A puzzling mountain-side object in Turkey is the target of a hide-and-seek game of biblical proportions.  The high-flying and super-powerful commercial QuickBird satellite has begun snapping imagery of Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey - in a quest to spot the possible remains of what is believed to be Noah's Ark.

Aircraft pictures taken in the late 1940s, as well as more recent secret spy satellite shots of the area do show something odd - a bit of strangeness that has earned the title of the "Ararat Anomaly".  The search is on to identify that peculiar blemish in photographs.  Perhaps it's little more than a natural, albeit eye catching, geological formation. On the other hand, that anomaly could have a classic tale to tell, one that reaches back into biblical times.

Most Biblical scholars and Near Eastern archeologists and historians regard the Biblical accounting of Noah's Ark and a world-devastating flood as a story handed down by oral tradition.  

As told in the Bible, Noah constructed a large boat to house his family and sets of animals, saving them from flood waters due to 40 days and 40 nights of deluge. Once this Great Flood retreated, as depicted in the Book of Genesis, the ark settled down on the mountains of Ararat.

On the lookout trail for the real deal is Porcher Taylor, a senior associate (nonresident) at the prominent think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. He is an expert on satellite intelligence gathering and diplomacy.

Taylor has worked for years to compel the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to declassify satellite images and other information related to the unidentified feature perched on Mt. Ararat in Turkey.  Indeed, the secrecy wraps have come off a partial set 15,500-foot level on the mountain's Northwestern Plateau.

In later years, Taylor contends, two high-powered intelligence-gathering satellites -- the Keyhole-9 in 1973 and the Keyhole-11 in 1976 -- aimed their cameras at the mountain. What those photo shoots purportedly show created a stir amongst photo interpreters.

The anomaly is more than 600-feet long (183 meters), Taylor said, at least the section visible in aerial and satellite imagery. Photo interpretation specialists, he said, do think they perceive actual boat structure in the pictures.

Yet those images remain classified at the moment. Remaining unclassified, however, is Taylor's passion.  "I want to solve the enduring mystery of the Ararat Anomaly, no matter what it may be," he told SPACE.com

Thanks to the advent of commercial remote sensing satellites, taking a peek at the object on Mt. Ararat for a fee is feasible.  In October 1999 into the summer of 2000, images of the mountain and the object in question were snapped by the IKONOS spacecraft, owned and operated by Space Imaging, based in Thornton, Colorado. Those pictures didn't resolve the issue, one way or the other, however.  Now the lenses of another commercial satellite, QuickBird, operated by DigitalGlobe of Longmont, Colorado is on the prowl. "QuickBird is capable of shedding more light on what the anomaly may or may not be," Taylor said.

QuickBird was lofted in October 2001 and is billed as the world's highest resolution commercial imaging satellite. It can see things 2-feet (61-centimeters) across.

"We have acquired four images of Mt. Ararat and all have been cloud covered to date," said Chuck Herring, Director of Marketing Communications for DigitalGlobe. "We continue to task this event and will get Porcher Taylor an image as soon as we get a good image," he told SPACE.com.

Taylor is anxiously awaiting clear sailing by QuickBird over Mt. Ararat.

"Because of constant cloud cover it's tough. Where this thing is, whatever it is…it's basically  glacier, a permanent ice cap at 15,000 feet up on the mountain. It is a unique and unexplored site on Mt. Ararat. You're going to have to have ideal weather conditions and a lot of luck when you're flying over to see it," Taylor said  Meanwhile, Taylor anticipates that when QuickBird does produce the imagery goods, he'll have more leverage to convince U.S. President Bush and his administration to declassify those earlier Keyhole satellite shots.

Taylor may not have to wait too long.  Next month, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency unveils a load of vintage Keyhole-7 and Keyhole-9 pictures, declassifying the images and making them available for public scrutiny. He hopes Mt. Ararat photos are among those being released.

Taylor has at the ready a "world class" imagery team, ready to huddle over any new QuickBird images or older Keyhole photos.  A leader in that team is Farouk El-Baz, research professor and founding director of Boston University's Center for Remote Sensing.

El-Baz first gained world attention for his work on the Apollo program. He served as secretary of the lunar landing site selection committee, chairman of the astronaut training group, and principal investigator for visual observations and photography.

A native of Egypt, El-Baz later served as a science advisor to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and to King Hussein of Jordan.

He has been a pioneer in developing the field of remote sensing and is offering his expertise to what's truly resident on Mt. Ararat.

"There is absolutely enough hearsay…enough discussion about the topic to warrant looking into this, to see whether there is something tangible or not," El-Baz told SPACE.com.

El-Baz recounted his conversations with former Apollo 15 moonwalker James Irwin. The astronaut, now deceased, mounted six expeditions to Mt. Ararat in a search for the ark. Those treks were done through his High Flight Foundation, a non-profit evangelical organization based in Colorado Springs.  "Irwin told me he saw something. He felt it was an imprint on the land of the boat that was turned upside down…perhaps with some soil on top. So there was something there in his mind," El-Baz said.  El-Baz himself remains true to his training, waiting for scientific data to become available and help unveil the true nature of the Ararat object.

"There is absolutely nothing in all the pictures that we have seen up to now that is questionable in my mind. I can explain each and everything as a natural snow bank…a shadow. There is nothing," El-Baz said. But given the interest and the historical nature of such a find, the search is worth conducting, he added.  "From all the points of view, there is definitely enough in this to warrant spending time to resolve the issue, one way or the other. So I don't consider it a waste of time," El-Baz said.