OPINION:
Have the remains of Noah’s ark been found? That’s the explosive question sparking widespread debate in theological circles and on social media after a group of researchers claimed to have uncovered a boat-shaped structure underground near a mountainous region in Turkey.
The account of God sending rain on the Earth for 40 days and 40 nights is one of the Bible’s most famous stories, as the sins of man were so profoundly dreadful that the Lord wiped out all of humanity aside from Noah, his family and two of every kind of wild animal and creature.
“You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you,” God told Noah in Genesis 6:19 (NIV), with verse 20 continuing, “Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive.”
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Noah, who was in the ark with family members and these animals for about 370 days, listened to God’s prompts after spending decades building the boat. After the rains and waters tamed, Genesis notes that the “ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat” (Genesis 8:4).
For centuries, people have searched for the ark’s remains, hoping to find physical evidence to corroborate the biblical narrative. While numerous areas have been explored over the years, Turkish Army Capt. İlhan Durupinar located a spot in eastern Turkey near Mount Ararat in 1959 that has since become a focal point.
In aerial photos, Capt. Durupinar saw what resembled a “boat-shaped formation.” Later, from the 1970s through the 1990s, researcher Ron Wyatt, among others, intensified that research.
Given the biblical narrative that the ark rested on the “mountains of Ararat,” some believed the so-called Durupinar site was the potential resting place. But after much debate and analysis, many critics concluded that the shape was a natural geological formation, not the ark.
Despite endless debate and dismissals over the location, Noah’s Ark Scans, an organization of people interested in exploring the Durupinar site, has been making headlines over new research its founder says could prove the spot does, indeed, host the remains of Noah’s ark.
Andrew Jones and his Noah’s Ark Scans team believe the site is very likely the location of the ark, and he told me last year about barriers that have delayed a full analysis of the underground structure.
“We are just as interested as anyone else in either proving or disproving what this site is,” he said at the time. “There’s many factors involved — some are politics, so this is Eastern Turkey. You do have issues out there that could affect doing scientific work. Then, you have religious issues.
“If you’re going to pursue a scientific investigation to this site you have to work with a local university, which means you need to find a university and professors who are willing to put their career on the line looking for Noah’s ark, which, even for Islamic scholars, that could be a problem. People think you’re crazy, looking for something like this. And so, yeah, it’s very difficult.”
Flash-forward a year, and Mr. Jones and his team have made major strides in probing the area. Earlier this year, they secured a permit from the Turkish government to dig, and they are collaborating with a Turkish university and professor — requirements for any such expedition.
Regardless of whether people believe Mr. Jones’ contentions about the Durupinar site, it’s remarkable his team was able to rally university support and funding for the expedition.
In recent days, Noah’s Ark Scans continued to make waves, claiming that a “major ground-penetrating radar survey” in 2019 found “right-angles, linear features and other anomalies several meters down.” Mr. Jones also said there’s also evidence of a tunnel and organized patterns inside the supposed structure.
“In 2026, Khrosrow Bakhtar and BakhtarRadar confirmed this same massive tunnel that runs dead center through the formation, with organized patterns, corridors and three layers,” his team wrote in a recent social media update. “He said the structure beneath the surface was ‘extraordinary.’”
The team is continuing to pursue further testing and third-party laboratory testing. Meanwhile, critics continue to urge caution, maintaining that the underground area could simply be a natural formation.
Others urge Christians and others to wait for additional details and tests before reaching a definitive conclusion.
Regardless of what happens, the natural intrigue is fascinating and comes at a time when many archaeological discoveries have corroborated the Bible. There’s no doubt that finding Noah’s ark would ignite an avalanche of theological, political — and eternal — questions.
Is it possible Mr. Jones is on to something? We’ll have to wait and see. But the media attention and infatuation show there’s a real appetite for finding the vessel that has captivated mankind for centuries.
• Billy Hallowell is a digital TV host and interviewer for Faithwire and CBN News and the co-host of CBN’s “Quick Start Podcast.” Mr. Hallowell also is the author of four books.
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