This week in Crazy S#$@ Rich People Do, we have Johan Huibers from The Netherlands who this week opened the doors to his Noah’s Ark re-creation on a river just north of Amsterdam.
Johan’s Ark, as it is being informally called, is built to the same biblical proportions as laid out in the book of Genesis but with some slight upgrades, including a Bible museum, plastic animals, and a live walk in bird cage to give visitors that “authentic feel”. The finished ship — which has just opened to the public on the Merwede River in the town of Dordrecht — is built 300 cubits long (about 450 feet), 50 cubits wide (70 feet or 21 meters), and 30 cubits high (45 feet).
Johan got the idea for the ark after watching the movie Evan Almighty in 1992 dreaming about a massive flood overtaking his low-lying motherland, The Netherlands, which will be spawned by the North Sea. Actually, it’s not Johan’s first ark either. He completed his first ark in 2004 that is just a half-scale replica of the original Ark and has reportedly used it to take tourists on canal trips until deciding to upgrade to a new, more practical-sized ark.
Johan’s original plans were to sail his ark on its maiden voyage to the London Olympics, but those plans were foiled after some safety concerns from authorities.
In all the Ark reportedly set Johan back an estimated 1 million euros.
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