Durupınar site

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Coordinates: 39°26′26.26″N, 44°14′04.26″E

An official road sign along the Silk Road in Turkey with the words Nuhun Gemisi, or "Noah's Ship," pointing the way to the Durupınar site and away from Mount Ararat.

The Durupınar site is a large aggregate structure in the Tendürek mountains of eastern Turkey. The site is two miles north of the Iranian border, ten miles southeast of Doğubeyazıt, in the Ağrı Province, and eighteen miles south of the Greater Mount Ararat summit, at an elevation of 6,449 ft (1,966 m) ~ 6,575 ft (2,004 m)^[1] above sea level. It is near a village known as Uzengili (once known as Nasar) and a mount named Maşher Daĝi.

The size and symmetry of the structure has struck enthusiasts as "boat-shaped", leading to its promotion by some as the original Noah's Ark. To the scholarly community,^[2] and even some creationists,^[3] this is merely an interesting natural formation.

The site is near several currently unnamed peaks, one of which is claimed as Mount Judi by enthusiasts, the mountain named in the Qur'an as the final resting place of Noah's Ark.^[4] A different mountain, on the Turkish/Iraqi border, is more usually associated with the Qur'anic ark story.^[5]

1 Discovery and exploration
2 Arzap Drogue Stones
3 See also
4 References
5 Sources
6 External links

[edit] Discovery and exploration

According to local reports, heavy rains combined with three earthquakes exposed the formation from the surrounding mud in May of 1948.^[6] It was subsequently identified by Turkish Army Captain İlhan Durupınar - for whom it was subsequently named - in a Turkish Air Force aerial photo while on a mapping mission for NATO in October 1959. Durupınar informed the Turkish government of his discovery and a group from the Archeological Research Foundation which included George E. Vandeman, İlhan Durupınar, and Dr. Brandenberger surveyed the site in September of 1960. After two days of digging and dynamiting inside the "boat-shaped" formation the expedition members found only soil and rocks. Their official news release concluded that "there were no visible archaeological remains" and that this formation "was a freak of nature and not man-made".

The site was then ignored until 1977, when it was rediscovered and promoted by self-styled archaeologist and amateur explorer Ron Wyatt. Throughout the 1980s Wyatt repeatedly tried to interest other people in the site, including ark hunter and former astronaut James Irwin and creationist Dr. John Morris, neither of whom were convinced the structure was the Ark.^[7]

In 1985, Wyatt was joined by David Fasold and geophysicist Dr. John Baumgardner for the expedition recounted in Fasold's The Ark of Noah. As soon as Fasold saw the site, he exclaimed that it was a ship wreck.^[8] Fasold brought along a state-of-the-art ground-penetrating radar equipment and a device called a frequency generator, set it on the wavelength for iron, and searched the formation for internal iron loci (the latter technique was later compared to dowsing by the site's detractors).^[9] The ground penetration radar yielded a regular internal structure as documented in a report to the Turkish government. Fasold and the team measured the length of the formation 538 ft (164 m), close to the 300 cubits (157 m, 515 ft) of the Noah's Ark in the Bible if the Ancient Egyptian cubit of 20.6 inches (0.52 m) is used.^[10]^[11] Fasold believed the team found the fossilized remains of the upper deck and that the original reed substructure had disappeared. In the nearby village of Kazan (formerly Arzap), so-called drogue (anchor) stones that they believed were once attached to the ark were investigated.

After a few expeditions to the Durupınar site that included drillings and excavation in the 1990s, Fasold began to have doubts that the Durupınar formation was Noah's ark. He visited the site in September 1994 with Australian geologist Ian Plimer and concluded that the structure was not a boat.^[11] He surmised that ancient peoples had erroneously believed the site was the ark.^[12]^[11]^[13] In 1996 Fasold co-authored a paper with geologist Lorence Collins entitled "Bogus 'Noah's Ark' from Turkey Exposed as a Common Geologic Structure" which concluded that the boat-shaped formation was a curious upwelling of mud that merely resembled a boat.^[13] In April 1997, during sworn testimony during an Australian court case, Fasold repeated his doubts and noted that he regarded the claim that Noah's ark had been found as "absolute BS".^[14]^[15]^[16]

Others such as fellow ark researchers Don Patten and David Allen Deal, reported that before his death Fasold returned to a belief that the Durupınar site might be the location of the ark.^[17] His close Australian friend and biographer June Dawes wrote:

He [Fasold] kept repeating that no matter what the experts said, there was too much going for the [Durupınar] site for it to be dismissed. He remained convinced it was the fossilized remains of Noah's Ark.^[18]

[edit] Arzap Drogue Stones

From [1] - David Fasold, a promoter of the Durupınar site, stands with a Drogue Stone in Arzap (crosses are believed to have been added later).

The Arzap Drogue Stones are a number of large standing stones found near the Durupınar site in eastern Turkey (east of Doğubeyazıt), a place believed by some evangelical Christians to be the site of Noah's Ark. The stones have been interpreted by David Fasold, a former marine salvage operator and treasure hunter, as so-called drogues, stone weights used as stabilizers of the Ark in the rough seas, on the grounds that they all have a hole cut through them on one end as if to fasten a rope to them,^[19] and because the existence of such stones was suggested by a reading of the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Babylonian mythical account of the flood. Twelve stones of this type have been identified by self-styled archaeologist Ron Wyatt with the aid of Fasold and others. Most were found near the village of Old Kazan (formerly Arzap).^[20]

From [2] - Mediterranean drogue stones of a much smaller size than the Arzap stones.

