Forget the storybook images you remember from childhood – this Noah’s Ark will truly inspire you.

During his first few weeks as a young science teacher in Australia in 1975, Ken Ham fielded many questions from his public school students. Some of their most frequent questions involved Creation.

Ham’s students knew he was a Christian, and they asked him, “How can you believe in the Bible when you know it is not true?” When he inquired how they knew it was supposedly not true, the students referred to their textbook’s teaching on evolution, and added their own comments about Noah’s Ark, such as “Noah couldn’t have fit all the animals in the ark anyway.”

That teaching experience spurred Ham’s interest in creation apologetics and ultimately led him to the U.S. in 1987, where he eventually established the non-profit organization Answers in Genesis in 1994, the Creation Museum in 2007 and a full-size recreation of Noah’s Ark, called the Ark Encounter, in 2016.

“As I have traveled the world these past 40 years, I have heard the most-asked questions about the Bible,” Ham says. “And many of them relate to Genesis. Over and over again, I kept hearing ‘How could Noah fit the animals on the Ark?’ and ‘Is there any evidence of a global flood?’ and ‘How could Noah have built the Ark?’”

Ham finds the popular images of Noah’s Ark – usually depicting what he calls a “bathtub ark overloaded with animals and looking like it’s about to sink at any time” – that are found in children’s books and on the walls of Sunday school classrooms to be disconcerting. At workshops and camps, he began demonstrating the actual size of the Ark using helium balloons that he spread out over a huge area. He soon discovered that people were intrigued by the possibility of building a physical representation of the massive Ark according to the proportions detailed in the Book of Genesis.

“We wanted to think of a way to really get across the size of the ark, and we knew if we could do that, people would be fascinated by it,” he says. “We believed that if we built a life-size replica, people would travel far and wide to see it, whether they were Christians or not -- and that is what has happened.”

In the two years since it opened in Williamstown, Kentucky, between Cincinnati and Lexington, the Ark Encounter has reached well over two million people from every U.S. state and from dozens of countries with its overarching message that the Word of God is true and that specifically, the Bible’s account of Noah’s Ark is true. The gospel message is also powerfully presented.

The Ark Encounter features a full-size Noah’s Ark that was built according to the dimensions from the Bible. Constructed mostly from standing dead timber, the massive structure is 510 feet long, 85 feet wide, and 51 feet high. To put those numbers in perspective, Ham explains that it is one and a half times the length of a football field, half a football field wide and 10 stories high from the ground to the top of its bow. Built in part by Amish craftsmen, the Ark is the largest timber frame structure in the world.

In addition to its remarkable size, the Ark Encounter shares the account of the Ark with three levels of interactive exhibits that Ham says visitors frequently describe “as good or even better than Disney.”

Ham often hears comments such as these from a non-Christian reporter he took on a tour through the Ark: “Wow, I didn’t know Noah’s Ark was so big. Maybe Noah could have fit all those animals on board after all.”

Ham noted that about 30 percent of Ark Encounter visitors are non-Christians and that 80 percent of the bus tour groups that visit the Ark are run by secular businesses. “Many of our guests tell us they appreciate that we don’t hit them over the head with our messages, but that the Ark Encounter challenges them and makes them think.”

Ham emphasizes that the overall message he seeks to convey through the Ark Encounter is that of God’s judgment and salvation. “If you go back to Genesis, God judged sin with death, but at the same time, He promised a Savior,” he points out.

He comments on the placement of a cross above the side door in the Ark and how it is there to tell visitors about the message of salvation through Jesus Christ. “It’s a reminder that God told Noah to put one door in the side of the Ark and that only the people who went through that one door would be saved from judgment,” Ham explains. “Jesus is that one door for us.”

Ham continued: ““We call it Ark Encounter because we want people to have an encounter with a life-size Ark and in doing so, to have an encounter with God’s Word … and with the Lord Jesus Christ.”

The Bible presents real history, Ham continues, adding that the three-dimensional representation of the Ark makes that history come alive. The experience is emotional for some visitors, and Ham relates that some guests break down in tears as they engage God’s awesome power in a special way.

“Our hope is that we impact the culture,” says Ham. “If we stand back and look at our Western world, it is collapsing from a Christian perspective.” Noting that church attendance is only about 18 percent among millennials, Ham maintains that the church is no longer impacting society the way it once did for previous generations.

“Increasingly there is an anti-Christian sentiment in the culture,” he says. “We wanted to do something different, to create a different way to impact the culture with a Christian message. Many told us it couldn’t be done. They predicted that if people knew you were a theologically conservative organization, they won’t come.”

But they are coming. Ham recalls that on one of his visits to the Ark, he found himself in the midst of a group of Catholic nuns, several Muslims from Bagdad, a group of Orthodox Jews, several Mennonites, and a group of old-order Amish. “You normally wouldn’t see those groups be together in one place,” he comments, adding that people from all worldviews are fascinated by the Ark.

Although Ham readily admits that “we can’t do everything in sharing the gospel; we can only do our bit” with Ark Encounter visitors, he does say that many guests take advantage of the resources available at the Ark Encounter for further study. Free booklets with the Gospel message are available, and the Ark Encounter’s gift shop features faith-building books, magazines, DVDs, and curricula on Noah’s Flood and on apologetics in general. Answers in Genesis publishes an award-winning magazine called “Answers,” and visitors are encouraged to sign up for informative emails and to visit the organization’s very popular website, answersingenesis.org.

In addition, since the Ark Encounter opened in 2016, Ham says attendance has doubled at the Creation Museum, which is in Petersburg, Kentucky, about a 45-minute drive away from the Ark Encounter (and near the Cincinnati Airport). That state-of-the-art 75,000-square-foot museum explores biblical history from Genesis through the New Testament, with hands-on exhibits that include animatronic dinosaur models, dinosaur bones and fossils (including a $1 million allosaur fossil), striking botanical gardens, a world-class planetarium, and a zoo.

Currently under construction and scheduled to open by Christmas at the Ark Encounter is the new Answers Center. It will include a vast lobby, a 2,500-seat auditorium, and a 36,000-square-foot basement for workshops, other educational events, and concerts.

“We do our best to provide what resources we can and in a first-class way to help people get connected to our ministry,” says Ham. “We consider ourselves part of the church worldwide, and we seek to impact people’s lives, as God blesses.”