Did Wikipedia remove the word "refugee" from the Searches for Noah's Ark article?

Yes. "refugee" appeared 2 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today it appears nowhere in the article, references included. We saved the article's opening paragraph at 6 moments between 2005 and 2025, and the counts come from those saved copies.

When did the Searches for Noah's Ark article stop using the word "refugee"?

The word appeared 2 times in the opening at its peak in 2005. It appears nowhere in the article today, checked against the live article on 2026-08-02.

How can I verify what Wikipedia's Searches for Noah's Ark article used to say?

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What did Wikipedia remove from the Searches for Noah's Ark article?

The opening as it read in 2005

Various hoaxes have claimed proof of the historical accuracy of scriptural and Christian traditional stories about Noah's Ark . In modern times, one reported hoax began being propagated on April 1 , 1933 : The Koelnische Illustrierte Zeitung , a newspaper in Cologne , Germany , published a story about an expedition sponsored by a Mrs. Putrid Lousey and including two professors -- one a "Prof. Mud" from "the Royal Yalevard University" in Massachusetts , the other "Prof. The story was accompanied by pictures including what looked like a giant boat on a mountainside, and also flintlock weapons, presumably for the explorers' protection in the wilderness, even though they could be seen to lack the necessary flints. (However see external links.) On the April 8 the paper editorialized about the article having been an April Fools Day hoax. Nevertheless, a refugee publication called Rubez adapted and published the story. In turn, a White Russian refugee publication called Mech Gedeona (meaning "Sword of Gideon"), ran a Russian-language version. The names became garbled in transliteration, but the same pictures were reprinted each time. The story lay largely dormant until the Mech Gedeona article came into the hands of the physician Charles Willis of Fresno, California , who provided it in 1972 to two Ark-search enthusiasts Eryl Cummings and his wife Violet . John Bradley , another Ark searcher, quickly found and provided them with the original German text, but even after this, the Cummingses pursued for nearly four more months the possibility that the joke names were mistranscriptions into German rather than a hoax. The tradition that Mount Ararat itself was the resting place of Noah's Ark is widely known, but not supported by the biblical account. (The Book of Genesis states only that it came to rest in a notably ambiguous and disputed area, "upon the mountains of Ararat" .) The assertion, widely disseminated on the Web , that the more specific association began with the Cologne paper's hoax, is either a misconception based on sparse research or an intentional hoax, and has the effect of disguising a long un-scriptural tradition. (The idea's older origin is easily demonstrated, for instance by the painting "Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat" by Hieronymus Bosch , who died in 1516 .)¹

This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 17662695.

The opening as it stood in 2010 14 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear

Mount Ararat (39°42′N, 44°17′E), satellite image — a stratovolcano , 5,137 metres (16,854 ft) above sea level, prominence 3,611 metres (11,847 ft), believed to have erupted within the last 10,000 years. The main peak is at the centre of the image. From at least the time of Eusebius (c. 275 – 339 AD) to the present day, the search for the physical remains of Noah's Ark has held a fascination for Christians , Jews and Muslims . Despite many rumours, claims of sightings and expeditions, no scientific proof of the ark has ever been found.

Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 369732998.

The opening as it stood in 2015 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear

Mount Ararat (39°42′N, 44°17′E), satellite image – a stratovolcano , 5,137 metres (16,854 ft) above sea level, prominence 3,611 metres (11,847 ft), believed to have erupted within the last 10,000 years. The main peak is at the centre of the image. Searches for Noah's Ark , sometimes mockingly referred to as arkeology , have been made from at least the time of Eusebius (c.275–339 AD) to the present day. Despite many expeditions, no scientific evidence of the ark has been found. The practice is widely regarded as pseudoscience , more specifically pseudoarchaeology . Unexplained Phenomena: A Rough Guide Special . The Oxford Companion to Archaeology .

Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 668462029.

The opening as it stood in 2020 3 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear

Regarded as pseudoarchaeology by geologists and archaeologists Mount Ararat (39°42′N, 44°17′E), satellite image – a stratovolcano , 5,137 metres (16,854 ft) above sea level, prominence 3,611 metres (11,847 ft), believed to have erupted within the last 10,000 years. The main peak is at the centre of the image. Searches for Noah's Ark have been made from at least the time of Eusebius (c.275–339) to the present day. Despite many expeditions, no physical proof of Noah's Ark has been found. Many of the supposed findings and methods are regarded as pseudoscience and pseudoarchaeology by geologists and archaeologists. The Oxford Companion to Archaeology .

Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 962093812.

The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 4 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear

Regarded as pseudoarchaeology by geologists and archaeologists A reliquary displaying a piece of wood at the museum of Etchmiadzin Cathedral in Armenia, said to be from Noah's Ark. By tradition Jacob of Nisibis received the wood from an angel during his search for the Ark. Searches for Noah's Ark have been reported since antiquity, as ancient scholars sought to affirm the historicity of the Genesis flood narrative by citing accounts of relics recovered from the Ark . With the emergence of biblical archaeology in the 19th century, the potential of a formal search attracted interest in alleged discoveries and hoaxes. By the 1940s, expeditions were being organized to follow up on these apparent leads. This modern search movement has been informally called "arkeology". In 2020, the young Earth creationist group the Institute for Creation Research acknowledged that, despite many expeditions, Noah's Ark had not been found and is unlikely to be found. Many of the supposed findings and methods used in the search are regarded as pseudoscience and pseudoarchaeology by geologists and archaeologists. The Oxford Companion to Archaeology .

Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1163271119.

The opening as it stood in 2025

Regarded as pseudoarchaeology by geologists and archaeologists A reliquary displaying a piece of wood at the museum of Etchmiadzin Cathedral in Armenia, said to be from Noah's Ark. By tradition Jacob of Nisibis received the wood from an angel during his search for the Ark. Searches for Noah's Ark have been reported since antiquity , as ancient scholars sought to affirm the historicity of the Genesis flood narrative by citing accounts of relics recovered from the Ark . With the emergence of biblical archaeology in the 19th century, the potential of a formal search attracted interest in alleged discoveries and hoaxes. By the 1940s, expeditions were being organized to follow up on these apparent leads. This modern search movement has been informally called "arkeology". In 2020, the young Earth creationist group the Institute for Creation Research acknowledged that, despite many expeditions, Noah's Ark had not been found and is unlikely to be found. Many of the supposed findings and methods used in the search are regarded as pseudoscience and pseudoarchaeology by geologists and archaeologists. The Oxford Companion to Archaeology .

Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1293194743. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.