Durupınar

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From Noah's Ark: Adrift in Dark Waters - the Durupınar ark site with site promoter David Fasold in the foreground
From Noah's Ark: Adrift in Dark Waters - the Durupınar ark site with site promoter David Fasold in the foreground

The Durupınar site is a large boat-shaped structure in the Tendürek mountains of eastern Turkey. The site is exactly at 39°26′26.26″N, 44°14′04.26″E 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 approximately 6,300 feet. It is near a village known as Uzengili (once known as Nasar) and a mount named Maşher Daĝi. It is near several currently unnamed peaks, one of which some claim to be al Cudi (pronounced "Judy" in Turkish) which was named in the Qur'an as the final resting place of Noah's Ark[1] Scholars of Islamic religion at Turkiye's Atatürk University have suggested that "al Cudi" actually refers to a region, not a specific mountain, in much the same way that the Bible refers to the mountains (plural) or Urartu (Ararat) rather than a single mountain (see Genesis 8:4).

The size and symmetry of the structure lends it a strong resemblance to the hull of a gigantic ship, leading to its promotion by some Evangelical Christians as the original Noah's Ark. This identification is highly controversial within interested sections of the Christian community, and the site continues to attract strong interest.

Contents

[edit] Discovery and exploration of the site

According to local reports, heavy rains combined with three earthquakes exposed the formation from the surrounding mud in May of 1948.[2] 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 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.[3]

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.[4] Fasold brought along a state of the art ground penetrating radar equipment and a device called a frequency generator, set it on the wave length for iron, and searched the formation for internal iron loci (the latter technique was later compared to dowsing by the site's detractors).[5] 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 as 538 feet, close to the 300 cubits of the Bible if the Ancient Egyptian cubit of 20.6 inches is used.[6] 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 stones that they believed were once attached to the ark were investigated. These very large stones have in common a hole cut on a radius at one end (so as not to chafe an attached rope). Such stones are alluded to in Babylonian accounts of the ark.[7]

[edit] Doubts and scientific investigations

After a few scientific 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 surmised that if it was not Noah's boat, ancient peoples had erroneously believed the site was the ark.[8] In 1996 Fasold's name was attached to a paper by Lorence Collins entitled "Bogus 'Noah's Ark' from Turkey Exposed as a Common Geologic Structure" which concluded (without the author having ever inspected the site) that the boat-shaped formation was a curious upwelling of mud that merely resembled a boat.[9] During the 1990s, Fasold was caught between three opposing camps that derided his interest in the site. On one side were orthodox creationists who believed the ark could only lay on Mt. Ararat; the second camp was composed of Wyatt and others who believed it was the ark, and carried on "digs" at the site without Turkish approval; the third camp included standard geologists who called the site a hoax.[10] In early 1998, shortly before his death, Fasold changed his mind and reaffirmed his belief that the Durupınar site was in fact the location of the ark.[11] No meaningful invasive studies have been performed on the site to date, although it continues to be the subject of interest.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ 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!" The Durupınar Mt Cudi is one of several with this name in the Middle East,and a different mountain, on the Turkish/Iraqi border, is more usually associated with the Qur'anic ark story. See Noah'sArkSearch.com
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ The Ark of Noah, "Durupınar Site" from NoahsArkSearch.com, June Dawes, Noah's Ark: Adrift in Dark Waters, (Belrose, NSW: Noahide, 2000).
  4. ^ The Ark of Noah, p. 7.
  5. ^ That Boat-Shaped Rock … Is it Noah’s Ark?
  6. ^ The Ark of Noah, pp. 15-22 and others.
  7. ^ See The Ark of Noah, chapter 6 entitled "Kazan" which discusses the drogue stones in detail.
  8. ^ The Main Points about the "Noah’s Ark Trial" and Ian Plimer
  9. ^ Lorence D. Collins and David Fasold (1996). "Bogus 'Noah's Ark' from Turkey Exposed as a Common Geologic Structure". Journal of Geoscience Education 44.
  10. ^ See Noah's Ark: Adrift in Dark Waters.
  11. ^ This comes from a phone conversation between Fasold and Durupınar proponent Don Patten located at [Patten letter]; see also Dawes, Noah's Ark: Adrift in Dark Waters.

[edit] External links and sources

[edit] Photographs

[edit] Pro-Durupınar as the location of Noah's Ark

[edit] Neutral Investigators of Durupınar

[edit] Anti-Durupınar as the location of Noah's Ark

[edit] Print sources and other media

  • Fasold, David (1988). The Ark of Noah. New York: Wynwood Press. 
  • Dawes, June (2000). Noah's Ark: Adrift in Dark Waters. Belrose, NSW, Australia: Noahide. 
  • Berlitz, Charles (1987). The Lost Ship of Noah. New York: Putnam's. 
  • Nissen, Henri (2004). Noah's Ark Uncovered: An expedition into the ancient past (subtitle). Copenhagen: Scandinavian Publishing House, ISBN 87-7247-813-6. 
  • Lorence D. Collins and David Fasold (1996). "Bogus 'Noah's Ark' from Turkey Exposed as a Common Geologic Structure". Journal of Geoscience Education 44. 
  • Ian Plimer and David Fasold. (1994) Crusaders for the Lost Ark [Documentary]. Sydney: Australian Broadcasting Corp..
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