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Ark Fever: The True Story of One Man's Search for Noah's Ark
Bob Cornuke is a real-life Indiana Jones, searching for evidence of biblical events and artifacts. In this book, he tells the story of his search for the remains of Noah's ark. Using investigative skills learned during his years as a police officer, Bob investigates all the clues, from ancient Scriptures to modern-day eyewitness accounts. His quest to learn the truth about Noah's ark leads him from his safe home in the foothills of Colorado to the dangerous mountain ranges in Turkey and Iran. Follow Bob as he risks his life climbing icy peaks, dodging bullets, evading capture, and much more. As you follow the trail of tantalizing clues to the place where Noah's ark may lie, you just might catch “ark fever” too!
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272 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
February 20, 2022
Stories of the authors search for Noah's ark. I enjoyed reading it.
November 29, 2011
Don't even get me started on how involved I got with this book. My husband said he is now half expecting to come home & find me with backpacks & hiking boots at the front door, ready to hop a flight. Biblical archaeologist at heart. Highly recommend this if you have an interest.
January 6, 2026
AN ARK EXPLORER RECOUNTS HIS EXPERIENCES OVER MORE THAN TWENTY YEARS
Author and explorer Robert Cornuke wrote in the Foreword of this 2005 book, “Few people would deny that the actual discovery of Noah’s ark would rock the archaeological world and cause many skeptics to take a renewed look at the truth and historical veracity of the Bible… Ark fever strikes in various forms, and its symptoms range from an acute interest in finding the remains of Noah’s ark to a full-blown, fever-pitched obsession… When ark fever strikes, your mind whispers, ‘It’s there, it just has to be there.’ … Afterward, the victim has an almost insatiable want or need to climb up the mountain and find the tantalizing apparition. Nothing short of actually standing on the suspected object or seeing it up close will convince these eyewitnesses that all they have discovered is just another unusual rock formation…
“Unfortunately, none of the many expeditions to Mount Ararat turned up any verifiable evidence that the ark still exists… With so many dead ends, disappointing expeditions, and false sightings over the past twenty years of my search for the ark, I lost interest along the way. My own ark fever dissolved into remission. But recent new discoveries have rekindled the fire of debate, and my temperature has started to rise again. Come with me now as we attempt to unlock a mystery as old as recorded history.”
Cornuke’s quest began when he met and became friends with James [“Jim”] B. Irwin, the Lunar Module pilot for Apollo 15, who had led several expeditions to Mount Ararat in Turkey to search for the ark: “Jim and I hit it off immediately. He was a humble guy, lacking the self-importance that his astounding résumé might be expected to bring out… [Irwin said] ‘It’s my calling now to give believers---and unbelievers---solid evidence of the Bible.’ … I wasn’t quite sure what to make of a famous astronaut investing his life in search of a legendary old boat. Nevertheless, the appeal of the adventure drew me in.” (Pg. 6-7)
They traveled with a team to Turkey to begin a search, but were arrested by the suspicious Turkish authorities. Cornuke points out, “After the arrest, Jim Irwin never again took an ark expedition trip to Turkey. His presence turned what should have been a low-key, under-the-radar expedition into a media circus with reporters and photographers… Recent trips had been maddening drills in … begging and bargaining just to obtain a climbing permit. With Jim present, it had become almost impossible.” (Pg. 27)
After a 1988 helicopter tour, “No ark, no shattered hull, no pieces of boat floating down the ravine… We were determined to leave no slope, rock pattern, or crevasse unexplored. In a single afternoon, we inspected every viable geological anomaly cited by dozens of eyewitnesses, but we saw no ark, no boat, no wood, and nothing else of interest.” (Pg. 38-39) Thus, “Ten years passed before I gave the search for Noah’s ark any more serious thought.” (Pg. 43)
But in 1998, he received a call, and the caller told him, “‘Read Genesis 11:1-2… The verse proves that the ark couldn’t be on Mount Ararat---or anywhere in Turkey, for that matter… Look at any map… Mount Ararat lies due north of Iraq---not to the east.’ He was right. The biblical evidence did seem to indicate that the ark could not have landed in Turkey.” (Pg. 44-45)
