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(LifeSiteNews) — Researchers investigating a boat-shaped rock formation in eastern Turkey that is believed to be the remains of Noah’s Ark have drilled deep into the structure and collected more than 400 samples, which are now undergoing laboratory analysis.

The project is being carried out by the Noah’s Ark Scans group, that says this is the first drilling campaign conducted with official authorization and under the supervision of Turkish universities. The purpose of the drilling is to determine whether the anomalies identified by previous ground-penetrating radar and geophysical scans can be explained by natural causes or whether they represent traces of an artificial structure.

In an interview with LifeSiteNews, team member Lauren Witzke discusses the drilling campaign, the evidence the researchers say they have found, and the objections raised by critics of the project.

LifeSiteNews: Dear Miss Witzke, thank you for your availability. First of all, what is your role within the research team?

Lauren Witzke: My role is fundraising and marketing. Last year in November of 2025, God laid on my heart Noah’s Ark. I don’t know why, and I couldn’t explain it. I usually worked in politics and media. But it was something I just had to do.

I went searching and reading, and God led me to Noah’s Ark Scans. I sent Andrew Jones, the founder, an email and told him that I felt like God wanted me to help him. A few months later, we [got] approval from Turkish officials to study Noah’s Ark. A small team of American Christians received approval, and [yet] not a single Turkish official voted against it. It was totally God. All of this has been God.

My job now is to help find funding for the research. I also manage the marketing and help create the social media content sharing the evidence of Noah’s Ark with the world. I truly believe God preserved the Ark all these years because He knew that this generation would someday need it.

LSN: As early as 1949, aerial photographs taken by U.S. U-2 reconnaissance aircraft over the northwestern slope of Mount Ararat, at an altitude of between 4,700 and 4,850 meters, captured a straight formation partially covered by ice, which became known as the Ararat Anomaly. Subsequent satellite images, such as those taken by the Ikonos satellite in 2003, showed a dark shape whose dimensions were compatible with the Ark. The site currently being analyzed by the team of archaeologists is, however, located approximately 30 km south of Mount Ararat. Has the Ararat Anomaly been completely ruled out?

Witzke: When I first went on this journey I read about the Ararat Anomaly. The Ararat Anomaly is located on Mount Ararat which immediately rules it out as the candidate for Noah’s Ark, since Mount Ararat is actually a post-flood stratovolcano: it was formed after the flood, and therefore it was impossible for Noah’s Ark to land there. Genesis says Noah landed in the Mountains of Ararat, plural, not a mountain, and the Mountains of Ararat were actually an ancient kingdom called Urartu. Noah’s Ark landed exactly where Genesis says it landed. The Ararat Anomaly is just that, a rock anomaly.

LSN: The Ararat research team announced that it had drilled almost 60 feet into the structure. The researchers reported the presence of organic layers that could consist of decomposed wood. What exactly is happening?

Witzke: Well, remember that the top tier of the Ark is very decayed. That mudflow you see in the photos covering it is the only thing holding the exposed rims and top tier together. But beneath the surface, the two floors are very much still intact.

Earlier this summer we brought out U.S. Defense Scientist Dr. Khrosrow Bakthar. He’s one of the top rock mechanics experts in the country, and the inventor of BaktharRadar. Dr. Bakthar is the guy that the U.S. Department of Defense calls when they need to find bombs underground, or locate and identify Mexican cartel tunnels running into the United States. He has managed more than 35 major projects through the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and NORAD-USNORTHCOM. His invention, BaktharRadar, makes everything beneath the surface that is geological completely invisible, and is extremely useful.

We brought him out to run BaktharRadar at the site, and I’ll never forget the night he called me with preliminary results. “Lauren, I found layers … organized chambers … corridors … it’s NOT Geological!” The man who is usually emotionless and serious sounded almost like he had just uncovered aliens. Dr. Bakthar sent us the coordinates telling us where to core drill, and that’s where we drilled and took the samples. Those core samples and the samples taken from the rim are now being tested in Sivas Cumhuriyet University and third-party labs. We also are raising funds to have the core samples tested for ancient animal DNA.

So, now we know that we have a massive 515 foot long boat-shaped manmade structure in the Mountains of Ararat. It’s not geological, so it’s manmade. It’s not a village because it’s all the same massive object. But how do you prove it’s Noah’s Ark?

You have to prove the animals were there.

That’s why testing the core samples for ancient animal DNA is so important. We can also hopefully identify what the original “two of every kind” were. So right now, we are at the stage where samples are being tested, and Dr. Bakthar is about 70 percent done with his final report, which should be released in November.

LSN: The apartment of the project’s founder was ransacked and his laptop was stolen. What happened? Are there, as of today, any clues as to the perpetrators or motives behind this act? Could it be connected to the research, or was it an independent incident?

