Letter from Thomas Fenner

Dear reader:

It has come to my attention that a Mr. Ron Wyatt from Tennessee has been making misleading statements regarding my role and beliefs in the so-called Ark of Noah at Uzen Gili while trying to raise money for his so-called research.

I traveled to Turkey in 1985 and 1987 to perform ground penetrating radar studies on the "boat shaped object" on Judi Dagi, near the village of Uzen Gili, 20 miles from Mt Ararat.

Due to political unrest and the imposition of martial law, the expedition team, including ABC 20/20, was hole up in Dogubayazit and could not get on the site. After 2 weeks we returned to the US. A pre-condition I set forth for my future involvement in this project was that Mr. Wyatt not attend any subsequent mission due to his actions that were counterproductive to our relationship with the local people (Kurdish) and the Turkish Army.

In 1986 Mr. Wyatt visited my office with the local TV station and his own video camera with data allegedly acquired at the sight. A minimal amount of radar data that was covertly acquired to avoid detection by the Turkish Army and presented to me. This data was acquired on a radar system he borrowed from a baking company that he convinced to purchase for his work. I made certain statements about this data that supported the possibility that the boat shaped object had some sort of internal structure.

In 1987 I returned to Turkey and did a methodical and complete ground penetrating radar study of the entire site. The first order of business was to duplicate Wyatt's results to support his conclusions. An inordinate amount of time (1.5 out of 3 days of intensive work) was spent trying to duplicate Wyatt's findings. We were unable to do so.

The only scientific conclusion that can be made was that the original data was erroneous. At best incompetence or, at worst fabrication of the data are the only possible explanations. Given Mr. Wyatt had no working knowledge on how to operate the system nor interpret the radar data (I tried to train him) and, my previous experience with him in Turkey, I concluded it was the former and not the latter. ( A Christian must always give the benefit of doubt.)

My radar work showed some structure on part of the site which was subsequently confirmed to be bedrock with seismic instrumentation used by Dr. John Baumgardner. Drilling at the site in 1989 also produced no evidence that this "object" was anything other than a natural geologic formation.

Since no evidence was found that Judi Dagi is the site of the Ark of Noah all Christian researchers concluded, with great disappointment, that this could not be the site.

Therefore any statements attributed to me as supporting the conclusion that Noah's Ark has been found are erroneous, misleading and taken out of context. Furthermore my statements should not be considered as relevant to your decision to provide financial support for any future work at this site.

I hope this message finally and unequivocally clarifies my position on the discovery of the Ark of Noah at Uzen Gili.

Sincerely,

Thomas Fenner
Geophysicist