Later, “A quick check told me that the Bible never mentions Mount Ararat. Instead, Genesis 8:4 says that the ark came to rest ‘on the mountains of Ararat.’ Plural. Somewhere in history, someone made a broad leap and interpreted the verse to mean the singular Mount Ararat. The only mountain by that name lies in eastern Turkey, so naturally that’s where people thought the ark must be… What once seemed enigmatic now seemed logical. No one had found the ark because they were looking for it in the wrong place.” (Pg. 53)
On an expedition that managed to reach the gorge where a team member believed he had previously seen the ark, “We surveyed it from several angles with our binoculars, and as I feared, it was nothing but ice-covered rock sticking out of the canyon wall. ‘I climbed all the way up here for this?’ … the sight struck me as depressingly anticlimactic… Though I had doubted Dick’s claims from the start, my heart sank as I realized that I had been right… So much pain and effort for nothing!” (Pg. 118)
On a later expedition, “What had looked so compelling on the maps and in satellite comparisons with Davis’s sketch at ground level appeared as little more than random wrinkles, folds, and outcroppings carved by wind, rain, and winter runoff. The huge rectangle that Dan incessantly assured me had to be the ark wasn’t there. Its subtle lines had either dissolved into the elements or looked so different at ground level that we couldn’t distinguish it from other rubble… Finally, after another long interval of silence, he muttered, ‘It’s GOT to be here.’ I had observed it many times before… Even though [Dan] was trained as a Navy SEAL, he had one of the worst cases of ark fever I had ever seen… There would be no ark on this trip, and I was beginning to think it would never be found.” (Pg. 188-189)
After he was offered “the biggest payday of my life” to lead another expedition, Cornuke’s wife told him, “‘You are over fifty years old, and the only reason you want to do it is because the younger guys can’t.’ Busted!... She was right. I was intrigued by the promise of a big payday, but the thrill of setting out on another adventure … was really what was drawing me back… I wanted to do it for all the nonsensical, irrational, male reasons that women prefer not to understand.” (Pg. 199)
Finally in 2004, he admits, “After twenty years of searching … I was tired of the hunt. I was weary of the cold climbs, the draining expenses, the disappointment, and the ridicule. As my ark fever rapidly succumbed to reason, I found myself putting my maps and climbing gear into my storage closet, closing the door on my lost dreams. At long last, I was saying good-bye to old Noah.” (Pg. 221)
Still, he set out one more time in 2005, and “we scanned the upper ridgeline where Ed Davis said he had spotted the ark… and IT WAS THERE! … we saw what looked like a dark, giant, stone bird poised for flight. We saw the beam-like structures…but they were not as I expected them from his testimony; they were more tangled and less impressive. There was no door or obvious decks, such as Ed had described, nor did the structure have the boxy shape that one would expect from the ark… Was it anything other than a natural jumble of dark rocks that only appeared to be a collection of petrified beams?... As he gazed across the valley, Doug said, ‘Well, I could see that if the ground were covered in snow, you could sure mistake that big dark rock for an ark.’” (Pg. 235-236)
Team members found some wood chips, and Cornuke had them tested upon returning home: “I had these samples tested by … the world’s largest provider of radiocarbon dating to the scientific community. [They] determined the age of the wood to be between 355 and 565 years old… Obviously, wood that is only several hundred years old (rather than several thousand years or more) would not be fragments directly from Noah’s ark, but the discovery of this wood… raised an interesting scenario… indigenous mountain dwellers may have erected some type of shrine or altar near the site of the ark…” (Pg. 237)
He concludes, “Because of the unusual factors pertaining to the ark… it seems very difficult to either confirm or reject the data in relation to what we found. It may ultimately fall into the realm of faith, along with other historical information from the Bible that we can’t absolutely prove. And maybe that’s the way God intended it.” (Pg. 245)
For many readers, this book may often seem more like a “travel diary” than a study of the Ark. But there is much in it that will be great interest to those studying the quest for the Ark.
