Noah’s Ark Model in Holland

Huibers' Ark Replica

A new model of Noah’s Ark opened for visitors in Schagen, Holland about 30 miles north of Amsterdam on Saturday April 28, 2007.

The ark has replicas of animals throughout and a live petting zoo (including sheep, chickens, goats, and a camel) on the top deck. Biblical exhibits are displayed throughout the ark.

The ark was built by Dutch creationist and building contractor Johan Huibers. He dreamed and planned for 14 years before beginning work in May 2005. He worked 8 to 5 six days a week with some after-school help from his son and a few friends.

Huibers purchased and milled over 1,200 American cedar and Norwegian pine logs for the ark. It’s built on top of a seaworthy steel hull. Huibers financed the $1.2 million project with bank loans. He pledged his business halls as collateral for the loans.

Noah probably financed his ark with bank loans too. But they never had to be repaid.

Admission is 2 euros for children and 3 euros for adults. Huibers needs 100,000 visitors to recoup his investment.

Inside Huibers' Ark

Huibers wife was less than enthusiastic about the project, suggesting instead that he “go dig wells in Ethiopia” where he had done previous projects.

Huibers said, “The design is by my wife, Bianca. She didn’t really want me to do this at all, but she said if you’re going to anyway, it should look like this. She understands this is my dream.”

Noah’s Ark was 450 ft (300 cubits) long, 75 ft (50 cubits) wide, and 45 ft (30 cubits) high according to the record in Genesis.

The scale of Huibers’ model is a little different from the original. Huibers’ replica is 150 cubits long by 30 cubits high by 20 cubits wide. Same height, but half the length and less than half the width.

Huibers built the ark in Schagen’s small harbor. He carefully sized it so that it would pass under every bridge and through every sluice along his sailing route through the interior waters of Holland to all the country’s main cities. The ark is built on a huge barge which can be towed by two tugboats.

Inside Huibers' Ark

Huibers’ ark has a capacity about one-fifth that of the original ark. Its size still flabbergasts visitors who repeatedly say, “I had no idea the ark was so big.” And Noah’s Ark was 5 times bigger than this stunning model.

The ark is currently in Lelystad, Holland. In addition to Dutch cities, Huibers plans to visit major cities in Belgium and Germany.

Huibers rejected the idea that fear of a global warming induced flood of the low-lying Netherlands had prompted his project. “It won’t happen again. You know: the rainbow,” he said, citing God’s rainbow promise in Genesis 9:9-16 to never again flood the whole earth.

Huibers’ next project, once he generates some income from this ark, is a full-size all wood ark in Manhattan.

Click for pictures of Huibers’ ark.
(Ark pictures from http://www.pbase.com/paulthedane/noahs_ark .)

Soli Deo Gloria.

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©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith”
“destroying speculations against the knowledge of God”
(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:4)
Thursday July 3, 2008 A.D.

Read my July 2008 Bible-Science column
Age of the Earth 3 — Genealogies.

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. And the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. On the very same day Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark,
they and every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, all sorts of birds.
Then the flood came upon the earth for forty days; and the water increased and lifted up the ark, so that it rose above the earth. And the water prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark floated on the surface of the water. And the water prevailed more and more upon the earth, so that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered. The water prevailed fifteen cubits higher, and the mountains were covered. And all flesh that moved on the earth perished, birds and cattle and beasts and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind; of all that was on the dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died. Thus He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky, and they were blotted out from the earth; and only Noah was left, together with those that were with him in the ark. (Genesis 7:11-14, 17-23)