New Drilling at Controversial ‘Noah’s Ark’ Site Reveals Organic Material and Mysterious Underground Cavities

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. 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.

• The team drilled up to 18 meters, nearly 60 feet, inside and outside the boat-shaped outline of the site.
• Core samples included sequences of soil and sediment, intervals of organic-rich material, and cavities.
• The drill bit broke when the team struck a layer harder than limestone, suggesting the presence of petrified wood.

The research team is 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. The team has completed a months-long mapping effort at the site, including 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.

The team’s findings have sparked controversy, with some researchers and scientists questioning the validity of their claims. While the research team awaits the results of its most recent laboratory tests, the group has another exploration of the supposed Noah’s Ark site already planned. The team 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. The robot is equipped with a high-resolution camera designed to enter narrow borehole access points without opening large excavation trenches. The team is collecting physical samples for laboratory analysis, with more fieldwork planned next year.

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