An independent researcher who has devoted his life to exploring a site near Mount Ararat, believed by some to be the remains of Noah’s ark, is continuing his expedition to investigate what he believes could be the real-life location.
Andrew Jones, who runs Noah’s Ark Scans, a group he described as “a loose organization of individuals interested in pursuing scientific work and promoting [the ark site],” told CBN News his organization received a permit to drill at the site and has been actively engaged in exploring the area.
“This whole project is under Sivas Cumhuriyet University in Turkey, and I’m one of the vice presidents of the project,” Jones said. “The president is Professor Dr. Cenkur Atila, an archaeologist in Turkey, and he’s the one who got the permits for the project. The other vice president for the project has a PhD in archaeology.”
The researcher said other professionals are involved as well, sharing these details to push back on critics he said have accused him of being a lone wolf who’s “taking pictures and making up stuff.”
Jones said technology is allowing them to look 95 meters beneath the surface, deeper than the team has ever gone. He believes this could yield better clues about whether Noah’s Ark is truly underground, though he and his team haven’t yet been shown a full analysis of the findings.
“[Researchers are] seeing anomalies like right angles — some of the same things we were seeing with the 2019 traditional radar,” Jones said. “[Our researcher is] saying the same thing, anomalies that are associated with right angles, corridors, but which could be backfilled with silt, he said, but they’re showing… this pattern of a structure below the surface.”
Part of the exploration compares local and natural geology to see if there are any anomalies under the surface. In a few months, Noah’s Ark Scans will have a full radar analysis and will be able to more fully discern what’s present there. Depending on what they find, a deeper exploration will unfold next year.
“Then we’ll see what happens,” Jones said. “That will lead to … next year’s season.”
In addition to radar, the team has collected over 300 coring samples that will be analyzed at a Turkish university. The team is using various tools, including cameras, to try and dig into the site while also protecting it from damage.
“Since we believe this is Noah’s ark, the whole point is … if we hit a void or cavity, we want to film inside, not just take soil samples,” Jones said. “We have actually three different camera systems to go inside, to go down these holes because the holes are small.”
Ultimately, the researcher said he knows he can’t convince critics to believe that the site is truly where Noah’s ark came to rest. But he did deliver a powerful message to detractors.
“People are criticizing us right now,” Jones said. “I just say, be patient. Hold on. We’re doing this with a scientific team. It’s a multi-year project. We still have to get the soil analysis done. We’ll go where the data goes. So we just ask people to be patient and see what we find.”
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