Evidence that Noah’s Ark Landed on a Mountain 17 Miles South of Ararat
In Shemitic (from Noah’s son, Shem), the place where Noah dwelt was also called Dilmun which means “the abode of the dangling (dried-up),” a fitting epithet for those left high and dry on the mountain after the world-wide Flood. Both names, Mesha and Dilmun, attest to Noah’s salvation from the Flood at this location.
From Literature
The Epic of Gilgamesh refers to the “wall of heaven” on Mount Mesha. You can see that wall, in the form of escarpment cliffs, in the photos and in David Deal’s drawing.
Mesha-Naxuan was the very first city of our post-Flood civilization, built by Noah and his sons and their sons, from materials scavenged from the ark, long lost to the world but mentioned in many historical accounts.
In a footnote in Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus, translator William Whiston says that Noah’s landing and dwelling spot was called “Naxuan, the place of the first descent.” Here he quoted Armenian historian, Moses of Chronensis. This phrase “place of first descent,” implies a second descent, and that is exactly what the evidence on the mountain itself is telling us.
The city of Mesha-Naxuan was the first “city” built by the Flood survivors and their descendants. Then from an earthquake and rain, the ark slid down 1,200 feet (365m) to its second and final resting place, leaving what is now a one-acre elliptical 538-foot-long (164 m) ship’s hull impression at 6,200 feet (1890 m).
Most or all of Noah’s offspring abandoned Mesha-Naxuan and built a new settlement where the ark came to rest. This second town built after the Flood was originally called Seron because of the Tsar or sharp out-cropping that penetrated and arrested the downhill slide of the ark hull remains. The “sar” part of the name remained in the later place names: Ni-sar and Na-sar. The Babylonians referred to the town as Nisir.
Examining the Site
While mountain adventurers still climb Ararat, David Deal and a small unconnected group of other explorers began to realize the implications of this site at Mashur Dag, having seen the evidence for what it is. The ark mold impression is compelling as a stand-alone feature.
The remnants of many ancient habitations discovered by Deal in 1996-1997 at the upper landing site (Mesha-Naxuan) and the “wall of heaven” written of in the Epic of Gilgamesh convincingly add to the evidence. Furthermore, the connected meanings of the various place-names on the mountain provide us with a unifying clarity. As the entire mountain location is now becoming known and understood, it is impossible to conceive of the ark landing anywhere else, especially on a massive volcano.
Tracing the Goddess
David Deal’s discovery relates directly to the depiction of a key, but relatively unrecognized Genesis woman in ancient art. In the early post-Flood world, the ancients revered Naamah, the last woman mentioned in the line of Cain (Genesis 4:22), who came through the Flood as Ham’s wife, and who then instigated the abandonment of God and the return to the serpent’s “enlightenment,” and the exaltation of man as the measure of all things.
A most revealing 782-page book by thorough and brilliant secular scholars Anne Baring and Jules Cashford, The Myth of the Goddess , traces almost all of the goddesses of the ancient Near-eastern and Mediterranean world back to a single figure, the Sumerian Nammu—a minor linguistic variation of Naamah. I would re-title their book “The Memory of the Adored Woman” because that’s what it’s really all about.
After God confounded the one language into many at the tower of Babel, mankind adored Naamah by many titles including: Lama, Astarte, Ishtar, Hathor, Isis, Maat, Artemis, Inanna, Asherah, and ultimately in her most glorious idolization as the great Greek goddess Athena.