A team hunting for the real-life Noah's Ark has created a 3D-printed model of a mysterious mound they believe could be the legendary lost ship. The researchers behind the Noah's Ark Scans project began drilling last month at the Durupınar formation, an eerie boat-shaped mound in eastern Turkey, just 29km south of Mount Ararat.
3D replica based on radar data
The explorers insist the 157-metre-long natural anomaly is actually an ancient vessel "that perfectly matches the biblical description of Noah's Ark found in Genesis 6." The crew drafted in architectural mapping firm FieldTech to produce a scale replica "of the Ark as it currently rests" using high-tech ground-penetrating radar data beamed from deep beneath the soil.
FieldTech said in a social media post: "The red bubbles represents the voids below ground, which were determined with geophysical analysis." They added: "We represent only scientific outputs here, which are only precise topography that we scanned, and geophysical results."
Drilling and laboratory analysis
Researchers have finished phase one of their field investigation, which included drilling more than 60ft beneath the site. Samples collected will undergo laboratory analysis.
Andrew Jones, vice-president of the Noah's Ark Research Project, told Fox News: "That's what we'll be testing this winter. Just to see if we can find any type of man-made activity or something that suggests decayed wood."
Claims and geological skepticism
Lauren Witzke, director of marketing and fundraising for the team, said last month she believed potential findings could disprove evolution. Posting from the Durupınar site on September 22, she wrote: "Core drilling has begun and the Big Bang Evolutionists are already on damage control mode. When we are done, university curriculums will need to be re-written, and Darwinism will be dismantled. This is the place where creation began anew."
Dr. Khosrow Bakhtar, an expert who spent decades working on US defence projects, recently claimed to have found massive underground corridors running through the boat-shaped mound. However, many geologists maintain that the formation is a natural geological feature rather than the remains of a vessel.
