This photo of a boat-shaped formation in Turkey near Mount Ararat has been claimed to be Noah's Ark. If you know the Bible account, you will know that Noah's Ark was the huge boat used to protect Noah and his family during the year-long flood that covered the whole earth. It landed in the mountains of Ararat, in extreme eastern Turkey.

However, this is not the real Noah’s Ark, the real Ark landed on “the mountains of Ararat.” Mount Ararat consists of two mountains, or peaks, called Greater Ararat and Lesser Ararat. This boat-shaped formation is on neither of those mountains. The shape of this formation does look like it could be a fossilized boat, but it does not fit the dimensions of Noah's Ark that are given in the Bible (length six times its width). This formation's out of proportion width is particularly wrong.

Bible-believing geologists have found it to be made of different types of rock. If it was the Ark it would have fossilized wood in it, but it has only basalt (a type of volcanic rock). The rock has a streamlined, pointed shape but the real Ark was squared off at each end, because it only had to float and this was the most stable shape. Being merely a vessel for survival, pointed ends would not be as practical. The Turkish Air Force released a photo showing three similar “arks” in the area. Supporters of the one pictured above chose it only because its length roughly matches the real Ark's length, but they ignore the smaller, similar geological formations. All these formations seem to have formed when volcanic material flowed down the mountain.