Author and explorer Robert Cornuke wrote in the Foreword of this 2005 book, “Few people would deny that the actual discovery of Noah’s ark would rock the archaeological world and cause many skeptics to take a renewed look at the truth and historical veracity of the Bible… Ark fever strikes in various forms, and its symptoms range from an acute interest in finding the remains of Noah’s ark to a full-blown, fever-pitched obsession… When ark fever strikes, your mind whispers, ‘It’s there, it just has to be there.’ … Afterward, the victim has an almost insatiable want or need to climb up the mountain and find the tantalizing apparition. Nothing short of actually standing on the suspected object or seeing it up close will convince these eyewitnesses that all they have discovered is just another unusual rock formation…
“Unfortunately, none of the many expeditions to Mount Ararat turned up any verifiable evidence that the ark still exists… With so many dead ends, disappointing expeditions, and false sightings over the past twenty years of my search for the ark, I lost interest along the way. My own ark fever dissolved into remission. But recent new discoveries have rekindled the fire of debate, and my temperature has started to rise again. Come with me now as we attempt to unlock a mystery as old as recorded history.”
Cornuke’s quest began when he met and became friends with James [“Jim”] B. Irwin, the Lunar Module pilot for Apollo 15, who had led several expeditions to Mount Ararat in Turkey to search for the ark: “Jim and I hit it off immediately. He was a humble guy, lacking the self-importance that his astounding résumé might be expected to bring out… [Irwin said] ‘It’s my calling now to give believers---and unbelievers---solid evidence of the Bible.’ … I wasn’t quite sure what to make of a famous astronaut investing his life in search of a legendary old boat. Nevertheless, the appeal of the adventure drew me in.” (Pg. 6-7)
They traveled with a team to Turkey to begin a search, but were arrested by the suspicious Turkish authorities. Cornuke points out, “After the arrest, Jim Irwin never again took an ark expedition trip to Turkey. His presence turned what should have been a low-key, under-the-radar expedition into a media circus with reporters and photographers… Recent trips had been maddening drills in … begging and bargaining just to obtain a climbing permit. With Jim present, it had become almost impossible.” (Pg. 27)
After a 1988 helicopter tour, “No ark, no shattered hull, no pieces of boat floating down the ravine… We were determined to leave no slope, rock pattern, or crevasse unexplored. In a single afternoon, we inspected every viable geological anomaly cited by dozens of eyewitnesses, but we saw no ark, no boat, no wood, and nothing else of interest.” (Pg. 38-39) Thus, “Ten years passed before I gave the search for Noah’s ark any more serious thought.” (Pg. 43)
But in 1998, he received a call, and the caller told him, “‘Read Genesis 11:1-2… The verse proves that the ark couldn’t be on Mount Ararat---or anywhere in Turkey, for that matter… Look at any map… Mount Ararat lies due north of Iraq---not to the east.’ He was right. The biblical evidence did seem to indicate that the ark could not have landed in Turkey.” (Pg. 44-45)
Later, “A quick check told me that the Bible never mentions Mount Ararat. Instead, Genesis 8:4 says that the ark came to rest ‘on the mountains of Ararat.’ Plural. Somewhere in history, someone made a broad leap and interpreted the verse to mean the singular Mount Ararat. The only mountain by that name lies in eastern Turkey, so naturally that’s where people thought the ark must be… What once seemed enigmatic now seemed logical. No one had found the ark because they were looking for it in the wrong place.” (Pg. 53)
On an expedition that managed to reach the gorge where a team member believed he had previously seen the ark, “We surveyed it from several angles with our binoculars, and as I feared, it was nothing but ice-covered rock sticking out of the canyon wall. ‘I climbed all the way up here for this?’ … the sight struck me as depressingly anticlimactic… Though I had doubted Dick’s claims from the start, my heart sank as I realized that I had been right… So much pain and effort for nothing!” (Pg. 118)
