On a jutting, ship-shaped outcrop called the Durupinar Formation, on a windswept slope in the Ararat Mountains in eastern Turkey, a team of deeply committed archaeologists, scientists and Ark hunters from around the world have been hard at it.

Carrying out light technology surface mapping (LiDar), drone imaging and thermal mapping. Using electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and military-grade ground-penetrating radar, and taking thousands of deep soil samples using core drilling. Even sending Gopher – a teeny underground robot originally designed for tracking wombats in Australia – down into the holes left by the drilling.

Always looking, looking, looking. Not just this year, but on and off for decades, at a cost of millions.

But finally, nearly 80 years after the rock formation was revealed ten miles from the border with Iran – after an earthquake and terrible storms in 1948 – it might all have paid off.

Because this week, members of Noah’s Ark Scans, the US-based team running the site, have been bursting with the very big news that they may, finally, have confirmation that this is the resting place of Noah’s Ark – nearly 4,300 years after the biblical floodwaters receded, the enormous wooden vessel came to rest near Mt Ararat and 6,744 animals and eight humans disembarked, blinking in the sunshine and rainbows, ready to save humanity.

Yes, you read that correctly: Noah’s Ark.

‘It is unreal, absolutely unreal. Surreal. But we are now 100 per cent certain we have a vessel, a gigantic ship on the mountain and it’s going to be world-shaping,’ says Lauren Witzke, a former Senate candidate, Christian activist and now marketing and fundraising director for Noah’s Ark Scans.

A large, boat-shaped geological formation located about 18 miles south of Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey

A team of deeply committed archaeologists, scientists and Ark hunters from around the world have been hard at it

‘It’s not rock, it’s a ship. A vessel. A massive ship sitting in the mountains of Ararat.’

Gosh, so it really did exist – with all the animals, two by two? It wasn’t just a story in the Bible?

‘Yes, of course!’ she exclaims. ‘We’ve got evidence of a man-made structure. We’ve got the measurements, data, the three tiers, everything as it was described in the Bible. We’ve got everything stacking up.

‘This is life-changing. This is it – the sign we’ve been waiting for – tangible proof of Noah’s Ark. It is our heritage. We all came from those eight people on that boat.’

If Lauren is so excited that she can’t stop talking, it’s little wonder. She’s a creationist – someone who believes the universe, Earth, and all living things were created by a divine power, as described in Genesis, rather than coming into existence through Darwin’s theory of evolution and the Big Bang. ‘It’s proof we didn’t evolve over millions and millions of years, so we can completely dismantle all that,’ she says. ‘They’ll have to rewrite textbooks, re-educate professors at universities and unravel all that Darwinism and deceit in our education system.

‘This is going to be very hard for modern science to explain away, and I am very curious to see what they come up with.’

Not surprisingly, she and the rest of the team are desperate to share the news and point out the many parallels and coincidences between the findings at this site and the biblical Ark.

For starters, the site is just 18 miles from Mount Ararat – the Bible states the ship came to rest ‘on the mountains of Ararat’.

But also the dimensions, which mirror the oddly specific Ark construction instructions which God gave to Noah just before he flooded the Earth to rid it of corruption, violence and most life.

According to the Bible, the Ark, made of cypress and covered with pitch, was to be ‘300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high’, roughly 515ft long, 86ft wide and 52ft tall – tall enough for three extra high internal decks – lower, second and third floors’, with ‘a door set in the side and an opening running near the top, finished to within one cubit of the roof’. The team here say that, using modern technology, they have evidence of a structure 515 to 538ft long, 85ft wide, and 52ft high, in a wide tapering boat shape.

There’s more.

While the research is yet to be confirmed, preliminary findings point to a three-level structure with a central corridor of about 234ft long, a parallel passage, and crossing corridors that meet at right angles – indicating the layout of designed hallways.

On top of all that, analysis shows significant differences in the soil within the boat shape and outside it – the former containing three times more organic matter, 38 per cent more potassium and an eight-fold difference in pH levels.

Project founder Andrew Jones said this week they had recovered samples from nearly 60ft down.

‘We have so far recovered layers of rich organic material that we believe could be the decayed top-tier remains of the Ark,’ he said.

‘It’s a boat, a bloody great boat sitting in the mountains!’ cries Lauren.

Of course, while these latest discoveries are new, the site is not.

The Durupinar Formation was first spotted by a shepherd in 1948, after huge storms and an earthquake altered the topography. It was named ten years later after the Turkish army officer who officially mapped it. Ever since, it has been the focus of frenzied investigating and theorising, particularly among creationists such as Lauren and Andrew, who believe God caused the earthquake in 1948 to throw up the Ark and quieten the huge surge of Darwinism taking over the Western World.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there has been plenty of pushback.

