The current excavation, led by archaeology professor Cenk Atilla of Sivas Cumhuriyet University, began fieldwork on June 28, 2026, near the Doğubayazıt district. Around 20 researchers and students from five countries have produced three-dimensional models of the formation, recorded GPS coordinates, and mapped the site before moving into underground surveys with radar systems also used by the U.S. Air Force.
“We tried to understand whether there are cavities, wood remains or other fragments underground that could have formed the shape of a ship,” Atilla told the Turkish newspaper Milliyet.
What the Formation Is
The Durupinar formation was first identified from aerial photographs in 1959 by Turkish army mapping officer İlhan Durupınar. Seen from above, it traces the outline of a large vessel, tapered at one end with a long central body, and measures approximately 164 meters in length. Turkey placed the site under protection in 1987 as a cultural and natural asset, though the government has never officially designated it as the site of the ark.
The dimensional argument has always been central to the case for Durupinar. Genesis gives the ark’s measurements directly: “This is how you shall make it: the length of the ark shall be three hundred amot, its width fifty amot, and its height thirty amot” (Genesis 6:15). An amah (plural amot) is the Biblical cubit, roughly 45 centimeters. At that standard, 300 amotcomes to approximately 135 meters. Researchers working with the longer Egyptian royal cubit, about 52.4 centimeters, arrive at a figure closer to 157 meters, which lines up more closely with the measurements cited by the current research team. The comparison is suggestive, not conclusive, since ancient cubit standards varied and the formation’s own dimensions are measured differently depending on the source.
In 2019, a documentary team led by Cem Sertesen, who had spent 22 years searching for the ark, worked with computer engineer and archaeologist Andrew Jones and geophysicist John Larsen to scan beneath the formation using 3D imaging technology, sending electric signals underground through cables. “These are the actual images of the Noah’s Ark,” Sertesen told the Hurriyet Daily News. “They are neither fake nor simulation. They show the entire ship buried underground.” He added a caveat that has echoed through every subsequent phase of research: “It’s a ship, but it’s too early to call it Noah’s Ark. We have to do a lot of work.”
In 2021, a separate team conducted Electrical Resistivity Tomography, or ERT, surveys and reported finding what they described as a man-made boat structure beneath the ground.
A more formal academic study followed in December 2022, when a team from Istanbul Technical University, Andrew University and Ağrı İbrahim Çeçen University collected 30 soil and rock samples from the site. Their analysis, led by researchers specializing in geophysics, chemistry and geoarchaeology, dated human activity in the region to between 5500 and 3000 BCE. Professor Faruk Kaya, involved in that research, was careful to separate the dating from the ark claim itself. “With the dating, it is not possible to say that the ship is here,” Kaya said. “Extensive research is required for this to emerge.” The three universities agreed to continue joint research in the years that followed.
Andrew Jones’s continued involvement is notable. He now leads the research group Noah’s Ark Scans, whose 2026 radar work, carried out with Dr. Khosrow Bakhtar’s BakhtarRadar imaging system, produced the volumetric images of the underground structures reported this year. The site has moved, step by step, from a single aerial photograph in 1959 to electric-signal imaging in 2019, ERT surveys in 2021, dated soil samples in 2022, and now a multi-level radar map paired with nearly a thousand planned soil samples in 2026.
Atilla’s team plans to move from radar mapping to targeted core drilling, which would allow physical samples and camera access to the cavities identified so far. Laboratory results on the current soil samples are expected within two to three months, with the full research program running through 2027.
