Noah's Ark… and he plans to sail it up the Thames for the Olympics
Johan Huibers converted ancient measurements from the Book of Genesis to determine that his recreation should be 450ft long
Gigantic wooden boat holds menagerie of life-size plastic animals
By Lyle Brennan
PUBLISHED:11:46 GMT, 7 July 2012
A Dutch creationist is putting the finishing touches on a full-size replica of Noah's Ark, which he has built according to a blueprint set out in the Bible.
Johan Huibers spent three years and more than £1.03million constructing the gigantic wooden boat - and now has his sights set on sailing it up the Thames for the Olympics.
This feat of true biblical proportions was inspired by a dream Mr Huibers had 20 years ago, in which he saw part of his native Netherlands submerged in a flood like the one featured in the Book of Genesis.
Faithful recreation: Johan Huibers's replica of the ark, in Dordrecht, in te western Netherlands
Miracle worker: Mr Huibers poses with two of the life-size plastic animals that live on his 450ft ark
He has been obsessed with bringing the story of the ark to life ever since, MSNBC reports, and in 2004 he built a half-scale version and floated it along the country's canals.
The Biblical cubit is generally thought to be about 18in, but Ancient Egyptian cubit rods measure closer to 20in.
Tourists flocked to see the smaller prototype when Mr Huibers opened it to the public, but the proceeds from admissions went straight back into funding his ambition to build a full-size ship.
The narrative of the ark, in which God commands Noah to prepare for a great flood sent to purge the world of evil, specifies that the boat was 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high.
Mr Huibers converted this ancient unit of measurement, which is based on the length of the forearm, to determine that his recreation had to be about 450ft long.
This puts the boat, which opens to the public on Monday and is nicknamed 'Johan's Ark', at more than half the length of the Titanic.
HOW LONG WAS A CUBIT?
Long before the metric or imperial systems came along, craftsmen in various parts of the world dealt in less precise units known as cubits.
As this was based on the length of a forearm, the exact value varies from one ancient civilisation to the next. It is most commonly defined as the distance from the elbow to the middle fingertip.
Two by two: A crocodile and cow are among the fake creatures on board the boat, which weighs almost 3,000 tons
Biblical proportions: A plastic giraffe pokes its head over the bow of the ark, which its creator hopes to sail to London
And though it may not be able to shelter two of every animal, as the original story dictates, it can hold 1,500 people - not to mention a menagerie of life-size plastic creatures including giraffes, elephants and donkeys, as well as a few live chickens.
As it weighs in at almost 3,000 tons and is made from Swedish pine reinforced with steel, it may be hard to believe that the ark is, in fact, seaworthy.
It is docked in the western city of Dordrecht, where Mr Huibers, the owner of a construction company, pieced it together with the help of some friends and two of his children.
In the 15th century, the city was the site of one of the deadliest floods in history, named St Elizabeth's flood, which is thought to have claimed as many as 10,000 lives.
Prototype: The half-scale replica that Mr Huibers built in 2004, later floating it through the Netherlands' canals作者: jpg7077 時間: 2012-7-8 06:12 AM
