Just how big was Noah's ark?

This week we are going backwards from ancient Egypt (what we have studied for the last 3 weeks) to study the creation through Noah's ark.  Our first project of the week was to measure just how big Noah's ark really was.

Genesis 6:15 tells us God's instructions to Noah: the ark was to be 300 cubits in length, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high (with three decks).

Here's everyone with their cubits!

Historians have determined that a cubit is approximately 18 inches, so that makes the ark 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet tall.  That sounds big, but it is a bit hard for the kids to wrap their heads around just how big it really is, so we measured it out.

We went to the field by our church and took our cubits and measure (and measured, and measured some more).

The distance between the kids in the picture above is the width of the ark.....50 cubits or 75 feet.

So this was 300 cubits or 750 feet, the length of the ark.  Hannah is standing at one end, and way, way down at the other end, you can barely make out a speck (otherwise known as Dakota) near the doors to the church.  300 cubits is the length of 1 1/2 football fields.  It was a long way between kids...even I was surprised how big it was.

We also determined (by best guess) that the ark was also about as tall as the point at the top of the church in the above picture.  This was a great visual for the kids, as well as a fun project to do on a beautiful Labor Day holiday!