Core drilling begins at Durupınar formation long linked to Noah’s Ark

An international team working under Turkish university leadership says it has begun permitted core drilling at the Durupınar Formation near Doğubayazıt in eastern Türkiye, a roughly 515-foot (about 157-meter) boat-shaped landform long studied by some researchers as a possible site of Noah’s Ark. Noah’s Ark Scans, partnering with Turkish universities including work directed by Prof. Dr. Cenker Atila of Sivas Cumhuriyet University, announced Sept. 23 that the 2026 expedition is collecting cores from depths of up to about 18 meters (nearly 60 feet) inside and outside the formation.

In the project’s own account, researchers say they have recovered layers of rich organic material they interpret as possibly decayed upper remains, encountered multiple cavities (including one filled with mud and water), and have not so far identified bedrock or solid limestone in holes drilled inside the formation. Andrew Jones, vice president of the Noah’s Ark Research Project, said that in one interior hole about 4–5 meters below the surface a layer was so hard that the drill bit broke, and that petrified or highly mineralized wood are possibilities the team wants third-party laboratories to test. The group also says it plans to send a GOPHER drone into mapped voids.

Independent confirmation that the material is wood, that the formation is a vessel, or that any sample dates to a biblical flood era has not been published. Lab analysis of cores and related samples is expected to continue into winter 2026–27, with broader project findings planned for 2027. Geologists have long argued Durupınar can be explained as a natural landform; the new cores are intended to test competing interpretations with physical samples.