On a later expedition, “What had looked so compelling on the maps and in satellite comparisons with Davis’s sketch at ground level appeared as little more than random wrinkles, folds, and outcroppings carved by wind, rain, and winter runoff. The huge rectangle that Dan incessantly assured me had to be the ark wasn’t there. Its subtle lines had either dissolved into the elements or looked so different at ground level that we couldn’t distinguish it from other rubble… Finally, after another long interval of silence, he muttered, ‘It’s GOT to be here.’ I had observed it many times before… Even though [Dan] was trained as a Navy SEAL, he had one of the worst cases of ark fever I had ever seen… There would be no ark on this trip, and I was beginning to think it would never be found.” (Pg. 188-189)
After he was offered “the biggest payday of my life” to lead another expedition, Cornuke’s wife told him, “‘You are over fifty years old, and the only reason you want to do it is because the younger guys can’t.’ Busted!... She was right. I was intrigued by the promise of a big payday, but the thrill of setting out on another adventure … was really what was drawing me back… I wanted to do it for all the nonsensical, irrational, male reasons that women prefer not to understand.” (Pg. 199)
Finally in 2004, he admits, “After twenty years of searching … I was tired of the hunt. I was weary of the cold climbs, the draining expenses, the disappointment, and the ridicule. As my ark fever rapidly succumbed to reason, I found myself putting my maps and climbing gear into my storage closet, closing the door on my lost dreams. At long last, I was saying good-bye to old Noah.” (Pg. 221)
Still, he set out one more time in 2005, and “we scanned the upper ridgeline where Ed Davis said he had spotted the ark… and IT WAS THERE! … we saw what looked like a dark, giant, stone bird poised for flight. We saw the beam-like structures…but they were not as I expected them from his testimony; they were more tangled and less impressive. There was no door or obvious decks, such as Ed had described, nor did the structure have the boxy shape that one would expect from the ark… Was it anything other than a natural jumble of dark rocks that only appeared to be a collection of petrified beams?... As he gazed across the valley, Doug said, ‘Well, I could see that if the ground were covered in snow, you could sure mistake that big dark rock for an ark.’” (Pg. 235-236)
Team members found some wood chips, and Cornuke had them tested upon returning home: “I had these samples tested by … the world’s largest provider of radiocarbon dating to the scientific community. [They] determined the age of the wood to be between 355 and 565 years old… Obviously, wood that is only several hundred years old (rather than several thousand years or more) would not be fragments directly from Noah’s ark, but the discovery of this wood… raised an interesting scenario… indigenous mountain dwellers may have erected some type of shrine or altar near the site of the ark…” (Pg. 237)
He concludes, “Because of the unusual factors pertaining to the ark… it seems very difficult to either confirm or reject the data in relation to what we found. It may ultimately fall into the realm of faith, along with other historical information from the Bible that we can’t absolutely prove. And maybe that’s the way God intended it.” (Pg. 245)
For many readers, this book may often seem more like a “travel diary” than a study of the Ark. But there is much in it that will be great interest to those studying the quest for the Ark.
March 20, 2020
I picked this up for fun. I know my Dad has seen and read some of this man's stuff before so I was aware of his theories. In reading this book, I was struck by this man's humbleness and lack of claims. Everything is presented and left up to the reader whether to accept or reject. I like this man's willingness to do so much to try to support the biblical account, yet still say there is a lot of room for doubt.
This was a lot of fun to read, and the author's attitude and way of presenting it made it a blessing.
This was a lot of fun to read, and the author's attitude and way of presenting it made it a blessing.
June 27, 2016
I had already read his book Relic Quest, which was excellent. There are people that come up in this book, that just warm your heart. This is a very good read.
