Drilling begins at ‘Noah’s Ark’ site as…
Researchers have begun drilling into a mysterious, boat-shaped formation in the mountains of jap Turkey, hoping an underground robot will unearth the reply to one of biblical historical past’s largest mysteries.
Members of the Noah’s Ark Scans expedition consider the Durupinar formation, situated in jap Turkey close to Mount Ararat, may mark the ultimate resting place of the vessel described in Genesis.
“Good morning from the outer rims of Noah’s ark,” the project’s advertising and fundraising director, divisive Christian activist Lauren Witzke, wrote in a Tuesday update.
“Core drilling has begun and the big bang evolutionists are already in damage control mode,” she continued.
Researchers have began drilling at Turkey’s Durupinar formation, utilizing a customized robot to search for the stays of the biblical Noah’s Ark. Lauren E. Witzke / Facebook
Witzke said the expedition had Turkish authorities approval and oversight from local universities, with “some of the most brilliant minds in the world” participating.
She made the sensational declare that, “When we are done, university curricula will need to be rewritten, and Darwinism will be dismantled.”
“This is the place where creation began anew,” she enthused.
Witzke is a controversial determine in American politics.
The former Senate candidate is a self-proclaimed “flat-earther,” has voiced assist for the right-wing conspiracy concept QAnon, and once called the Covid vaccine a “satantic plot.”
Researchers drill into the Durupinar formation, a boat-shaped formation in the mountains of jap Turkey, on Tuesday. Lauren E. Witzke / Facebook
But while Witzke handles publicity for the workforce, it contains bona fide archaeologists and geologists from around the world, such as Project Director Dr. Cenker Atila, from Turkey’s Sivas Cumhuriyet University.
A chequered historical past
A long line of researchers have visited the controversial “ark” over the years and drawn very different conclusions.
The Durupinar formation was formally found in 1959, when a Turkish Army captain captured it in an aerial photograph while mapping the world.
Local researchers carried out surveying, digging and dynamiting, but couldn’t discover any archaeological evidence and concluded that the formation was a natural anomaly.
Modern geologists agree, widely viewing the site as a boat-shaped ridge made of limestone and volcanic clay that was sculpted by erosion.
After that initial probe, the “ark” lay dormant until the Nineteen Eighties, when American salvage skilled David Fasold used ground-penetrating radar to study the site and grew to become satisfied he was wanting at the fossilized stays of a ship’s higher deck.
Fasold measured the size of the formation as 164 meters, close to the 300-cubit (157-meter) size of the ark quoted in the Bible.
There was also the matter of the “drogue stones”: large carved stones scattered northwest of the site — with holes cut through their higher ends — which he believed have been historical sea anchors, cut free from the ark when the flood receded.
Skeptics argue the stones are merely historical memorial markers or tombstones.
The portray “The Noah’s Ark on Mount Ararat,” created in 1570 by artist Simon de Myle. Getty Images
Years after his work at Durupinar, Fasold appeared to have a change of coronary heart; publicly repudiating the ark concept as “absolute BS.”
But his Australian good friend and biographer June Dawes maintained that he went to his grave believing he had discovered the ark.
What is the 2026 expedition doing?
In current years the site has been probed with ground-penetrating radar again; this time by the Noah’s Ark Scans expedition, which claims it has “already mapped what looks like corridors and chambers under the surface, including one hallway that runs more than 250 feet.”
The next step can be to “drill narrow cores down into those spaces and send in Gopher, an underground robot built to go where a person cannot,” according to the group’s fundraising web page.
Witzke claimed her workforce’s research would rewrite historical past. Lauren E. Witzke / Facebook
Gopher has been outfitted to gather high-resolution footage and soil samples under the floor.
It was designed by an Australian engineer: Dr Robert Ross from La Trobe University.
“The robot was basically repurposed based on a robot that I originally built for wildlife ecologists to explore wombat burrows (WomBot) and Armadillo Burrows in French Guiana (ArmaBot),” Dr Ross told news.com.au.
The Noah’s Ark Scans fundraiser said the project required USD$600,000 (A$843,000) to start drilling.
As of Tuesday, it had only raised a small fraction of that; but drone footage shared by Witzke appeared to show that drilling had commenced.
The expedition is now racing against the onset of winter, which can freeze the ground and power researchers to stop operations until next 12 months.
It might be a matter of time before Gopher settles the long-debated thriller of Durupinar for good.
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