In October 2019 a team of geophysical survey specialists from the United States surveyed the Durupinar boat formation over the course of four days. During that short trip the team was able to scan the whole ark site with both 250 MHz and 100 MHz antennas. The team was also able to use the 250 MHz antenna and do a grid survey on the three proposed excavation sites chosen from the 2014 resistivity scans. What was not accomplished due to different reasons was a 500 MHz shallower scan of the boat or any scans at the ruined house and grave site location in Arzap (aka “The Village of Eight”). This site Ron Wyatt believed to be the grave plot of Noah and his wife based on the petroglyphs carved on the now missing giant stone markers. Before any excavations can take place at the boat formation and at the ruined house and proposed grave site all the scans have to be completed per the Turkish archaeologists. On top of that the Turks have asked us to help scan a number of other sites in the area that they are working on. The GPR equipment they have access to in this area is not of the same quality as to what we will be bringing over accoding to what they told us in our most recent meeting. More details about the geophysical results of the 2019 expedition will be made available to the members who financially support this project.

Recently some individuals from the United States have been claiming in private messages and in a new YouTube interview that the Turks are trying to “write Ron Wyatt’s name out of the Noah’s ark discovery” (not an exact quote). Sadly this misinformation is considered an attack by the Turks against their efforts to promote Noah’s ark and has consequences and is being publicly spread around by individuals who should know better. Are the Turkish authorities really trying to remove Ron Wyatt’s past efforts from the story of the Durupinar site? Absolutely not. There has been no evidence presented to support this type of unwarranted attack. The Turks have put forth various marketing efforts for the Durupinar ark site using different books, press releases and even a documentary film about the initial discovery and early 1960s efforts to promote the site by the Turks who discovered the site. Telling the story of the 1960s events in no way is an attempt to belittle or remove Ron’s 1970s-1990s efforts at the site. That would be like veterans of the Battle of the Bulge in WWII getting upset that a book about the earlier Battle of Normandy doesn’t mention their later battle. In fact the Turkish book about the Durupinar ark site by Turkish film director and author, Cem Sertesen, and tourism official, Erkan Kösedağ, mentions the later work done by Ron Wyatt, David Fasold, Dr. Salih Bayraktutan and Dr. John Baumgardner and this book was later edited by Discovered Media and some of the data about Ron Wyatt in the book was fixed in the English edition. A whole new chapter about the 2014 resistivity scans was also added in thus introducing the resistivity results to a Turkish audience. This chapter’s text and graphics were mainly taken from John Larsen’s website and reports submitted to the Turkish government. The authors of this book were happy with the edits in the English edition. To say the Turks are trying to downplay or hide Ron Wyatt’s research or any other foreigner’s efforts at the ark site is ludicrous and easily disproved. A private video rebutting these and other attacks will be put up on the membership website soon.

This attack again doesn’t state the facts. It is a fact that the Durupinar ark site is in the country of Turkey. It is also a fact that it would be a national treasure if fully proven and accepted by the scientific community. It is also a fact that any excavation in the country of Turkey would require professional fully qualified Turkish professors of archaeology to do a legal excavation that would be accepted by the government and the scientific community. Those are facts. To assume that foreign lay people could come in and do their own private excavation is a fantasy and would be illegal too. To give an example, let’s say a group of foreign tourists are really interested in the history of the Civil War in America and wanted to excavate the Gettysburg National Military Park. Would Americans allow private lay individuals to dig holes at that national park to satisfy their curiosity? Of course not! Same in any country. Now with that said the Turks involved with this new research into the Durupinar Noah’s ark site have asked Discovered Media for help in specific areas of their project and have taken advice from us about which areas could provide the best results during an excavation or geophysical survey, etc. So in this regard it is a team effort and we are thankful and grateful to be a part of this important project. The Turks rightly are in charge but are also smart to work with those who have studied the site over the years and have knowledge of previous private survey work done at the site. Discovered Media was present at both the 2014 and 2019 geophysical scans and has been involved in the investigation of the research of Ron Wyatt’s work at the site for many years since the early 1990s. 

Excavations will only happen after the geophysical surveys (which include GPR scans) are finished and the core drilling is done. The Turks are very methodical with their plans and do not want a destructive pit dug on the boat formation before core drilling can determine hopefully what some of the layers are that we see in the geophysical survey results done in 2014, 2019 and this year. We are taking this one step at a time with them and the focus right now is to get the GPR scans finished and the core drilling work too.

