BIBLICAL FIND
Mystery of REAL Noah’s Ark flood could be solved thanks to ancient ‘ghostly’ Black Sea shipwreck graveyard
A GHOSTLY graveyard containing dozens of shipwrecks could help solve a longstanding mystery about the Bible.
The mysterious ancient site thousands of feet below the Black Sea promises to shed light the origin of the tale of Noah's Ark, according to scientists.
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Sat just off the coast of Bulgaria, near the town of Nessebar, the graveyard contains 60 perfectly preserved vessels dating back as far as 400 BC.
Researchers came across the eerie wrecks in 2016 while mapping the sea floor between 1,000ft and almost 6,000ft below the surface.
At those depths there is so little oxygen that the timbers hardly decay - meaning wooden structures and even intricate carvings that are many hundreds of years old are still intact.
Research on the ships is ongoing, though scientists aren't stopping there.
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According to the , work on the area could help solve a mystery surrounding the Biblical flood depicted in Noah's Ark.
Some scholars believe the apocalyptic flood, which according to the Bible was sent by God to wipe out corruption and violence in the world, originated in the Black Sea 7,600 years ago.
In the 2000 book Noah's Flood by William Ryan and Walter Pitman, marine geologists claimed they'd found the origin of the great flood that legend has it tore through ancient civilisations bordering the Mediterranean and Black Sea.
According to Ryan and Pitman, about 20,000 years ago, what is now the Black Sea was a small freshwater lake cut off from the Mediterranean by a giant land bridge.
According to the Noah's flood theory – which is not backed by scientific evidence – this bridge began to decay at the end of the last Ice Age.
Melting polar ice caps caused the waters of the Mediterranean to rise, triggering a massive seawater deluge 200 times stronger than Niagara Falls.
The Black Sea exploded in size, flooding an area around the size of Ireland within months, according to estimates.
In 2000, experts found what they said was the Black Sea's pre-flood shoreline, including buildings of the ancient civilisations that lived there, 12 miles off the Turkish Black Sea coast.
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By studying underwater soil samples near the Nessebar shipwrecks, scientists hope to shed fresh light on the Noah's flood theory.
They hope to uncover whether waters really did flood into the Black Sea at a catastrophic pace thousands of years ago.
For the record, the team, from the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project (MAP), don't believe the flooding happened all at once, as is described in the Bible.
"The geophysicists and other specialists from the oceanographic centre in Southampton, say there’s no evidence to support this theory," maritime researcher Dr Zdravka Georgieva said.
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"What we collected doesn’t prove this catastrophic flood. Data shows a more likely gradual sea level rising."
Scientists refer to the eerie shipwreck graveyard as the "dead zone", where 60 ships from the time of Alexander the Great through to the 19th Century remain untouched by time.
All manner of wrecks from a 17th Century Cossack raiding fleet to Roman trading vessels were frozen in time there.
In fact, the oldest intact shipwreck was discovered 2km down in the dead zone in 2017 — a Greek trading ship dated to 400BC, over 2,400 years ago.
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Experts found the spot while mapping the seabed with sonar and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) worth £6million each.
They spent a month on board the Stril Explorer to capture their incredible find in photos and videos.
The team then made 3D models of the 60 wrecks, spread out over 700 square miles, by digitally stitching the images together.
Work on the fascinating site continues.
A brief history of Ancient Greece
Here's what you need to know...
- The powerful Ancient Greek civilisation is generally regarded as emerging into the world in the 8th century BC
- They ruled over a vast part of the world for centuries and this only ended when Greece fell to the Romans in 146 BC
- The Ancient Greek Empire is well known for being sophisticated and for its connection to philosophers, artists, poets and other geniuses that still impact the world today
- It is also regarded as the time in which the concept of a city-state was officially established
- The Ancient Greeks invented the Olympics and their gods and impressive architecture are widely discussed and studied throughout the world
- Before them came Mycenaean Greece, which was the last stage of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece and lasted from approximately 1600–1100 BC
- Mycenaen Greece perished with the Bronze Age but represents the first mainland civilisation in Greece and did influence the culture and innovations of the Ancient Greek Empire
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In other news, the world's oldest shipwreck is a Greek "Odysseus" vessel dating back 2,400 years.
A mysterious 500-year-old shipwreck was found in almost perfect condition at the bottom of the icy Baltic Sea in July.
And, an eerie destroyed temple and treasure-laden ships were found in the "Egyptian Atlantis" earlier this year.
Do you believe in the Noah's Ark story? Let us know in the comments!
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