Ankara

A mysterious boat-shaped formation nestled more than a mile up a mountain in eastern Turkey has drawn attention away from the craggy slopes of nearby Mount Ararat, where the Bible says Noah's Ark came to rest.

Several American explorers have said the formation, on a mountain 14 miles south of Mount Ararat near the Soviet border, could be the legendary ark and should be dug out.

Explorers have long searched for the ark on the high slopes of Mount Ararat, Turkey's tallest mountain at 17,820 feet, where the biblical account of the Great Flood places it.

Then in 1957, Turkish air force pilots spotted the boat-shaped formation in Agri province while flying overhead.

The government did not pursue the sighting, however. Then entire area, including Mount Ararat, was off limits to foreigners because of Soviet complaints that explorers included U.S. agents who spied on Soviet border fortifications.

When the government lifted the ban in 1982, fundamentalist Christians and mountain climbers rushed to the area.

In 1984, a team from International Expeditions, based in Los Angeles, visited the area near the village of Uzengili where the boat-shaped formation had been spotted.

Marvin Steffins, who led the expedition, said then that the team found the ark. But the group did not return to substantiate the claim.

Last year another team, led by Ron Wyatt of Madison, Tenn., climbed to the spot, at the 6385-foot level, and made an identical claim.

"The boat is there, it is only a matter of digging it up," Wyatt said at the time.

David Fasold, a marine surveyor from Stuart, Fla., who was with the Wyatt expedition, returned this year. He said in an interview that he was awaiting Turkish permission to excavate the 11,000-square-foot area.

That permission may never come. The governor of Agri province, where both the boat-shaped formation and Mount Ararat are located, has said only Turks will be allowed to excavate the area.

Governor Kutlu Aktas said he has invited Turkish geologists and archeologists to study the formation and, if necessary, dig it out to determine the truth.

Fasold said the object is shaped like a reed boat, stern up, and is covered with hardened soil. He said it is nestled on the side of a hill close to a large rock formation.

Fasold claims a metal detector indicated there was iron at regular 16-inch intervals along the object, possibly showing nails in the boat.

The book of Genesis says Noah's Ark washed up on the mountains of Ararat after the great deluge. The Moslem holy book, the Koran, says the boat came to rest on Judi, a Turkish mountain 200 miles southeast of Ararat.

"As a marine surveyor, the first time I saw the formation I said to myself, `that's a shipwreck,' " Fasold said.

He said the formation's measurements - 515 feet long and 137 feet wide - also correspond roughly to those given in the Bible for the ark.

The Bible says the ark was 300 cubits long and 50 cubits wide. A cubit, an ancient form of measurement, is thought to have been 18 to 22 inches. That would make the ark at least 450 feet long.

Associated Press