And...he built it in Williamstown, Kentucky, less than 1/2 hour drive from our home!! How convenient is that?
It opened in July and we have wanted to take the tour. We found our opportunity October 31st. A quick drive and there we were...turning into the parking lot and no Ark in site. How can one have an "Ark Encounter" without an Ark in site? This attraction was strategically placed so you can't see it from I-64 or from the very brief time you spend after the exit off I-64 to get to the entrance to the parking lot. When you get in the parking lot area you have to get into the lot before you even catch a distant glimpse of the Ark. This was definitely built in a location that one would have to pay to see the Ark to even get a quick picture of it. So, into the parking lot and to the counter to pay our admission. You can see the Ark from there quite a distance away. There are big buses one is loaded on to take you from the parking lot to the Ark Encounter. Nice little drive and then...there it it...in all its magnificent, gigantic beauty. Simply AWESOME!
This display was along the ramp you walk that goes through the center of the Ark. The ramp in used to walk up floor by floor from the bottom to the top and then to walk back down from the top to the bottom floor by floor. This was actually before you get to the first floor of the Ark. Since we had just done two chili cook-offs, I assured Claude this big kettle was Noah's entry in their chili cook-off. He was amused.
When you get to the Deck One, there is this cutaway section showing the wall construction between the inside and outside of the Ark. The Ark itself is 510 feet long, 85 feet wide, and 51 feet high. The Ark has 3.3 million board feet of lumber. The Ark is the biggest timber-frame structure in the world.
After going through the cut in the wall of the Ark, you see this beautiful carving. I can't remember what it said but it is a beautiful piece of artwork. You tour the First Deck of the Ark first. Order in all things! The title for the First Deck is "The Flood Begins". This deck has an exhibit of Noah and his family praying at the start of the Flood complete with the sound of thunder and flashes of lightning, a variety of animal exhibits showing all types of creatures and how many of each were brought on board.
These huge timbers are situated from top to bottom along the center of the Ark.
Claude is standing outside some of the pens for small animals. Please note the clay container and the wood container attached to the front of each pen. The clay would have dispensed water as needed and the wood would have dispensed food as needed. I am also sure that God would have commanded Noah to put an Exit sign in appropriate locations through the Ark for safety purposes. I mean, there were a lot of animals to leave that Ark when the time came and an Exit sign would have been very handy to have.
This is Claude near some racks filled with storage containers. Can you believe all the pots and containers match. How cool would that be? My dishes are a hodge podge of all kinds of things and I just this last week replaced all my plastic storage containers so they match. And I've been married 46 years.
This is the display of Noah and his family praying. I admit I jumped a little every time that thunder came followed by the flash of lightning.
These containers would have held reptiles that lived with lots of water. The clay pots have a cloth stretched and tied over them so water could be pours through it into the container. In the bottom of the container was a plug that could be pulled to drain old water out. I'm sure they didn't have Noah's architectural drawings but whoever thought this through and reasoned out what might have been should get kudos for their hard work and effort.
I have at least four pictures like this. Poor Claude would walk and read everything and still have to find a spot and wait for me to catch up. I took a picture each time I found him sitting or standing waiting patiently for me to take my pictorial history of our adventure. We were also fortunate in the few people who were touring that day. Don't get me wrong, there were lots of people. But this is one HUGE vessel and it was not at all filled to capacity. So it made picture taking a lot neater with fewer people to be in the pictures.
On up the ramp we went to Deck Two. Deck Two is titled "Technology of the Ark". There are depictions of the Pre-Flood World and exhibits detailing with how Noah's family could have maintained the Ark and cared for thousands of animals during the Flood.
The animals pens on Deck Two were for larger animals.
Another of poor Claude waiting for Sandi.
The next four pictures are of people caring for the animals on the Ark. I liked the clever walkways above these larger pens. Food could be poured down the funnels into the pens.
Lots of information was given about Noah taking 'kinds' of animals. Not species of animals but kinds which would be a smaller numbers than one of every species. The idea was also presented that Noah started with young animals which would grow over the time they were in the Ark. Less food would have been needed. Just thoughts but interesting nonetheless.
This deck had a suggested area with things they would have brought with them. This room was constructed to house scrolls and a few trinkets they may have kept.
