Do you want to go onboard a real life Noah’s Ark?

LONDON — A biblical theme park centred on a gigantic replica of Noah’s Ark will open next month in Williamstown, northern Kentucky. Called Ark Encounter, it will feature an all-wood ark, based on the dimensions provided for the original ark in the Bible. It is built at a cost of US$102 million (S$137 million). In time, the owners will add a Walled City, a Tower of Babel and a first-century Middle Eastern village.

Unlike Noah’s ship, the Ark Encounter will have a petting zoo.

The Christian organisation behind the project, Answers In Genesis, also runs the Creation Museum, in the same state in a town called Petersburg.

Last year Ken Ham, president and chief executive of Answers In Genesis, told a press conference assembled at the site of the ark construction that the park should attract as many as two million people a year.

The ark has three decks, and houses a restaurant and theatre. Funding for the park has come from donations (nearly US$24 million), as well as around US$62 million in advanced sales for lifetime passes to the park, known as Boarding Passes.

While Ark Encounter will open on July 7, so chosen as it corresponds with when Noah and his family entered the ark, it will limit admission numbers for the first 40 days and 40 nights, the length of the flood.

Ham told the press conference: “Some supporters who have been watching the construction of the huge ship have said they believe this ark will be one of the new wonders of the modern world.”

The Ark Encounter hopes to emulate the success of Orlando’s religious theme park, the Holy Land Experience, which opened in 2001 and features a model of the Damascus Gate and the opportunity for guests to recreate the Last Supper. The Daily Telegraph