Witzke: It was absolutely connected to the research. Andrew had just done a round of media interviews, and that’s when the visits and threats started. He heard someone yelling, “We’re going to kill you” and “You need to get out of here” and banging on his doors between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. We told him to go stay with his friend, which he thankfully did. The friend went back to the apartment to get some things for Andrew, and he immediately Facetimed him as soon as he saw the front door. The padlock busted open. Had Andrew decided to stay just one more night, he probably would be dead.

The burglar stole laptops, memory cards, a computer brain, anything that could possibly hold memory or storage. He left other valuable items like a nice new microphone, computer screen, and the printer. The only things he took were some electronics that held memory or storage. He was after Ark evidence. Thankfully, Andrew keeps multiple copies of everything, so none of the data was lost. The security cameras, of course, were dead that night. We will probably never find out who it was, but we know that they spoke English, and that it was a targeted hit.

LSN: According to critics, there are many reasons to doubt the team’s success. First of all, the samples obtained through drilling still have to undergo laboratory analysis, and the U.S. defense technology has not yet been validated in the archaeological field. How do you respond to these objections?

Witzke: Never in the history of archeology has a study been under such scrutiny and attack. Even the Turkish lead professor of archeology and project director, Dr. Cenker Atila, told me he can’t understand why he has been personally attacked. He has never experienced anything like this in his entire career since we began the study at Noah’s Ark.

If we had been studying the Titanic, or the U.S.S. Yankee shipwreck, all of our methods would be considered exhaustive. It is only because we are studying Noah’s Ark that this comes under such defamatory criticism. It is the implications of finding Noah’s Ark that terrify atheists and evolutionists alike.

Proof of Noah’s Ark and the global catastrophic flood is proof that evolution and Darwinism are a lie. It’s proof that we cannot change outside of our own kind and did not evolve from apes, but that every living creature on this earth can trace their ancestry back to the survivors of the Ark. It’s proof that we didn’t evolve from apes over millions of years, but that we are descendants of the eight survivors who came off the Ark less than 5,000 years ago. They will have to re-write textbooks and biology books, and that is why we are under such scrutiny and attack.

This is the place where creation began anew, and there are some who will never accept the truth, even if we find “Noah wuz here” inscribed on the walls. These aren’t serious people, and these aren’t serious criticisms. They are criticisms made out of desperation to change the narrative and sow confusion and doubt.

Andrew Jones, our founder, has always known this was the resting place of Noah’s Ark. That’s why he is putting it through the most rigorous testing available. He knows the Ark will withstand every test – and she hasn’t failed one yet. BaktharRadar is the most advanced technology ever used in the history of the site. If there were a geological anomaly there, we would know. Instead, Dr. Bakthar said what he found was “extraordinary,” “organized,” and “not geological.” As far as the lab samples go, of course we have to send samples to the lab for testing. This isn’t out of the ordinary or different from any other study. All of the evidence so far leads to this being Noah’s Ark.

LSN: According to critics, the right angles detected in the scans, which some claim prove the existence of artificial chambers, could actually have formed naturally as a result of rock fracturing. How do you respond?

Witzke: The design that God gave Noah for the Ark is extraordinary. There is a massive hallway that runs right through the dead center, and every hallway and corridor connects back to that central hallway. It’s organized, it’s complex, and made up of perfect right angles. According to Dr. Bakthar, the hallways are about 4 meters tall, which also aligns with GPR scans performed in 2014 that showed us the door to the Ark was the exact same height as well. It all aligns. They needed tall doors and hallways because some of the animals were tall. Those saying this was a result of rock fracturing, or just a natural event, are coping or lying. No real expert can review the preliminary results of our scans (which we haven’t even released in full) and make the claim that this is a natural formation. Anyone who says it is, is lying to you or has an agenda to mislead and confuse you.

LSN: As early as 1996, a study by geologist Lorence Collins and explorer David Fasold refuted the idea that the rock formation on Mount Ararat was the real Noah’s Ark. According to this interpretation, it would simply be a natural structure shaped by time and nature through landslides, erosion, and mud rising to the surface. The ship-like shape would be due to an ordinary geological phenomenon: the layers of rock would have folded, and erosion would have worn them down until they resembled the outline of a vessel. Many geologists continue to defend this interpretation. Furthermore, when the structure was subjected to a dynamite blast in 1960, only soil and rocks were reportedly found. How do you respond to this objection from geologists?

Witzke: Nobody will be as frank about this and give you as honest of an answer that I’m about to give you about Fasold. But I’m going to, because unlike Andrew Jones, I was never friends with Fasold and did not know him personally and have no real reason to protect his legacy.

