God gave Noah the dimensions for the Ark in cubits. “And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.” (Genesis 6:15)
The roof of Noah’s Ark was more than 50 feet from the ground—higher than a modern four-story house. That’s plenty of space for three extra-tall inner decks as the Bible describes.
Few wooden ships have ever come close to the size of Noah’s Ark. One possible challenger is the Chinese treasure ships of Zheng He in the 1400s. An older contender is the ancient Greek trireme Tessaronteres. The Ark is near the maximum size known to be possible for a wooden vessel.
Ark Encounter is an all-wood, life-size Noah’s Ark in northern Kentucky built to the dimensions provided in the Bible.
In constructing the life-size Noah’s Ark, we used hundreds of huge beams and logs. Some of the center supporting logs are more than 3 feet in diameter and nearly 50 feet long!
Over 3.1 million board feet of timber were used in the construction of the Ark. A board foot is 12 inches by 12 inches by 1 inch. In board feet (laid end to end) there is enough timber in the Ark construction to go from Williamstown, Kentucky to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.