Inside Turkey's 2026 Search for Noah's Ark at the Durupınar Site

An international team led by Turkey's Sivas Cumhuriyet University spent the summer of 2026 scanning, sampling and drilling a boat-shaped rock formation near Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey, in what organizers call the most extensive coordinated study ever carried out at the site. The formation, known as Durupınar, has drawn Noah's Ark speculation for decades — but decades of prior investigation have also concluded it is a natural geological feature. This page will be updated as laboratory results and further findings are published.

A formation first spotted from the air

The Durupınar formation was first noticed on 11 September 1959 by Turkish army mapping officer Captain İlhan Durupınar in aerial reconnaissance photographs. Seen from above, its symmetrical, elongated outline resembles a ship's hull, which prompted early speculation that it might be the remains of Noah's Ark. The site, located roughly 30 kilometers south of Mount Ararat between the villages of Üzengili and Telçeker in Ağrı's Doğubayazıt district, has been investigated on and off ever since, drawing researchers, amateur explorers and religious pilgrims.

The 2026 excavation

Sivas Cumhuriyet University says the 2026 fieldwork began on June 28 and that its official field phase was completed on September 11, under a permit issued in May. Core drilling and sampling continued into late September: Ağrı Governor Önder Bozkurt said on 2 October that the work had ended two days earlier after about three months. About 20 scientists and students from five countries took part, led by Prof. Dr. Cenker Atila of the university's archaeology department, with Andrew Mark Jones, founder of the U.S.-based group Noah's Ark Scans, and Dr. Evrensel Barış Berkant as deputy leads. The team used precision GPS mapping, LiDAR, two- and three-dimensional digital modeling and ground-penetrating radar, which the university says imaged layers down to about 70 meters. Core drilling reached 18 meters at one point according to Jones, about 20 meters by his later account to Fox News. The university put the final tally at 366 core and soil samples from 1 to 15 meters deep, inside and outside the formation; the figure of roughly 1,000 samples cited in August described the planned scope.

What the data shows — and what it doesn't

So what did researchers find underground? Ground-penetrating radar, operated by Dr. Khosrow Bakhtar, detected subsurface anomalies with unusually regular edges and what the team describes as right-angle intersections, which it says could indicate cavities or structural divisions. Atila said in August that soil from inside the formation's outline held about 40 percent more carbon than soil outside it, and Jones has cited a 2024 study at Atatürk University that found three times more organic matter inside the outline. Cores brought up mostly soil rather than solid rock, along with some large boulders, Jones told DHA. Pottery fragments, which Turkish reports described as possibly pre-flood, were found beside the formation rather than inside it, Jones told Fox News, and have been dated by style only, from the early Chalcolithic to the Iron Age.

None of this, on its own, confirms an archaeological structure. Radar anomalies and elevated carbon readings are consistent with several natural explanations; organic matter also builds up naturally in slope deposits, as Jones himself acknowledged to Newsweek. No worked timber, tools or other unambiguous artifacts tied to a vessel have been recovered so far, and no laboratory results had been published as of 19 October 2026.

Decades of scientific skepticism

Mainstream geologists have long offered a natural explanation for the formation's shape. A 1996 study by geologist Lorence G. Collins and explorer David Fasold, published after both had separately investigated the site, concluded that Durupınar is a "doubly plunging syncline" — a folded layer of sedimentary rock that erosion and landslides shaped into an elongated, boat-like outline. Their analysis attributed earlier claims of metal fittings and petrified wood to naturally occurring minerals such as limonite and magnetite. In the decades since, no confirmed wreckage, structural timber or authenticated shipbuilding artifact has been produced from the site, and many archaeologists and geologists categorize repeated Ark claims about Durupınar as pseudo-archaeology. Geologist Murat Avcı has described the feature as a limestone block that slid downslope and was shaped by an earthflow. On 6 October 2026, Eric Vanden Eykel, a scholar of early Christianity, wrote in The Conversation that the site is a natural formation and that 2026 social-media claims outran the researchers' official statements.

Measured science, more sensational marketing

There is a notable gap between how Sivas Cumhuriyet University describes the project and how some of its outside partners have promoted it. The university's own statements frame the work as an open question — testing whether the formation's shape is entirely geological or shows any trace of human activity — although Atila has said the data make an ark more likely with each passing day. Noah's Ark Scans and its fundraising director Lauren Witzke have gone much further: the group's posts described the site as "100% not geological", and Witzke told Newsweek that proof of the ark would challenge evolution and that school curricula should be rewritten. Bakhtar's preliminary radar report, which describes corridors and chambers, has not been peer-reviewed. Jones himself told DHA on 30 September that outlets calling the find "100 percent confirmed" were getting ahead of the lab work.

Latest updates (as of 19 October 2026)

28 September: Sivas Cumhuriyet University announced the end of the field phase. It said the 366 samples had been delivered to Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University for carbon-isotope analysis and age determination, that two international documentaries were filmed during the season, and that evaluation and reporting would run until mid-2027. British adventurer Bear Grylls visited the site in late September for a documentary, Turkish media reported. 28 September: Jones told Newsweek that no material had yet been identified as ancient wood or dated. A drill bit broke on a hard layer at 4–5 meters in one hole; he said it could be mineralized wood or a rock block. Planned tests include organic-content measurements, mineralogy and microscopy, with inside cores compared against control holes outside. 2 October: Governor Bozkurt, after visiting the site, said there was no scientific certainty yet and urged the public to rely on official data. He said about 360 samples would be analyzed at Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University and noted the boost to tourism in Ağrı. 12–13 October: Noah's Ark Scans said phase one was complete, published a 3D model of the formation and announced a second phase, focused on geophysical methods it could not use this year and on areas not yet drilled.

What happens next

Laboratory analysis in Ankara is expected to continue through the winter. Jones has given several timelines for results: soil findings between March and May 2027 (in an 11 October livestream), and a final report in April or May 2027 (to DHA on 30 September). The university expects reporting to run until mid-2027 and plans to publish the results as a book, "Durupınar Formation 2026 Research", alongside three international conference papers; no conference dates have been announced. A second field season is planned for 2027. Cupure will update this article as new results, publications or independent assessments become available.