Noah's Ark

Mysterious evidence on Mt. Ararat could be the long-lost remains of Noah's Ark, and using cutting-edge archaeological methods, experts investigate if these discoveries are hard proof of the Biblical legend.

In 1948, a British pilot serving in Iraq acquired a clay tablet with an intriguing, 3,700 year-old inscription. The ancient writing tells the story of how the god Enki warns a Sumerian king named Atram-Hasis of a future flood that will destroy mankind. Enki gives him instructions for building a boat to save his family and livestock. If that sounds like a familiar tale, it's because this was one of several ancient flood traditions that, centuries later, would inspire the biblical story of Noah.

Whether she’s marvelling at the Northern Lights or perspiring gently as she sails along the River Nile, Joanna Lumley is always a pleasant travelling companion, charming everyone she meets. She’s exploring the origins of the ancient tale about Noah and the Ark, a story that unites people and religions all over the world. It involves an epic journey from the slopes of Mount Ararat in Turkey to India and finally Oman as she unearths a significant number of scientific facts to back up what some dismiss as a fairy story.

Whether she’s marvelling at the Northern Lights or perspiring gently as she sails along the River Nile, Joanna Lumley is always a pleasant travelling companion, charming everyone she meets. She’s exploring the origins of the ancient tale about Noah and the Ark, a story that unites people and religions all over the world. It involves an epic journey from the slopes of Mount Ararat in Turkey to India and finally Oman as she unearths a significant number of scientific facts to back up what some dismiss as a fairy story.

The story of Noah's Ark and the Great Flood is one of the most iconic and universal stories in all human history; one of the most important stories for three of the world's great religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Now, an astonishing recovery is challenging everything thought known about this Biblical legend. Dr Irving Finkel, armed with a 4000-year-old tablet, teams up with a group of maritime archaeologists and attempts to build the vessel that inspired the Biblical Ark.

According to the Bible, Noah's Ark was a world-changing engineering feat, and it took cutting-edge construction to build it. Experts use the latest tech and modern-day science to reveal if building it a second time would be just as difficult.

The story of Noah building an ark to save his family and save thousands of animals from a flood which destroys all life on earth is an epic from many people's childhoods. It's a wonderful story, found in the Bible, the Koran and the Torah. But is it in fact, real history?