Turkey
Also known as Ağrı Dağı, Masis
Volcanic massif in eastern Turkey (5,137 m), widely but not universally identified with the biblical "mountains of Ararat"; the focus of most Ark searches since the 19th century.
14 claimed · 19 disputed · 8 debunked
↳ responds to Sivas Cumhuriyet University and Noah's Ark Scans run a 2026 field season at Durupınar
Lead Stories, Anadolu Ajansı's Teyit Hattı, TF1 Info and Al Jazeera reported that viral early-October 2026 videos said to show the Ark being excavated near Ararat were AI-generated or did not show the real work.
↳ responds to NAMI announces wooden structure on Ararat as Noah's Ark
A Skeptical Inquirer article traced repeated claimed Ark finds, from Ararat books and films to NAMI's 2010 announcement, arguing searchers start from their conclusion.
National Geographic reviewed the history of Ark searches; archaeologist Jodi Magness said "No legitimate archaeologist does this".
Carl Feagans argued that Ark discoveries pitched directly to the media rather than to archaeologists fit known warning signs of pseudoarchaeology.
ICR's Brian Thomas wrote "We don't yet have Noah's Ark, and it looks unlikely to turn up", while maintaining belief in the Genesis account.
↳ responds to NAMI announces wooden structure on Ararat as Noah's Ark
ICR's Brian Thomas gave reasons for skepticism after Norman Geisler's Southern Evangelical Seminary featured NAMI-related video and testimony at its October 2015 apologetics conference.
↳ responds to NAMI announces wooden structure on Ararat as Noah's Ark
Writing for Answers in Genesis, Andrew Snelling examined NAMI's radiocarbon report and argued the 4,800 BP result does not support the wood being from the Ark.
Scottish searcher Donald Mackenzie, who hoped to find the site NAMI reported, was reported missing on Ararat on 14 October 2010; bad weather hampered the search.
NAMI members rebutted the skepticism, arguing the structure could not have been hauled up the mountain, while saying more research was needed to prove it is the Ark.
↳ responds to NAMI announces wooden structure on Ararat as Noah's Ark
Price told the Christian Science Monitor that "proper analysis may show this to be a hoax"; a leaked email he confirmed writing said Kurdish workers "are said to have planted" wood beams at the site.
Hong Kong-based Noah's Ark Ministries International said a Chinese-Turkish team entered wooden compartments at about 4,000 m on Ararat and that samples dated to about 4,800 years.
Archaeologist Eric H. Cline wrote in the Boston Globe that claimed finds such as Noah's Ark by non-specialists harm biblical archaeology and should be challenged.
SPACE.com, via CNN, reported on aircraft, spy-satellite and commercial imagery of the Ararat anomaly, saying whether it is natural, shadow or man-made "remains to be seen".
Andrew Yuen Man-fai and Pastor Boaz Li said they found parts of the Ark in ice near Ararat's summit; the South China Morning Post reported they had only blurred images, which they said a "mysterious force" had disrupted.
Honolulu businessman Daniel McGivern said commercial satellite photos "unequivocally show a man-made object" on Ararat and announced a July 2004 expedition led by Ahmet Ali Arslan.
Insight on the News published an IKONOS satellite study of the "Ararat anomaly" it commissioned with Space Imaging, featuring Porcher Taylor's FOIA work.
After a FOIA campaign by Porcher Taylor, the Defense Intelligence Agency released June 1949 US Air Force photos of a feature on Ararat and an analysis calling it shadows, ice and snow.
CIA documents say imagery analysts searched 1990-1992 imagery of Ararat at DCI Gates' direction and found nothing conclusive, only apparent rock formations.
Jammal told the Los Angeles Times he made up the story; he said the "ark wood" came from railroad tracks in Long Beach and that he had never been to Turkey. The Times reported he hardened the wood by cooking it in an oven.
A CBS special produced by Sun (the company behind the 1976 film) presented George Jammal displaying wood he said came from the Ark on Ararat.
John D. Morris of the Institute for Creation Research wrote that evidence for the Ark on Ararat rests mainly on eyewitness reports, none substantiated by documentation.
A consortium including Irwin's High Flight Foundation and the Institute for Creation Research had ground permits revoked and flew a high-altitude aerial survey instead.
James Irwin began a scaled-down Ararat climb with five companions escorted by 30 Turkish troops; Ron Wyatt's group was refused permission to continue at the Durupınar site.
Former Apollo 15 astronaut James Irwin's Ararat expedition, approved by Gen. Kenan Evren, ended when he fell and was flown to hospital.
The 1976 book and film In Search of Noah's Ark said there was "actual photographic evidence" that the Ark exists on Mount Ararat.
Pastor Harold Williams said Armenian immigrant Haji Yearam told him before his 1920 death that he had guided a secret expedition to the Ark as a boy.
Armenian-American Georgie Hagopian said his uncle took him to see a moss-covered, petrified Ark on Ararat twice in the early 1900s.
On a SEARCH Foundation expedition, Fernand Navarra led the team to a site on Ararat where pieces of wood were found.
No entries 1956–1968
Fernand Navarra said he and his son recovered a hand-hewn beam from an ice-covered structure on Ararat, later published in his book J'ai trouvé l'Arche de Noé.
A French expedition led by polar explorer Jean de Riquer, with Fernand Navarra, reached Ararat's summit and reported finding no trace of the Ark.
Aaron J. Smith of People's Bible College led an expedition to Ararat after Egerton Sykes withdrew; the team could not locate Reshit or the reported ship.
AP reporter Edwin Greenwald relayed landowner Shukru Asena's account that a farmer named Reshit found a petrified ship's prow about two-thirds of the way up Ararat.
↳ responds to New Eden publishes the "Vladimir Roskovitsky" aviator story
Lynn H. Wood's article in the Adventist paper Present Truth reviewed the Russian aviator and Nouri accounts and questioned their reliability.
New Eden printed a story credited to Russian aviator "Vladimir Roskovitsky" claiming a pre-revolution Russian expedition found the Ark on Ararat.
No entries 1888–1939
Chaldean archdeacon John Joseph Nouri said he discovered Noah's Ark on the summit of Mount Ararat in April 1887.
According to Wikipedia and the New Zealand Herald, columnist George McCullagh Reed ("Pollex") wrote an April Fools' report that Turkish commissioners had found the Ark; it was reprinted worldwide and he apologised for the hoax on 24 November 1883.
James Bryce said he found a piece of wood "evidently cut by some tool" above the tree line on Ararat and argued it might be a remnant of the Ark.
No entries 1830–1875
Friedrich Parrot led the first recorded ascent of Mount Ararat and wrote that local Armenians believed the Ark remained on the summit.
No entries 1308–1828
Armenian historian Hayton of Corycus wrote that "on the mountain's summit something black is visible, which people say is the Ark".
No entries 401–1306
By the 5th century a legend held that Jacob of Nisibis climbed toward the Ark and received a board from it from an angel; Etchmiadzin displays a relic said to be that wood.
No entries 94–399 CE
Josephus, citing Berossus and others, placed the Ark on a mountain in Armenia and wrote that relics were exhibited "to this day".