat. But long searches and scientific research yielded nothing. Formations truly similar to the ship were never found, and archaeologists and geologists, not finding the skeleton on the mountain, moved to other areas of Turkey. Another part of Islamic scholars indicates that the Ark could have stopped in another place.
According to one of the widespread theories put forward by Islamic scholars, the ship could have sailed further north and run aground in the Caucasus Mountains, the Mufti of the Chechen Republic Salakh Mezhiev explained to Komsomolskaya Pravda. - Moreover, here, in the North Caucasus, there are people who bear the name of the prophet. In Arabic, Noah is called Nuh, or Noh. And true Vainakhs know that the real name of the Chechen people is Nokhchi. That is, in other words, the sons of Noch.
The coincidences amazed Marat. And two years later he publicly said that he had found Noah’s Ark. An initiative group immediately gathered around him; enthusiasts, having looked at the phenomenon with their own eyes, without regret invested their own funds in its study, and soon excavations began.
The unique natural object amazed even scientists. They suggested that multi-layered limestones were formed under enormous water pressure. Most likely - at the bottom of the Tethys Ocean, which existed millions of years ago in the North Caucasus. But the origin of the “nails” that dot the limestone layers is more difficult to explain.
An expedition from the Crimean branch of the Russian Geographical Society and specialists from the Central Research Institute of Geology of Nonmetallic Minerals came to us. The scientists, over a glass of beer, honestly said that they were amazed by some of the details, and education in the mountains of Chechnya is really worthy of study, shares Marat Makazho. - But the analysis of limestone samples did not give positive results for us. Therefore, we cannot yet announce the find to the whole world. We continue excavations.
At the same time, the scientists themselves speak of the Chechen enthusiast with great warmth and respect his beliefs.
Marat is a very interesting, smart person. He doesn’t look at all like a local madman who composed a beautiful legend and believed in it, says geologist and speleologist Gennady Samokhin, who heads the expedition of the Crimean branch of the Russian Geographical Society. - As a scientist, I, of course, cannot seriously assume that this is the mythical Noah’s Ark. But the object he discovered is indeed extremely interesting and deserves detailed study. I sincerely wish him luck in his research.
Enthusiasts have to work very carefully - they are afraid of damaging the shrine. Now they have managed to go 25 meters deep into the limestone. Members of the initiative group are confident that they will find voids inside - the interior of the legendary ship. And they hope that this discovery will prove to all skeptics that Noah’s Ark is really in Chechnya.
The most important test for the initiative group was the visit of representatives of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Chechnya. After him, the Muftiate of the republic has no doubt about the authenticity of the Ark.
After examining the object by our representatives, I can confidently say that Noah’s Ark is in Chechnya,” said the Mufti of the Chechen Republic Salakh Mezhiev. - This is our position. May Allah grant that studies of the skeleton found in the mountains finally confirm this! We believe and hope that this will happen soon.
The mystery of this artifact has been attracting researchers for many years. Among theologians and real scientists there are many who are trying to prove that this ship, thanks to which it was possible to escape from the Great Flood, really existed. Numerous expeditions and searches around the world regularly produce “evidence” - and now the Chechen seeker Marat Makazho claims to have found the notorious Ark.
Until recently, numerous researchers argued that the mysterious Ark should be looked for on Mount Ararat. However, none of the expeditions undertaken there, despite the alleged fragments of the ship found, even confirmed its existence by 50%. Therefore, hypotheses about its location appear every year and seekers go on new expeditions.
Chechen researcher Marat Makazho became interested in the topic of the Ark after strange fossils were found on Mount Sadoy-Lam in the Republic of Chechnya.
Their size, as well as footage from a quadcopter, made it possible to see that what was previously mistaken for a mountain could be a huge ship.
Marat says:“The dimensions of the hill are quite suitable for the dimensions of the Ark described in Scripture. I started asking the elders living near Mount Sadoi Lam. And they said that during the construction of the mosque almost 100 years ago, two giant wooden beams were found on a high plateau. According to them, the tree seemed to come out of nowhere. The beams were so large that no one could lift them; they dragged them with difficulty, and now our mosque stands on them. Other residents with whom I spoke recall many strange and even mystical stories associated with the mountain.”
In the future, a more detailed study of this mountain is planned - an expedition of the Russian Geographical Society will go to Chechnya. In the meantime, correspondents of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper asked Vladimir Trifonov, professor, doctor of geological and mineralogical sciences and chief researcher at the Geological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, to comment on the video:
- This is more like limestone deposits, which have their own special origin in the Caucasus. These structures formed at the bottom of the Tethys Ocean, which existed in the North Caucasus millions of years ago. Such artifacts rarely end up this high, but due to the movement of tectonic plates, this is quite possible and most likely. Visually, it may resemble wood, but due to exposure to the environment, it can weather and take on a surprising shape.
Whether this is actually true remains to be determined by specialists.
