Noah... aka God's First Shipbuilder

Category: File - :Noahs Ark.jpg|thumb|250px|A painting by the American Edward Hicks (1780 - 1849), showing the animals boarding Noah's Ark two by two.

'Noahs Ark' (; ) is the vessel which, according to the Book of Genesis, was built by Noah at Gods command to save himself, his family and the world's animals from a worldwide deluge. The narrative features in a number of Abrahamic religions including Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

The Biblical account, told in the Book of Genesis 6-9, tells how God sends a great flood to destroy the earth because of man's wickedness and because the earth is corrupt. God tells Noah, a righteous man in his generation, to build a large vessel to save his family and a representation of the world's animals. God gives detailed instructions for the Ark, and after its completion, sends the animals to Noah. God then sends the Flood which rises until all the mountains are covered and every living thing died. Then "God remembered Noah," the waters abate, and dry land reappears. Noah, his family, and the animals leave the Ark, and God enters a covenant to never again send a flood to destroy the Earth.

The narrative has been subject to extensive elaborations in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, ranging from hypothetical solutions to practical problems (e.g. waste disposal and the problem of lighting the interior), through to theological interpretations (e.g. the Ark as the precursor of the church in offering salvation to mankind). Although traditionally accepted as historical, by the 19th century the discoveries of archaeologists and biblical scholars had led most people to abandon a literal interpretation of the Ark story.Plimer, Ian (1994) "Telling Lies for God: reason versus creationism" (Random House) Nevertheless, biblical literalists continue to explore the region of the mountains of Ararat, in eastern Turkey, where the Bible says the Ark came to rest.

Turkey (), known officially as the Republic of Turkey (), is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace (Rumelia) in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe. Turkey is bordered by eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest; Greece to the west; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan (the exclave of Nakhchivan) and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the southeast. The Mediterranean Sea and Cyprus are to the south; the Aegean Sea to the west; and the Black Sea is to the north.

Separating Anatolia and Thrace are the Sea of Marmara and the Turkish Straits (the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles), which are commonly reckoned to delineate the boundary between Europe and Asia, "Europe" (pp. 68-9); "Asia" (pp. 90-1): "A commonly accepted division between Asia and Europe ... is formed by the Ural Mountains, Ural River, Caspian Sea, Caucasus Mountains, and the Black Sea with its outlets, the Bosporus and Dardanelles." thereby making Turkey a country of significant geostrategic importance. Ethnic Turks form the majority of the population, followed by the Kurds. The predominant religion in Turkey is Islam. The official language is Turkish.

Turkey is the successor state to the Ottoman Empire.Full text of the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) It is a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic, whose political system was established in 1923 under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, following the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War I. Since then, Turkey has become increasingly integrated with the West through membership in organizations such as the Council of Europe, NATO, OECD, WEOG, OSCE and the G-20 major economies.

Turkey began full membership negotiations with the European Union in 2005, having been an associate member of the EEC since 1963, and having reached a customs union agreement in 1995. Turkey has also fostered close cultural, political, economic and industrial relations with the Eastern world, particularly with the rest of the Middle East and states of Central Asia, through membership in organizations such as the OIC and ECO. Turkey is classified as a developed countryCIA World Factbook by the CIA and as a regional powerStratfor: "Turkey and Russia on the Rise", by Reva Bhalla, Lauren Goodrich and Peter Zeihan. March 17, 2009.Stratfor: "The Geopolitics of Turkey", by George Friedman. July 31, 2007. by political scientists and economists worldwide.

Gopher wood or gopherwood is a term used once in the Bible, for the substance from which Noah's ark was built. Gen 6:14 states that Noah was to build the Ark of ???, gofer, more commonly gopher wood, a word not otherwise known in the Bible or in Hebrew.

Its identity has not been established with certainty. Older English translations, including the King James Version (17th century), simply leave it untranslated.

Noah (or Noe, Noyach; ; '; Armenian "Noe" or ???, Arabic: ???' ; "Rest"http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Noah Meaning of Noah) was, according to the Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs; and a prophet according to the Quran. The biblical story of Noah is contained in the book of Genesis, chapters 6?9; he is also found in the passage 'Noah's sons", while the Qur'an has an entire sura named after and devoted to his story, with other references elsewhere. In the Genesis account, Noah saves his family and representatives of all animals in groups of two or seven from the flood. In the Islamic account, a group of 72 others are also saved (although none reproduce after the flood).[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=318&letter=N Noah's Ark] - Jewish Encyclopedia He receives a covenant from God, and his sons repopulate the earth.

While the Deluge and Noah's Ark are the best-known elements of the Noah tradition, Noah is also mentioned in Genesis as the "first husbandman" and possibly the inventor of wine, as noted in an episode of his drunkenness and the subsequent Curse of Ham. The account of Noah is the subject of much elaboration in the later Abrahamic traditions, and was immensely influential in Western culture. Jewish thinkers have debated the extent of Noah's righteousness. Christians have likened the Christian Church to Noah's ark ().