this is what they say or the remains to the Ark of prophet Noah
behind me is Iran. That's the border right there and I am in eastern Turkey close to the
city called Dogubeyazit and in this video we'll explore this fascinating ancient part of the world
so it's 2 30 p.m and I am on the very eastern end of Turkey and I’m trying to hitchhike to
this city called Gerbalek because there are no buses going there. Let's see if this works out
so I found some sweet guys who are giving me a ride to the city
and then they just stopped on the side because we're right next to
mount Ararat which is the biggest mountain in Turkey and the most famous one for sure
not entirely sure what's going on but looks like we're stopping for fruits here
the people in the car, they are this Kurdish (family) and they brought me to this place
and we had a lot of watermelons. They forced me to eat watermelons and other fruits
and now the guy in front of me is showing me where they grow their fruits
what's your name? huh? Ahmed. Ahmed.
I just came to the border and I was expecting a little bit of a small town here with
people selling contraband stuff from Iran but that doesn't seem to be the case because
all I have behind me is the border crossing and nothing else there and I can't really film there
Cops told me not to. So I was trying to hitchhike back and I couldn't really find a ride because
there's not a lot of cars at the border so I just found a taxi because it's getting late and I want
to get to Ishak Pasha palace. With me is Saleem. I met him at the border. He's from Dogubeyazit
okay so right now I’m in Ishak Pasha palace which is probably one of the most important
architectural sites in this whole region. It's a very very interesting place because
it looks like ottoman architecture but it's also got a lot of Middle Eastern
or especially Iranian influences on it and that's very evident in the arches and the domes that
you see here. Y ou don't really see that in any other ottoman palace at least that I’ve been to
so the construction of this palace was started around 1685 by the Kurdish chiefs that ruled
this area and it was finished around a hundred years later by another Kurdish chief and an
ottoman general named Ishak pasha after whom this palace was named. It was used for a fort
for a long time after that. During world war one even the Russians used this as a military fort
and because of that it suffered a lot of damage from gunfire during the war
and then even after the war up until 1937 this place was still used as a military fort. Right now
it's more of a museum but it's definitely worth the visit. S o obviously the interior architecture
of the palace is very cool and very unique but the best view for me is not from inside
but from outside the palace where you can see the whole palace against the backdrop of this
empty wide landscape of the Middle East and it looks especially cool during sunset time
today I’m gonna go to this... so today I’m gonna go to the site whose importance is of
biblical proportions but for that I gotta head over 30 kilometers southeast of the city that way
so right now I’m at the visitor center of the Noah's Ark national park in eastern Turkey right
next to Iran and this place right in front of me is what a lot of people believe are the remains
of prophet Noah's Ark. So let me tell you the full story. In 1959 a Turkish army officer was on an
air force reconnaissance mission for NATO in this part of Turkey and he noticed this structure that
looked very interesting and looked like a ship and for a long time people had sort of believed
that the resting point of Noah's Ark was somewhere in this region and that's because Christians have
traditionally said that the resting place of Noah's ark is somewhere in the mountains
of Ararat according to the bible and this place isn't too far from mount Ararat that we saw at the
start of the video so a lot of people started doing expeditions here in the 60s and the 70s
to confirm whether this was indeed what they believed was Noah's ark but then in the 80s
this guy came along named David Fasold who sort of changed the game. He was a US Merchant Marine
officer and a salvage expert and he came out on an expedition here. So he brought a radar to look
at what's inside it and he said he found an iron structure that's about the same size as Noah's ark
was supposed to be in the bible. He also claimed that the locals around this region called one
of the peaks of these mountains to be al-judi He linked that to mount Judi which according to the
Quran is also supposed to be the resting place of Noah's ark. Even more interestingly David Fasold
famously found these stones which were these huge upright stones with holes in them that kind
of look like drogues which are anchors used in ancient ships and a lot of these stones had been
found in the Mediterranean and the Nile as well and these were basically stones used as anchors
to sort of keep a ship or arc stable during a large storm. So after he went on that expedition
he wrote a book called The Ark of Noah in 1989 which was pretty popular and it
started a lot more expeditions into this area for people trying to confirm whether this is indeed
Noah's ark or even a ship. So Turkey turned this place into Noah's Ark National Park
and a lot of people believe this is indeed the Ark of Prophet Noah but
that's not what everyone believes. That's not what a lot of geologists believe. That's not even
what a lot of creationists or religious people believe. They just think it's a scam and this is
probably not a ship and that even if this was a ship this can't be the Ark of prophet Noah because
it's supposed to be somewhere else according to religious scriptures. Now what do I believe about
all of this? From the little research that I have seen, I’m gonna go with the geologists who think
that this is just a structure that happens to look like a ship and it's a very interesting structure
and the landscape around here is pretty cool so this place is definitely worth a visit
but to me I don't think this is Noah's ark. If you think otherwise and if I don't
know anything feel free to correct me in the comments but to me that's probably not a ship
So I am at the Visitor's center with Ahmed
and Mehmet. They gave me chai. Think I am gonna head back now
okay so the view on the way down from this site is actually even better than the views on the way up
It's pretty beautiful. So if you like this video don't forget to hit the like button
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I’ll catch you guys on the next one most probably from somewhere else in Turkey