April 4, 2025
This book was fascinating! If you do nothing else, google the Ed Davis account where he was stationed in Turkey in 1943, and the locals took him to see the Ark. That is a short read but available online. Ed Davis drafted a map from memory. Robert Cornuke is a real life Indiana Jones who made several expeditions to find the relic, and the freezing conditions and treacherous footing makes for a very gripping story. They eventually found what Ed Davis saw many years earlier. Not sure if it is the ark, but it definitely is a large vessel made of petrified wood. There are many photos.......such a cool story where you can live vicariously through the life of explorers without having to face deadly situations that they lived through.
April 16, 2017
A fun account of searching for Noah's ark. This adventure story also had some inspirational moments I didn't expect. 4 stars easy!
July 26, 2021
Well written, treasure hunting story. I love the sheep scene, and the Columbine dad who was so struck by Christ’s sacrifice. The image of Jesus as our Ark was also powerful, at the end.
October 1, 2025
An interesting and well-written adventure that will keep you turning the pages and wondering, Where is Noah's Ark?
February 28, 2012
The Story of the climbs and the intrigue of one traveling in places where governments don't readily welcome travelers, is always interesting. Tidbits about cultures and people foreign to my understanding are a welcome delight. The little bits of combing through the libraries for ancient mentions of "the mountains of Ararat" and just in general putting Biblical people and places in historical perspective is facinating. (Or is it putting historical people and places in Biblical perspective?)
August 13, 2015
Not to much technical detail, which makes for a good read for someone not in the archeological field. Covers a number of attempts to find the remnants of Noah's Ark. The searches are covered in broad strokes, giving some insight into what must have been harrowing both in the physical sense and political sense. A group of Americans climbing in Turkey and Iran when there were civil wars going on and the official governments were not friendly or supportive of the American government. Near the end of the book he get a little preachy on the Christian side, but it is a memoir so he is entitled to give his personal feelings on the subject.
September 10, 2011
Ark Fever by Robert Cornuke is a real life adventure that has the feel of a fiction book with the author being the action hero. Cornuke is a retired detective and it comes through in his writing. His story is steeped with mystery and danger. Having clues from the Bible guiding them his team travels dangerous places facing life threatening situations. Some was a bit much for this reader to absorb, but I kept reading. His style of writing is descriptive and draws readers in. A fascinating first hand account of an actual treasure hunt that is very intriguing.
February 15, 2010
A quirky, rambling travelogue of Turkey's Kurdish region and Iran by an Evangelical type searching for Noah's ark based on the story told by an American soldier stationed in Iran during World War II. If one ignores the obvious Christian bent of the book and concentrates on the ark as a potential historical artifact, it works. Cornuke and his "teams" scramble around various mountains in Turkey and Iran, never finding much of anything, but are earnest, I'll give them that.
January 10, 2016
Though I mayn't necessarily believe or agree with everything in this book, it still completely piqued my interest. I was absolutely riveted and took in the entire book at nearly one gulp. I especially enjoyed the little surprise at the end which was apart from the subject of Noah's ark, and yet somehow involved with that subject.
August 5, 2008
A buddy of mine was on this expedition. I had a chance to hear the author talk. Some interesting premises, but somehow it seemed to lack the sense of adventure I had hoped for.
August 9, 2014
This was an enjoyable read. Exciting and interesting, two things that make for a good book.
May 2, 2017
I really enjoyed this book. This true life Indiana Jones type adventure was hard to put down. Cornuke gave enough detail that it held my interest without being too technical with things that would only appeal to other mountain climbing enthusiasts. He begins, ends and intertwines his own adventures with those of Ed Davis, a man who claimed to have discovered the ark decades ago which I thought added depth to the story. Cornuke also recounts his own spiritual journey resulting from his search for Noah's ark giving it a dimension that is often missing from other adventure books. I highly recommend.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews