Rick Antonson - Full Moon over Noah’s Ark: An Odyssey to Mount Ararat and Beyond

PRAISE FOR FULL MOON OVER NOAHS ARK AND RICK ANTONSON

Full Moon over Noahs Ark

Antonson shows an indefatigable and intrepid spirit in this swift account of his ascent of Mount Ararat and his travels through some of the most dangerous territory in the Middle East, including Iraq and Iran A book filled with the enthusiasm of discovery, the delight in accomplishment, and the relief of return.

Kirkus Reviews

Antonsons absorbing narrative combines the mystery and intrigue that shrouds the historical Ark story with all the color and drama of this swirling, turbulent region. Packed with historical facts and anecdotes, enhanced by excellent maps and photos, this is a fascinating travel adventure to one of the most ancient areas of the world A readers feast that is not to be missed.

John A Cherrington, author of Walking to Camelot

Sharing a treasure trove of compelling and beautifully observed stories, Antonson draws us along on a remarkable, yet deeply personal odyssey through near-mythic lands. This is one of those rare books, full of emotion and insight, the work of a true traveler.

Dina Bennett, author of Peking to Paris

An educational, amusing and inspiring tale told by an experienced and worldly traveler a fabulous weaving of adventure and research.

Shannon Stowell, President, Adventure Travel Trade Association

An adventure story for adults.

from the foreword by Garry Marchant, author of The Peace Correspondent

Rick Antonson radiates the curiosity and vigor of an explorer and an intrepid traveler. His writing captures the essence of the spirit of adventure and trust in fellow human beings.

Mandip Singh Soin, mountaineer and explorer, founder, Ibex Expeditions India

To Timbuktu for a Haircut

Anyone planning a trip to Africa should put Antonsons book on their packing list right after malaria tablets.

National Post

To Timbuktu for a Haircut is a great reada little bit of Bill Bryson, a little bit of Michael Palin, and quite a lot of Bob Hope on the road to Timbuktu.

Professor Geoffrey Lipman, former assistant secretary-general of the United Nations World Tourism Organization

Route 66 Still Kicks

One of the best books of the bunch.

2012 round up of holiday travel books by The New York Times

A must for Route 66 aficionados.

Chicago Tribune

The most impressive account of a road trip I have ever read.

Paul Taylor, publisher of Route 66 Magazine

A middle-age Woodstock in motion, an encounter with an America that isnt as lost as we think in the end Antonson proves that Route 66 indeed still kicksas does America.

Keith Bellows, editor in chief, National Geographic Traveler

ALSO BY RICK ANTONSON:

Slumachs Gold (with Mary Trainer and Brian Antonson)

To Timbuktu for a Haircut

Route 66 Still Kicks

Whistle Posts West (with Mary Trainer and Brian Antonson)

Copyright 2016 by Rick Antonson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

Skyhorse Publishing books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or .

Skyhorse and Skyhorse Publishing are registered trademarks of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. , a Delaware corporation.

Visit our website at www.skyhorsepublishing.com.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Print ISBN: 978-1-51070-0565-4

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-51070-0567-8

Cover design by Jane Sheppard

Printed in the United States of America

A donation from the royalties earned by this book will be directed to assist refugees in Iraq.

To Mom and Dad, Elsie and Al Antonson, upon whose knees I first heard the tale of Noahs Ark, and from whom I got the nudge to question everything, to explore.

To editor John Eerkes-Medrano (19502015), a collaborator and elder to many and a friend to all.

A portion of the always fascinating and complicated Middle East/Western Asia, showing the countries of the authors travels.

CONTENTS

The Ark Tablet (front view, shown at actual size: 4.5 inches [11.5 cm] tall by 2.3 inches [6 cm] wide). The story within these 600 cuneiform characters revamped our thinking about The Flood. They were pressed into clay in Babylon around 19001700 BCE, predating the written Hebrew texts and the Biblical Noahs Ark story by over 1,000 years, and describe a round ark. (Associated Press/Sang Tan)

FOREWORD

S ome travel books are the result of intense academic research of previous publications, of early journals, official reports, historic texts and autobiographies. Others are first-person narratives of private journeys.

In Full Moon Over Noahs Ark: An Odyssey to Mount Ararat and Beyond , Rick Antonson skillfully combines both methods to provide a compelling bookpart travel, part adventure, with history, social commentary, and contemporary politics integrated into the entertaining text.

In two of his previous books, To Timbuktu for a Haircut and Route 66 Still Kicks , Antonson perfected the technique, the academic and the experiential, providing significant background information, but always keeping the story rolling along.

Once more he has managed this with his immensely enjoyable Full Moon .

If there is any downside to this life-long travel writer, it is a slight twinge of envy. Why didnt I think of that?

Getting there is half the fun, as the old Cunard Lines slogan goes, but reading about Antonsons odyssey offers a great deal of pleasure.

The author is as much at home scrambling over an ice field in crampons as he is sipping sherry in an exclusive London club, wearing his post-explorer, early 1900s retro tweed suit.

Antonson is not a typical traveler. He does not seek out the obvious destinations, no matter how attractive, romantic, or popular. He admits he has never been to Rome.

Yet he has been to North Korea, Mali, and Belarus, among many other remote destinations. Few contemporary travelers, not even professional travel writers, can make that claim.

In this work, he takes us from Canada to Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Armenia, and finally to the British Museum in London.

Antonson was inspired to make this challenging journey as a young boy when he read The Forbidden Mountain by French explorer Fernand Navarra. The thought of climbing Mount Ararat lay buried in his mind for decades, until he came across the book againand he was off on his quest.

This is partly an adventure story for adults. I know many people (myself included) who have climbed Japans Mount Fuji, Africas Mount Kilimanjaro, and Malaysian Borneos Mount Kinabalu. Antonson is the only one I know who has tackled this much more difficult ascent, which requires some mountaineering expertise. The climb was for the professional or amateur mountaineer, he notes early on, with some trepidation.