Researchers searching for Noah's Ark near the peak of Mount Ararat in Turkey have detected underground voids and geological anomalies inside the Durupinar rock formation, according to reports citing the Turkish newspaper Milliyet.
Russian news agency TASS reported that ground-penetrating radar scans carried out at the site revealed hollow spaces beneath the surface, with full radar scan results expected within two months.
Mount Ararat, a snow-capped volcanic peak in eastern Turkey near the Armenian border, has long drawn researchers seeking the legendary vessel described in the Old Testament. The nearby Durupinar formation is a 164-meter boat-shaped geological feature that some scientists and biblical scholars suspect could be the location of the ark.
Subsurface Radar and Carbon Scans
Project leader Professor Cenker Atila said specialists conducted underground scanning and created detailed 3D models of the site. Scans revealed that the interior of the formation contains 40 percent more carbon than the surrounding terrain, a pattern that researchers note could indicate the presence of organic material or ancient wood.
The formation measures approximately 164 meters in length, which corresponds closely to 300 ancient cubits, the dimension specified for Noah's Ark in the Book of Genesis. A cubit was an ancient unit of measurement based on the length of the forearm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger.
Soil Sampling and Further Excavation
Researchers now plan to collect approximately 1,000 soil samples from across the Durupinar site to evaluate the chemical and geological data further before reaching definitive conclusions.
The fieldwork in Turkey follows another recent archaeological finding in the region, where researchers on the Taman Peninsula discovered an ancient winery in the winemaker district of Phanagoria. That excavation uncovered around 60 large clay fermentation vessels known as pithoi, each capable of holding between 600 and 800 liters of wine.
