Ark Encounter, which unveiled the 510-foot-long model in 2016, says that heavy rains in 2017 and 2018 caused a landslide on its access road, and its five insurance carriers refused to cover nearly $1 million in damages. Read more

It is a gift of "La banda degli Orsi" [The Band of Bears], which is a charitable organisation in Genoa that supports the city's Giannina Gaslini Pediatric Hospital.

The ark, which consisted of more than 140 kilograms of chocolate, took three days to build, and contains over 50 edible animals Continue reading

The "Ark Encounter" Christian theme park features a petting zoo, zip lines, live entertainment, a 900-seat auditorium and a 1,500-seat restaurant.

The attraction's founder, Ken Ham, said park is an evangelical tool aimed at teaching creationism, a literal interpretation of the Bible's Book of Genesis.

"I find some of the aggressive secularists try to shut down people talking about the Bible," Mr Ham said.

"So for us it's 'How can we get a message out there about the Bible?'"

The ark is 510 feet long, 85 feet wide, and 51 feet high, constructed based on dimensions derived from scripture, Mr Ham said.

Its three decks span more than 120,000 square feet.

Future phases of the project call for building "a walk through biblical history", as well as a Tower of Babel.

According to Mr Ham, US$62 million for the project was raised from investors who bought municipal bonds, and about US$38 million came from donors.

There has been criticism of local tax breaks for the enterprise.

The Rev. Bob Fox, head pastor at Faith Baptist Church in Georgetown, Kentucky, said the ark project blurs the line between church and state.

Mr Ham argued that tax incentives are performance based and are no different from those for other attractions.

Consultants hired by Ark Encounter's non-profit parent, Answers in Genesis, project the park will generate 20,000 jobs in the area and US$4 billion in tourism revenue, when combined with Mr Ham's already established Creation Museum.

The park itself has created about 350 jobs so far, Mr Ham said.

Dr James Krupa, who teaches evolutionary biology at the University of Kentucky, said the theme park was intended to "advance ignorance".

"That Ken Ham is trying to ignore vast evidence to the contrary and convince people the world is 6000 years old is an embarrassment to Kentucky, the US, and to Christianity," he told The Telegraph.

Sources

• CNN
• The Telegraph
• Religion News Service
• Image: Associated Press

Although researchers are unsure if all the creatures could have squeezed into the huge vessel, they are confident it would have handled the weight of 70,000 animals without sinking.

A group of master's students from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Leicester University studied the exact dimensions of the Ark, set out in Genesis 6:13-22.

Using those dimensions, the Archimedes principle of buoyancy and the approximate weight of various animals, they were surprised to discover that the Ark could have floated. Continue reading