Drogue stones were a feature of ancient ships. Ancient drogue stones have been found in the Nile and elsewhere in the Mediterranean area. These drogue stones are heavy and flat with a hole for connecting line at one end. Their purpose was to create drag in the water (or in some cases along shallow sandy bottoms). If these devices were attached to one end of a boat, the drag produced as a wind-driven boat pulled it along through the water would cause the boat's hydrodynamic pointed bow or stern to face into the wind and the oncoming wind-blown waves.^[21].

A geological investigation of samples from the stones at Arzap, published by geologist L. Collins in co-authorship with their original discoverer David Fasold, suggested that they are formed of local rock and thus unlikely to have been transported to the site from Mesopotamia, one of the Ark's supposed places of origin.^[22]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

^ Specialtyinterests.net - The remains of Noah's Ark
^ Noah's Ark
^ Special report: Amazing ‘Ark’ exposé
^ Sura 11:044 from the Marmaduke Pickthall translation: "And it was said: O earth! Swallow thy water and, O sky! be cleared of clouds! And the water was made to subside. And the commandment was fulfilled. And it (the ship) came to rest upon (the mount) al Cudi and it was said: A far removal for wrongdoing folk!"
^ See Noah'sArkSearch.com
^ David Fasold, The Ark of Noah, (New York: Wynwood, 1988), pp. 319-325. See also [http://www.noahsarksearch.com/reshit.htm Edwin B. Greenwald, "Turk Reports 'Ship' Atop Mt. Ararat," Associated Press article, November 13, 1948.
^ The Ark of Noah, "Durupınar Site" from NoahsArkSearch.com, June Dawes, Noah's Ark: Adrift in Dark Waters, (Belrose, NSW: Noahide, 2000).
^ The Ark of Noah, p. 7.
^ That Boat-Shaped Rock … Is it Noah’s Ark?
^ The Ark of Noah, pp. 15-22 and others.
^ ^a ^b ^c Pockley, Peter (6 November 1994), “Theory blown out of the water”, Australian Sun-Herald
^ The Main Points about the "Noah’s Ark Trial" and Ian Plimer
^ ^a ^b Collins, L. D. and Fasold, D. (1996). Bogus 'Noah's Ark' from Turkey Exposed as a Common Geologic Structure. Journal of Geoscience Education 44, 439—444
^ Clifton, Brad (9 April 1997), “Doubts sank faith in Ark”, The Daily Telegraph (Australia)
^ Thomson, Kirstyn (9 April 1997), “Witness Tells How Ark Faith Sank”, The West Australian
^ Finkel, Elizabeth (18 April 1997). "Creationism Suit: Australian Geologist Battles 'Ark' Claim". Science 276 (5311): 348.
^ Deal, David Allen (2005). Noah's Ark: The Evidence. Muscogee, OK: Artisan. ISBN 0933677022.
^ Dawes, p. 184
^ Fasold, David (1988). The Ark of Noah. New York: Wynwood Press.
^ http://www.noahsark-naxuan.com/turkmap.htm (accessed 6 Sept. 2006)
^ Fasold, David (1988). The Ark of Noah. New York: Wynwood Press.
^ Lorence D. Collins and David Fasold (1996). "Bogus 'Noah's Ark' from Turkey Exposed as a Common Geologic Structure". Journal of Geoscience Education 44.

[edit] Sources

[edit] Books

Berlitz, Charles (1987). The Lost Ship of Noah. New York: Putnam. ISBN 0399131825.
Dawes, June (2000). Noah's Ark: Adrift in Dark Waters. Belrose, NSW: Noahide. ISBN 0646402285.
Deal, David Allen (2005). Noah's Ark: The Evidence. Muscogee, OK: Artisan. ISBN 0933677022.
Fasold, David (1988). The Ark of Noah. New York: Wynwood. ISBN 0922066108.
Nissen, Henri (2005). Noah's Ark Uncovered: An Expedition into the Ancient Past. City: Scandinavia Publishing House. ISBN 8772478136.
Sellier, Charles; David Balsiger (1995). The Incredible Discovery of Noah's Ark. New York: Dell. ISBN 0440217997.
Wilson, Ian (2002). Before the Flood. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312304005.
Wyatt, Ron (1989). Discovered: Noah's Ark!. Nashville: World Bible Society. ISBN 0942521439.

[edit] Articles

Finkel, Elizabeth (18 April 1997). "Creationism Suit: Australian Geologist Battles 'Ark' Claim". Science 276 (5311): 348.
Pockley, Peter (5 June 1997). "Geologist Loses 'Creationism' Challenge". Nature 387: 540.
“Noah battles Darwin in Australian courtroom”, Turkish Daily News, 14 April 1997, <http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/archives.php?id=2524>

[edit] Video

Ian Plimer and David Fasold. (1994) Crusaders for the Lost Ark [Documentary]. Sydney: Australian Broadcasting Corp..
The Discovery of Noah's Ark [Documentary]. Westlake Village, CA: American Media.
Ronald E. Wyatt and Mary Nell Wyatt. Noah's Ark [Documentary]. Nashville, TN: Wyatt Archaeological Research.