Tourists flock to £1million full-scale replica of Noah's Ark built by a carpenter who dreamt his country would flood



Carpenter Johan Huibers spent three years building the gigantic wooden boat, which holds an array of life-size plastic animals



Ark in Dordrecht is now open to visitors, and features two cinemas and a restaurant



A carpenter who spent three years and more than £1million building a full-scale replica of Noah's Ark has opened it to the public.

As many as 3,000 tourists a day can step aboard Johan Huibers' gigantic wooden boat in Dordrecht, in the Netherlands, which now boasts two cinemas and a restaurant alongside its menagerie of life-sized plastic animals.



Mr Huibers was inspired to embark on the ambitious project after having a dream in which he saw part of his native Netherlands submerged in a flood like the one featured in the Book of Genesis.

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Faithful recreation: Johan Huibers's replica of the ark, in Dordrecht, in the western Netherlands, is now open to the public

Miracle worker: Mr Huibers poses with two of the life-size plastic animals that live on his 450ft ark

He became obsessed with bringing the story of the Ark to life, and in 2004 he built a half-scale version and floated it along the country's canals.

HOW LONG WAS A CUBIT?

Long before the metric or imperial systems came along, craftsmen in various parts of the world dealt in less precise units known as cubits. As this was based on the length of a forearm, the exact value varies from one ancient civilisation to the next. It is most commonly defined as the distance from the elbow to the middle fingertip.

The Biblical cubit is generally thought to be about 18in, but Ancient Egyptian cubit rods measure closer to 20in.



Tourists flocked to see the smaller prototype when Mr Huibers opened it to the public, but the proceeds from admissions went straight back into funding his ambition to build a full-size ship.

The narrative of the ark, in which God commands Noah to prepare for a great flood sent to purge the world of evil, specifies that the boat was 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high.



Mr Huibers converted this ancient unit of measurement, which is based on the length of the forearm, to determine that his recreation had to be about 450ft long.

This puts the boat, nicknamed 'Johan's Ark', at more than half the length of the Titanic.



And though it may not be able to shelter two of every animal, as the original story dictates, it can hold 1,500 people - not to mention a menagerie of plastic creatures including giraffes, elephants and donkeys, as well as a few live chickens.

Two by two: A crocodile and cow are among the fake creatures on board the boat, which weighs almost 3,000 tons

Biblical proportions: A plastic giraffe pokes its head over the bow of the ark, which was inspired by a dream

As it weighs in at almost 3,000 tons and is made from Swedish pine reinforced with steel, it may be hard to believe that the ark is, in fact, seaworthy.

It is docked in the western city of Dordrecht, where Mr Huibers, the owner of a construction company, pieced it together with the help of some friends and two of his children.

In the 15th century, the city was the site of one of the deadliest floods in history, named St Elizabeth's flood, which is thought to have claimed as many as 10,000 lives.

Prototype: The half-scale replica that Mr Huibers built in 2004, later floating it through the Netherlands' canals

Ambition: Mr Huibers stands in front of two model elephants on his first ship in 2007

Genesis: A mural from the mid-16th century shows God ordering Noah to load two of every animal on to his ark to avoid the imminent Great Flood

VIDEO: Replica Noah's ark in Dordrecht is now open to visitors