Two by two into the ark... once more

Richard Collins on the Dutchman who built a replica of Noah’s Ark.

DUTCHMAN Johan Huibers has built a replica of the world’s most famous ship. The new Noah’s Ark took two years to construct and cost over a million euros. At 70 metres, it’s about half the length the original as described in the Book of Genesis. The three storeys of Noah’s design have been retained but an audio-visual theatre, not mentioned in the Bible, has been incorporated. The construction is of American cedar and Norwegian pine.

The Dutch ark has life-size models of the better-known animals. Although there are millions of species in the world, Noah only collected about 1700 pairs, according to Mr Huibers. All the remaining creatures developed again after the flood “by mutations”. A pair of cats, for example, gave rise, in due course, to lions and tigers. No insects appear on Mr Huibers’ passenger list. These, he thinks, were not in the original ark. They survived the flood by “hiding in trees”, an odd claim for a biblical fundamentalist to make; the Bible says that the waters covered even the mountains.