Question:

I heard that the Sphinx’s base is eroded by water due to the flood of
Noah. Is this true? Also have they found Noahs Ark?

Answer:

I believe this is an example of a person who is scanning all available
information to create a case for the flood. Such people tend to use
extremely bad logic, and do not seem to care much about good scholarship,
or whether their examples will hold up to scrutiny. Now, I need to be a
bit careful, because I have not read this author, but this certianly seems
to fit the pattern.

Let us assume that the Sphinx’s base shows signs of erosion by water. It
would be a HUGE stretch to conclude that such erosion was caused by the
flood in Genesis chapter 7,8. I would say that this is extremely
unlikely. We do not know when the flood happened, but almost certainly it
was many centuries before the Sphinx was built. Best estimates put the
carving of this structure at around 2500 BC. This makes the author’s
claim doubly dubious in my opinion. For myself, I do believe that the
flood described in Genesis happened, but I think we should use believable
evidence rather than cobble together pieces of information to create a
false case which will fall apart under scrutiny.

About the erosion of the Sphinx, apparently this much is true. I found
this passage on Wikipedia:

In recent years professor Robert M. Schoch of Boston University, Colin
Reader and other geologists have pointed out that the Sphinx displays
evidence of prolonged water erosion. Egypt’s last significant rainy period
ended during the third millennium BC, and these geologists have posited
that the amount of water erosion evident on the Sphinx indicates a
construction date no later than the sixth or fifth millennia BC, at least
two thousand years before the traditional construction date and 1500 years
prior to the accepted date for the beginning of Egyptian civilisation.
This theory has not been accepted by mainstream Egyptologists. Alternative
theories for the erosion include wind and sand, acid rain, exfoliation or
the poor quality of the limestone used to construct the Sphinx.

I believe that the amount of erosion of solid rock they are talking about
is far too much to have occurred during a single flood, even one as great
as the flood described in Genesis.

On Noah’s ark, the answer is no, they have not found the ark. It is
unlikely in the extreme that the ark could ever be found, as wood does not
last that long. Most likely, Noah and his family used the wood from the
ark for fuel or building materials. The search for the ark is almost
certainly a waste of time, despite the sincerity of some of those who make
the search. If you are interested in doing some of your own research on
the topic, I would recommend you get a copy of the book The Explorers Of
Ararat And the Search for Noah’s Ark. This book is available at
www.greatcommission.com
John Oakes

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