A team behind Turkey’s Durupınar formation has declared it has “100% confirmed” Noah’s Ark, but archaeologists and geologists insist the mound is natural, with no wreckage or artefacts.
New claims from Noah's Ark Scans
The new push comes from Noah’s Ark Scans, an independent biblical archaeology and research group led by US researcher Andrew Jones. The team has released what it calls a “first look” inside a mysterious underground structure it believes sits beneath the Durupınar formation, a boat-shaped mound that has fuelled Noah's Ark speculation for decades.
In the video, researchers are seen drilling and lowering a custom-built miniature subterranean robot, nicknamed “Gopher”, into freshly made core holes. The aim, they say, is to reach what they describe as mapped “voids” under the ground - areas they believe could point to an underground, man-made structure.
Experts maintain natural origin
Mainstream archaeologists and geologists maintain a firm consensus that researchers have not found Noah’s Ark. Critics have argued the latest claims are simply rehashing a theory many see as long discredited; “flogging a dead horse”, as some have put it, IFL Science reported.
Experts say the core problem is that Durupınar is widely understood to be natural, not man-made. Geologists have long concluded the boat-like outline was created by ordinary geological processes - including landslides, folding and mudflows - which can sometimes sculpt terrain into shapes that look familiar without having any human or “ark” involvement.
Lack of hard evidence
Archaeologists also point to the lack of hard evidence where it matters most: no confirmed wreckage, no structural timbers, and no authenticated artefacts that can be tied to an ancient vessel have ever been produced from the site, despite decades of interest. That’s why many specialists class the repeated attempts to “prove” Durupınar as pseudo-archaeology.
As IFL Science put it: “Since the ark hypothesis's inception all the way back in the 1970s, the consensus from virtually all credentialed geologists and archaeologists has been deeply skeptical, to say the least.”
So while the latest footage of drilling and the “Gopher” robot will excite believers and keep the mystery alive online, the expert verdict hasn’t shifted: there is still no confirmed discovery of Noah’s Ark near Mount Ararat. The Durupınar formation remains, in scientific terms, a striking shape made by nature.
