This life-sized Noah’s Ark opened in July 2012. For most people, Noah’s Ark is a theme park, but was constructed with a different purpose.

The Ark was built by Johan Huibers, a contractor from a small village in the Netherlands. In 1992, he dreamt that the waves of the ocean washed over the Netherlands during a great storm. The dream was followed by more signs, meaning he had to rebuild the Ark. However, this time the Ark is not meant to save people from a global flood as Noah did 4000 years ago, but to tell people that there is a God who loves us, and that He has a plan for our lives.

In 1992 plans to rebuild the Ark began. After researching the Bible, several other books about the Ark and DVDs and after a long time of saving money, Johan was finally ready to start in 2005. This is when the first trees came to the harbouw of Schagen. The constructing could begin. The Ark would be a smaller replica that could sail through the Netherlands. This smaller replica was 9 meters wide, 13 meters high, and 70 meters long. After one year of construction on his own, Johan started working with a few volunteers on Saturdays and his son helped every now and then to ready the Ark. Noah’s Ark opened its doors to the public in 2007. The first visitors set foot on board the on April the 30th in 2007. In the 3,5 years that followed, the small Ark berthed at various places in the Netherlands, including: Rotterdam, Zaandam, Arnhem, Drachten, Oudeschild on the island of Texel, Vianen, Harderwijk, Vlissingen etc. The Ark sailed a total of 3.5 years, visited 21 mooring places throughout the Netherlands and welcomed 600,000 visitors on board.

After 3,5 years, the small Ark transferred to another organization that would carry on with the same vision. Now the Ark team was free to focus entirely on the new project, namely the full-sized Ark. Because this was Johan Huibers’ original dream, he started working on the Ark straight away in 2009! Johan worked with a team of builders to recreate Noah’s Ark as accurately as possible. The life-sized ship opened its doors to the public in July 2012.

The full-size Ark is now open to public! This vessel is made in the same dimensions as Noah’s original Ark, approximately 30 metres wide, 23 metres high and 135 metres long. The Ark is ten times the size of the earlier replica model.