Dutch creationist builds Noah's ark replica — 2012 doomsday believers want to book rooms

After dreaming that a great flood will inundate Holland, Dutch creationist Johan Huibers decided to build a replica of Noah’s ark to exact Biblical proportions.

At 450 feet long, it is the size of an oil tanker, Sky News reports.  It dwarfs everything on the local landscape, including the windmills.

His daughter Deborah manages the ark, which is now open to visitors.  She says that it took four years and three months to build the ship, and that only five people, including one carpenter, were involved in building it.  Metal hulls of old barges were welded together and the rest was constructed with Scandinavian pine. It was built without technical drawings, leading to delays in getting permission to open it to the public.  A request to moor the ship on the River Thames this summer to teach the millions of Olympic fans about Christianity was dropped because of delays in dealing with potential fire hazards.

The four floors contain replica animals and some live ones.

According to Huibers' daughter Deborah, believers in the Mayan end-of-the-world prophecy are confused, wondering if a flood is coming again.  She said that people have been asking if they can stay on board and book a room.

For his next project, Huibers wants to pipe water from the Mediterranian to fill the Dead Sea.

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D. Beeksma

One of the growing crowd of American "nones" herself, Deborah is a prolific writer who finds religion, spirituality and the impact of belief (and non-belief) on culture inspiring, fascinating and at times, disturbing. She hosts the God Discussion show and handles the site's technical work. Her education and background is in business, ecommerce and law.

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