A discovery beneath a remote mountainside in Turkey may offer a fresh lead in the centuries-old search for Noah’s Ark.
Researchers examining the Durupınar Formation near Mount Ararat recently reported finding fragments of charred wood approximately 30 feet below ground.
The first photographs of the material have now been released. They show blackened, cracked pieces with visible grain and markings that researchers believe could have been left by ancient tools.
Archaeologist Dr Cenker Atila told FOX News: “One of the wooden fragments clearly appears to show evidence of human workmanship.
“Its surface seems to have been partially shaped and flattened with an axe or knife.
“The fact that these pieces were recovered at such a significant depth suggests they could date from a very ancient period.”
The samples have been sent to four independent laboratories in different countries. Specialists will determine their age, identify the wood and examine possible clues to its origin.
The formation’s location and boat-like shape have long prompted comparisons with the biblical account, which says the Ark came to rest in the “mountains of Ararat.”
Researchers examining the Durupınar Formation near Mount Ararat recently reported finding charred wood fragments approximately 30 feet below the surface
The mysterious Turkish formation has a shape that some observers believe resembles a massive boat
The Durupınar Formation is located about 18 miles south of Mount Ararat, Turkey’s tallest mountain.
Researchers also highlight the formation’s estimated length of roughly 515 feet, which they say is consistent with the vessel described in Genesis.
Based on their conversion of the biblical measurements, the Ark would have been about 515 feet long, 86 feet wide and 52 feet high.
Andrew Jones, founder of Noah’s Ark Scans and a member of the investigation, said in a statement: “We are testing this material to determine its age, identify the wood and search for traces of tree pitch.
“After decades of investigation, this could become an important piece of the puzzle.”
The search for pitch is significant because the Bible says Noah was instructed to coat the Ark’s interior and exterior with the waterproofing material.
Even so, the wood’s charred condition does not prove that pitch was present or that the fragments came from an ancient vessel.
Researchers say the find merits further study, but laboratory dating is still pending, and no link between the wood and Noah’s Ark has been established.
Researchers said some fragments appeared to have been intentionally cut or shaped with tools
The samples were sent to four independent laboratories in different countries for dating, wood identification and origin analysis
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The reported wood discovery follows radar scans that Dr Khosrow Bakhtar, a veteran US defense scientist, said showed patterns resembling chambers and corridors inside the formation, which is approximately 515 feet long.
“This is the most significant finding of my 45-year career. It is not related to geology, because we masked all the geological features,” Bakhtar said in a late-October press release.
The latest work builds on a 2019 radar survey that detected straight lines and angular shapes the team interpreted as possible walls, passageways and compartments.
This year, Bakhtar studied the formation with a more powerful radar system developed through US Air Force research and designed to penetrate deeper underground.
The team said the scans detected large underground boundaries and spaces that could represent sediment-filled chambers, corridors and tunnels.
Five prominent features appeared to create a possible tunnel system extending about 151 feet, with an average height exceeding 14 feet.
Researchers also reported a thick underground layer that seemed to contain three distinct sublayers, drawing comparisons with the biblical description of an Ark built with three decks.
A radar scan of Turkey’s Durupınar Formation shows underground features that researchers interpreted as possible buried passageways at the suspected Noah’s Ark site
The team reported finding pottery it says predates what biblical scholars describe as the Great Flood. At right is Turkish archaeologist Dr Cenker Atila of Sivas Cumhuriyet University, who leads the project
“In our holy books, Noah’s Ark had three levels; our radar studies also identified a formation with three levels,” said Atila, an archaeologist at Turkey’s Sivas Cumhuriyet University.
The team claims to have “100 percent confirmed” that the formation is a “man-made object” rather than a natural geological structure.
Jones, who has studied the area for almost 30 years, previously told Our News Outlet that radar surveys and drilling carried out inside the formation had found neither limestone nor solid bedrock.
“This disproves the idea that the site is a solid limestone block shaped like a boat by glaciers and weathering after sliding down the mountainside. It also challenges the theory that bedrock was surrounded by mud, creating the formation’s shape,” he said.
Further infrared thermography (IRT) studies could reveal a ship-shaped hull beneath the soil
The radar detected “a series of right angles” about 20 feet underground, which researchers believe could be rooms that housed animals on the Ark
However, eliminating those possibilities would not, by itself, prove that the formation was constructed by humans.
Radar data are not photographs of exposed rooms or passageways. Instead, the scans show how signals react to different underground materials and boundaries. Physical examination is needed to determine what produced those readings.
The team is using the scans to select promising areas for additional drilling.
Jones acknowledged that the evidence has not definitively established the formation as the biblical vessel.
“I firmly believe the Durupınar Formation represents the buried remains of Noah’s Ark,” he said, describing the scans as a “compelling new line of evidence” rather than conclusive proof.