From geologists who have insisted that the formation was always one mass of solid rock. From experts pointing out that there is no evidence that the world was ever underwater – though more localised floods are of course possible and might well have inspired the story of Noah in the Bible. And particularly from Darwinists and atheists, those who believe that we were created through evolution over millions of years, not all descended from eight people in the Ark.

The dimensions mirror the oddly specific Ark construction instructions which God gave to Noah just before he flooded the Earth 

Which meant that those pursuing the cause have come in for plenty of flak – nicknamed ‘Arkaeologists’ and ‘pseudo archaeologists’ – and have struggled with funding. But they have pressed on because, as Lauren puts it: ‘We don’t need proof to believe, but this discovery could save millions, perhaps billions, of souls.’

But before we get swept away with all the excitement, perhaps we should pause a moment. Because for those of us who are not creationists, it’s all quite a jump. Yes, we all loved the story of Noah’s Ark, drew pictures of it in school, made papier-mache models of it and moved the little animals in and out, two by two. But wasn’t it – like many stories in the Bible’s Old Testament – more of a metaphor? The flood representing chaos and judgment, the Ark a symbol for safety, faith and the preservation of life, and the rainbow at the end, hope? Rather than a real boat with thousands of wild animals and just eight humans on board.

‘No, no, no,’ says Lauren. ‘It is real, like every story in the Bible.’ Andrew adds: ‘Some people think it is like looking for the North Pole or Santa Claus, but if you believe in God and think of the Bible as a historical document, then finding the Ark changes everything.’

Andrew – a Seventh-day Adventist – has dedicated much of his life to this mission. ‘I have been obsessed ever since I heard a talk at my church about the Durupinar Formation when I was about 12,’ he says.

He first visited the site in 1997 and was completely blown away.

‘It was the biggest thing seeing this boat shape, just sitting there on the side of the mountain all by itself. All bare and lonely.’ As soon as he’d made some money in computer programming, he was back, seeking permits, permissions and archaeologists.

Since 2014, he’s been back and forth, navigating delays with civil unrest and the pandemic, struggling to find funding, but always keeping his faith. ‘God has always driven it along,’ he says. ‘Working behind the scenes.’

Lauren, a self-proclaimed ‘flat-earther’ who once called the Covid vaccine a ‘satanic plot’ – says her calling came more recently and direct from God. ‘God laid it on my heart last year – it was very random and I can’t explain it, but I knew it was something I needed to do, so I started looking at different Noah’s Ark projects. I found Andrew and things accelerated.’

But while Laura and Andrew and many of their donors are creationists, the team includes bona fide and highly respected archaeologists and geologists from around the world.

The wider investigation is directed by archaeologist Cenker Atila of Sivas Cumhuriyet University. Dr Khosrow Bakhtar, of Bakhtar Research and Engineering LLC, led the radar survey. Both are highly respected. While this week’s findings are preliminary, pending full results, what does seem increasingly clear is that the Durupinar Formation is not a solid lump of rock, but instead, some sort of underground structure, perhaps in the shape of a boat.

Which does not, of course, mean that it is Noah’s Ark. Some say it might be the remains of another very large boat that inspired the Bible story 4,300 years ago. When I speak to Professor Dr Atila, he confirms that the research does suggest a ship-like structure on the site but cautions, ‘despite these findings, we cannot say, “yes, this is Noah’s Ark”.

‘The results of the soil samples will provide some of the most important information. If we find traces of organic matter, animal or human remains, faecal material, or similar organic residues, we will be able to speak with much greater certainty.’

And next year, we might have a better idea because the team will be sending in DNA experts to see if they can find evidence of ancient animals. Maybe even – if they can find enough very old human waste – Noah’s DNA.

Goodness.

All in all, as the Gopher trundles around the site, high-resolution camera flashing, there’s a lot to think about. And, if it does turn out to be Noah’s Ark, an awful lot of questions to answer.

Not just about Darwinism and the Big Bang and the meaning of life, but some rather more prosaic issues. Such as how Noah and his seven family members could look after all those animals for 150 days and nights. Where did all the food go and why didn’t all the animals kill each other?

H elpfully, one pressing issue – how could a boat possibly stay afloat with such a massive cargo? – has already been firmly dispatched by scientists at University of Leicester. In 2014, they proved that, had Noah used God’s exact instructions, his Ark could have stayed afloat with a staggering 70,000 animals on board.

For now, though, as the weather chills in the mountains of Ararat, the research season draws to a close and team members await a definitive report, the focus is preserving the site – which is apparently already crumbling and decaying in the top layers – and hoping that the Turkish government continues to let them investigate what could be one of the greatest wonders of the world.

Or not.