Replica

Have you ever been driving down the road and seen a truck hauling a humongous yacht on its way to some fortunate buyer? Definitely a “wide load.”

You’ll never see a life-sized replica of Noah’s ark coming down the road, though. It’s FAR too huge. Better to build it in place, and that’s what the Answers in Genesis people did in Kentucky. And they built the Ark Encounter about forty-five minutes from their Creation Museum, which enables a single trip to Kentucky–about a ten-hour trip for us, including stops–to cover two extremely interesting and worthwhile visits.

The parking lot at the Ark Encounter may not be as large as Disneyland’s, but it’s big. After buying tickets–we got ours online–visitors ride any of a number of buses to the site of the ark itself. What looked small at a distance looked humongous close up. Especially comparing it with the size of the people walking towards the entrance.

Every aspect of life aboard the ark has been carefully thought out and studied. Although the Bible doesn’t give specifics about how to cage and care for two of every kind of animal, how to provide food for what was then an unknown period of time, how to provide adequate lighting and air circulation inside–these are just some of the needs the designers of this ark had to figure out a reasonable solution for. One that would’ve been doable during biblical days.

A number of displays deal with the geological “proof” that the Great Flood actually happened, and evidence is presented to show that the earth is millions of years younger than most scientists believe. I can’t over-emphasize that the story of the ark is a study of how science and religion can work together when viewed from the proper perspective.

Let me share a few pictures and comments about the kinds of things visitors see at the Ark Encounter.

I said it’s big. It’s HUGE.

Exhibits show the types of cages and pens that might have been used in Noah’s ark; a number show early species of various animal types:

Various type of things needed to be stored on the ark: food (even food for picky eaters like koalas), lamp oil, water, and who knows what else

Huge ramps connected the decks; the single door near the top had to be big enough to accommodate the largest animals

The ark contains all kinds of exhibits

Life-sized exhibits of living quarters and of Noah and his family at work and prayer

Separate from the ark itself is an amazing fast-food restaurant, a petting zoo, and camel and donkey rides

No way can I adequately represent the feel of visiting the Ark Encounter, but I hope these pictures will help you appreciate what a tremendous achievement this replica represents. And perhaps make you want to visit it yourself someday.

If you have questions about the ark or about anything else related to our trip, please leave a comment.

NOTE: Various people have complained about not being able to find or leave comments. Go all the way to the bottom of this post, beneath my “Best regards, Roger.” On the very bottom line of that last section just above the previous post you’ll see “Leave a Comment” if yours will be the first or “X Comments,” where X denotes the number of existing comments.

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Best regards,
Roger