An international research team led by the privately funded Christian organization Noah’s Ark Scans and supported by archaeologists from Sivas Cumhuriyet University has reported a series of successful core drilling excavations at Turkey’s Durupınar formation.
The controversial boat-shaped feature is believed by some to represent the remains of Noah’s Ark from the biblical Old Testament. Among the team’s recent findings is the claim that one of the drills used during the operation shattered once it encountered material the team believed may be petrified wood.
“I believe this is Noah’s Ark; that’s why I’m putting the Durupinar site through the most rigorous testing possible,” explained the organization’s founder, Andrew Jones.
The research team’s announcement appeared in a press release issued by Jones’s organization, and the results of their findings have not undergone scientific peer review.
The announcement includes initial observations that the drilling did not encounter any limestone bedrock, which, according to Jones’s organization, challenges the mainstream scientific explanation that the site is simply a rock formation. The core drilling effort also experienced a broken bit, which the team said suggests the potential presence of ancient petrified wood instead of comparatively softer limestone.
After future laboratory testing of the core drilling samples designed to provide further insight into the Noah’s Ark-shaped formation’s composition, the team is also planning to send a robot into the subterranean tunnels and chambers identified by previous site scans to search for more clues about its nature and origin.
Decades of Debate Surround ‘Noah’s Ark’ Site
The Durupınar formation is a 157-meter (515-foot) boat-shaped surface feature that first gained attention in 1959 when Turkish Army Capt. İlhan Durupınar spotted it.
Because of its unusual curved shape, some researchers have wondered whether the formation could potentially be the petrified remains of an ancient sea vessel. This, along with the formation’s location, which echoes beliefs about the alleged location where Noah’s Ark came to rest in the Old Testament, has led to speculations that the site could be the famed vessel built by Noah, as described in the book of Genesis.
In 1988, an investigation to determine whether the ‘Noah’s Ark’ formation contained remains of petrified wood or limestone bedrock, as suggested by geologists, attempted to solve the faith-versus-science argument by drilling holes.
According to the Noah’s Ark Scans team, those holes extended to only “a fraction of the depth now being sampled,” offering limited value. Further, the samples in the earlier study were “corrupted” by water used to cool the drill bits, rendering tests inconclusive, according to Jones and his team.
Jones’s team, which includes U.S. Defense Scientist Dr. Khrosrow Bakthar, the inventor of the Bakthar Radar used to map much of the formation’s underground detail, has completed a months-long mapping effort at the site. The work includes the creation of three-dimensional models, collecting soil samples “inside and outside” the Noah’s Ark formation’s outline, and assembling an array of high-resolution surface imaging of the entire area. This work prepared the team for the core drilling effort.
Hints of ‘Decayed Wood’ and Organic Materials
According to a press release announcing the new work, core holes were drilled within the boat-shaped outline and in “control” locations well outside the formation’s area. These control samples offered a comparison set for future lab tests of samples collected within the outline of the Noah’s Ark site.
According to the team’s announcement, samples collected during the effort included “sequences of soil and sediment, intervals of organic-rich material, and cavities.”
“For the first time in history, we are performing an extensive, permitted deep core drilling survey inside and outside the Durupınar Noah’s Ark site, recovering samples from depths of up to 18 meters, nearly 60 feet,” Jones explained.
The researchers said the first samples include rich organic layers that could be evidence of ancient “decayed” wood. Jones, who describes himself as a believer in the historical veracity of the Noah’s Ark story, said the effort also revealed multiple hidden cavities, “including one filled with mud and water.”
One moment Jones highlighted from the work involved the ‘dry’ drilling system the team used, which does not rely on water. At one point, one of the drills suddenly stopped when the team “struck a layer so hard that the drill bit broke.” Jones said this occurred when the bit was 4-5 meters below the surface, and after the drilling system “had already penetrated the overlying material.”
“Whatever the core drill struck was harder than limestone — hard enough to break the bit,” Jones explained.
While lab tests will be needed to confirm the material’s composition, the researchers noted that if petrified wood from an ancient vessel caused the infamous formation, its harder-than-limestone status could explain the drill suddenly stopping.
“Petrified or highly mineralized wood [is] both a possibility we want to investigate through third-party lab testing,” Jones said.
Controversial Claims
Interpretations of the Durupınar formation as being purported physical evidence of events described in the Old Testament remain controversial. As previously reported by The Debrief, Jones and other team members of Noah’s Ark Scans have expressed views indicating that they already believe the Durupınar site represents the literal remains of the vessel ascribed to the Biblical character Noah, despite the ongoing investigations they are undertaking in an attempt to provide evidence for such beliefs.
Even some prominent young-Earth creationists have pushed back on Jones and his team’s claims. Ken Ham, the founder, CEO, and former president of the Christian apologetics organization Answers in Genesis, has criticized the group’s members for being “convinced of what this site likely was” before reviewing the results of geophysical surveys, arguing that the group’s findings fail to “objectively assess the raw geophysical data by canvassing other interpretations.”
To date, the research conducted by the Noah’s Ark Scans team has not been published in a formal scientific journal or undergone peer review, and has only been presented in press releases and on the organization’s website.
While the Noah’s Ark Scans team awaits the results of its most recent laboratory tests, the group has another exploration of the supposed Noah’s Ark site already planned. According to the team, this effort will follow up on earlier ground-penetrating radar scans that identified “linear features, right-angle intersections, layered anomalies, and elongated voids.” The researchers suggested these underground voids could be corridors to ‘chamber-like places,’ related to an ancient seagoing vessel.
Instead of more drilling, the team will deploy GOPHER, a custom-built robot named for the ‘gopher wood’ described in the book of Genesis. To explore the inner areas, GOPHER is equipped with a high-resolution camera that the team said is “designed to enter narrow borehole access points without opening large excavation trenches.”
“This is a major breakthrough in our ability to investigate what lies beneath this remarkable site,” explained Lauren Witzke, a Fundraiser for the Noah’s Ark Scans organization and self-described Christian activist, according to the group’s website.
Jones echoed those sentiments, noting that the team is “collecting physical samples for laboratory analysis, with more fieldwork planned next year.”
“These current findings challenge claims that this is simply a natural shape made of limestone or bedrock,” Jones said, adding that these first investigations have “opened an entirely new chapter in the Noah’s Ark investigation.”
Christopher Plain has spent the last six years as Associate News Editor and Head Science Reporter at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his novels at plainfiction.com, or email him at christopher@thedebrief.org.