Come one, come all… Or maybe not, since no one is making the effort to get on board the ark.
Creationist Ken Ham spent over $100 million to build a full-scale model of Noah’s Ark from the well-known “Great Flood” tale. The massive attraction sits in the middle of a field and overlooks a small pond. The inside of the ark includes “replicas” of what the ark would supposedly look like, according to what Biblical scholars believe. In this, artistic liberty has been taken to reimagine what life would have looked like for seven humans that had to take care of over 7,000 pairs of animals that survived the Great Flood (dinosaurs included, apparently).
The Christian theme park “Ark Encounter” was open to the public on July 7th, and he’s been bragging about the hoards of crowds and millions of attendants that he says come from all over the world to experience the ark. To prove his point, he even posted a photo from “the opening day” to show the mass of a crowd surrounding the attraction.
As it turns out, however, the photo in question was taken from a special preview day when Ken opened up the park to surrounding schools, politicians, and the media.
Photos from visitors on the true opening day show nearly empty lines and intricate exhibits that are greatly ignored. Since opening day, drone footage has popped up to show that the massive parking lots and the space designated to organize crowds of Biblical proportions are completely bare. In a few photos, the only small crowds appear to be Athiest protesters that hang around the outside of the park.
Despite Ken Ham’s claims that the park is doing splendidly well, attendance numbers and profit figures have not been released. Tickets cost $40 for adults, $31 for senior citizens, and $28 for children 5 and older. The park will need an average of 5,000 visitors day to break a profit from the multi-million dollar cost, so we’ll see how well this ship sails.