There may have been a wood working shop to maintain all the wooden things on the Ark.
And there may have been a metal working shop to maintain the metal things on the Ark.
Then we are on to Deck 3. There were a lot of Amish people touring ahead of us. It occurred to me after we got home that they were all husband and wife. And...all the men were in electric carts while the women were all walking. I think this means Amish men wear out faster than Amish women...but I could be all wrong about that as well. Once again, I caught up to Claude and he was waiting with the Amish to go to Deck 3. They pulled out ahead of us and we had an Amish parade of sorts with the men in their electric carts and the ladies walking beside. I wonder if that is how Claude and I will travel as we age. Still get out and about and he'll ride in a cart and I'll walk beside him. Maybe we'll even be holding hands. Now, that is a nice image.
Down the center of the Ark. Fascinating to see the construction and the vastness of the Ark.
Claude was totally in awe of this construction. Here he is inspecting one of the many huge timbers supporting the interior top to bottom.
Deck 3 is titled "After the Flood". It has the possible living quarters of the Noah family. A room for each couple, a kitchen area, a place where fresh plants might have grown, and a room with bird cages.
Deck Three also has displays of the construction of the Tower of Babel, the different Ark stories from lots of different cultures (the orange map has brown depictions of what each of these cultures Arks would have looked like), a monument to the Rainbow Covenant made by God that he would not send another flood to cover the earth and a collection of scriptures. I'm only posting two pictures of scriptures. The first is a real Torah Scroll and the second is a Polyglot Bible Leaf from London in 1655. The Polyglot is really cool because it had the same passage of scripture in several different languages and was used to deeply study and compare the different wordings in scriptures. I find this fascinating.
Time to descend those center ramps. As we got to the First Deck again, I was amazed to find Noah built a vending area in the Ark. That is one clever man!
We visited the gift shop. You have to go through it to get out of the Ark. We watched them making fudge and bought me a beautiful basket made in Ghana.
There is a nice restaurant with reasonably priced, good food called Emzara's Kitchen. Emzara is Moses wife's name. I don't know how they knew that but that was the name they gave her. I had an excellent veggie wrap.
Then we walked down a hill to Ararat Ridge Zoo. This is a small zoo but it does boast a place to ride donkeys (for a fee) and a place to ride camels (for a fee). We observed but did not ride either. We road camels in Egypt to a Nubian village. That is the top of the camel riding experience for me. I was amused that they have a ramp that you can climb up to be at the camel's back level to get on the camel. There are two men there to help you on. They were helping a man on that was in our age bracket or maybe a little older. He was having a little trouble getting on but they helped him and he got on just fine. I reflected back to our lesson on how to get on a camel in Egypt. They had the camel sit down on the ground. You climbed on his back and there was a saddle of sorts with a handle in the front and one in the back. Once you were on you grabbed the handled and you needed to rock the way the camel was wobbling as it stood up. Quite an experience. As we walked away from this man walking in figure eights and enjoying his camel ride I reflected on how cool it was to ride across Nubian desert sand on top of that really tall camel. I felt like I was on top of the world. Loved every second of that ride. Then we walked past where the man had parked his electric cart he was using to get around the Ark Encounter. Hmmmm...That camel ride was quite a different experience for him. I truly hope he enjoyed his ride as much as Claude and I enjoyed ours.
There were lots of emus in the Ararat Ridge Zoo. Once again Claude got ahead of me. When I rounded the corner I was able to get this great shot of Claude having a moment with one of the emus. Love this picture...and my guy!
As we left the Ark Encounter, I took two more pictures to show perspective. That man in the first picture is Claude and he is 6 feet tall. Then I got one more picture of the length from the bow of the Ark to the stern. It is HUGE.
If you want to put the Ark Encounter on your bucket list, this information will help:
ArkEncounter.com is the website. There is a sister attraction about 45 minutes north called the Creation Museum. We have not toured that. You can buy tickets to both events and save a little money. They are still building on this attraction. There will be a theater built on the back side of the Ark and a Nomad Village and a Walled City will also be added. There is already a Screaming Eagle Zip Line and Aerial Adventure at the site. We opted out of those as well this time.
Claude and I both highly recommend this attraction. It was fascinating and makes you really appreciate Old Noah and his Arky, Arky!!
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