We are still working through how volunteers can be used for the project. We have discussed this with the Turkish archaeologists and will announce in the future what has been decided. We do know that Discovered Media will have exclusive tours of the sites with access to the professionals involved so that those on the tours can see the work being done and ask questions. Discovered Media will also have exclusive media rights to the excavation details for specific areas of the world and will be able to present these exciting discoveries thanks to your generous financial support and prayers!

Archaeology is a destructive science. Once you dig a hole and remove material you can’t put it back. Having the best data as to where to excavate is key and that is where geophysical scans and core drilling come into play. The core drilling will hopefully tell us about the layers under the ground that are showing up in the geophysical survey scans and the drilling would only involve a 3 inch to 4 inch size core hole versus a 5 meter square pit dug into the boat formation. Excavations would follow after this is done.

It is true there were possibly 2 or 3 other groups at different times over the last few years who were trying to get permits to excavate the Durupinar ark site. Even Ron Wyatt last attempted to excavate the boat formation in the 1990s. Discovered Media’s current efforts at the site started right after the October 2014 resistivity survey expedition, Andrew Jones talked to his long time local friend and guide, Zafer Onay, about doing more work on the site. Ultimately this lead to efforts to try to get permits to excavate the site in the summer of 2015 but due to instability in the region that summer and in 2016 with the coup attempt no excavations involving Discovered Media have been done. Each group attempting to do work in the region has their own guides and contacts and interests and goals. While it would be nice if all the resources were pooled together to do a joint effort so far for different reasons this has not been possible. Maybe in the future things will change. For now we feel our work directly under the Turkish archaeologists is the best bet to finally making an excavation happen.

Many people have tried to excavate the Durupinar ark site including the individual from Sparta, Tennessee who is attacking the current efforts. Discovered Media’s efforts started privately in 2015 and in 2016 we publicly announced a call for volunteers via email to specific individuals. Two weeks before we were to fly out to start the work a coup attempt occurred in Turkey. The country was placed under a state of emergency. The emergency lasted until July 2018. In 2017 and 2018 no excavation was publicly announced due to this situation. In February 2019, Discovered Media participated in a pre-recorded TV series about the Noah’s ark discovery in which a public call for volunteers was made in one of the episodes. These episodes aired in May 2019. We were told by the Turkish archaeologist in the fall of 2018 that the summer of 2019 looked positive for work on the ark site and so we wanted to gather interest from possible volunteers. Sadly in the summer of 2019 the Turks told us we could only do the excavations if new geophysical surveys (i.e. ground penetrating radar scans) and core drilling were done. They would not budge on this requirement and they required their team to be involved. In October 2019 we started the scan work. We hope to complete it this summer along with the core drilling. This is where we are currently at today. You have to go with the flow with events in the Middle East. God is ultimately in control and we leave the excavations in His hands. We will keep on trying whenever He opens the doors to do work at the site as we believe this would be a treasure the world needs to see at this time in history and one that Turkey would also benefit financially from with tourism. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again as the poem goes. 

Discovered Media works with any volunteer interested in helping with the project. Over the years many individuals, families and businesses have donated to the overseas research in the form of financial support, equipment, frequent flyer miles and their expertise and time by coming along and helping on a trip. We are not officially contracted or partnered with any other organization or family or person in the United States or any other country outside of Turkey. In Turkey we are working directly with the relevant authorities and professional archaeologists interested in excavating the Durupinar ark site. Discovered Media has never been under any contract to take orders, directions or instructions from any other person, family or organization and has from the start done this work on their own putting in 100s of hours of their own time doing research and planning and traveling to these remote sites to explore and document them and used many of times their own funding and time off work. We appreciate the interest, financial support and daily prayers of all following this project.

Discovered Media normally operates a wide range of tours across the Middle East. Due to the pandemic almost all countries in the Middle East are still closed to tourism or are only now slowly opening back up. We will let everyone know who’s interested in seeing these sites when our next tour dates are scheduled. We hope to start up again this fall starting in September or October. You can add yourself to our email list by filling out this contact form here: https://discoveredsinai.com/contact-us/

Please fill out our form on the Contact Us page of this website here: https://discoveredsinai.com/contact/