Fasold was originally a huge advocate for this being the resting site of Noah’s Ark. He studied it and did some fantastic work. I believe he even wrote a book about it. At one point, Fasold truly believed it was Noah’s ark.

Then, all of a sudden, he’s out of money, broke, disgruntled, and giving a staunch evolutionist professor named Lorence Collins rock samples that he chipped off a ribbed rock located 24 km from the Durupinar Formation. I repeat: He gave Collins a ROCK sample from a ROCK located 24 km AWAY from the Ark site. Fasold also then picked up ROCKS from around and on top of the formation and gave them to Collins to study. Fasold gave Collins ROCK samples, and these samples were tested and unsurprisingly came back as ROCK.

He gave Collins no core samples, no soil samples, just rock samples and, as a result, he gave the evolutionist professor exactly what he needed to write the headline that is still used as a weapon against us even today.

The headline “Bogus ‘Noah’s Ark’ from Turkey Exposed as a Common Geologic Structure” alongside the name of the man who had studied the Ark for years would do endless damage, and the opposition knew that. They needed it, and only Fasold, Collins, and God know the price that was paid to get it.

However, what you also won’t read in that paper is that, in the weeks leading up to his death due to a terminal illness, Fasold came clean, and told his family members and multiple witnesses that there is certainly something at the Durupinar Formation and that it needed to continue being studied.

As far as the dynamite goes, the top tier of the Ark is very decayed and the rims are held together with a few feet of hardened-crusted mudflow. The top deck of the Ark is buried in a few meters of this hardened mudflow and clay. All that’s really left of the top exposed tier underneath the mudflow is rich organic material that looks almost like a compost. It’s decayed and decaying wood that’s over 4,300 years old. Throwing some dynamite at the formation and not finding really anything but this material is to be expected, and is hardly a conclusive study. I’m not even sure they penetrated past the meters of mudflow. But, that’s why we went much deeper, and why studying what’s beneath the surface and reaching the bottom two tiers (that are still intact) is so important. That’s why the 2026 study matters so much more than any of the others. No other study has reached the multiple locations and depths that we have. No other study has used the advanced technology we have, and no other study has had the oversight that we have. This is the only study that matters.

LSN: According to critics, microscopic analyses would have shown that the alleged iron found at the site was not metal worked by humans, but rather a simple natural mixture of clay and minerals. Furthermore, excavations have never revealed traces of wood or organic material, confirming that even the anchor stone would simply be an ordinary local volcanic rock. Aerial photographs would definitively disprove the artificial origin of the site by showing that the surrounding rock formations have the exact same shape, resulting from the normal process of erosion in the area. According to them, therefore, there is currently no evidence that Noah’s Ark is present there. The organic material found could be wood worked by humans or, more simply, the normal accumulation of material on an Anatolian hillside. How do you respond to these objections?

Witzke: Noah’s Ark Scans and our 2026 study have never claimed to find iron, and as I said before, this is the only study that matters. On past claims and past studies: we have not been able to properly verify or analyze the data ourselves, so we cannot endorse any past claims or findings aside from our own.

As far as the drogue or anchor stones go, there are 26 of them found around the Ark site. Drogue stones were used to balance ancient ships in chaotic seas. Since Noah’s Ark did not have steering or a sail, its crew would have tied the drogue stones to the sides of the ship to balance the ship and prevent it from capsizing. It was not a raining drizzle that they were trying to survive, it was a worldwide catastrophic event where God opened the floodgates of the deep. We’re talking volcanic activity, tidal waves, hurricanes, and tsunamis. The ship would have capsized had it not been built to withstand such a catastrophic event, and the drogue stones are a vital part of that.

As the Ark came to rest in the mountains of Ararat, the crew would have cut the long ropes that tied them to the stones to prevent dragging and those stones are all located within the distance from the Ark that would have been consistent with the length of the long ropes tied to the Ark. As they came upon more shallow waters in the mountains of Ararat, they would have cut the ropes, leaving the drogue stones where they can still be found today. Many of the stones have been repurposed as gravestones, but they still have the holes at the tops where they would have tied the ropes through them. Twenty-six drogue stones with rope holes are not a result of volcanic rock activity. These were man-worked and handmade.

And yes, about 20km away you will find boat-shaped formations that are a result of lava flow. Arial photos make them look exactly the same, but they are not. The Durupinar formation is facing the wrong way for it to be a result of lava or mudflow. The point faces uphill, whereas if it were a natural result of mudflow against bedrock, it would have gone the opposite way with the point facing downhill. And yes, there are a lot of formations and bedrock shapes covered in mudflow out there. But the Durupinar Formation is the only one that matches the exact same dimensions in Genesis (515 feet long, 85 feet wide) exactly 300 Egyptian cubits by 50 Egyptian cubits. The rims of the Ark are exposed, and it looks more like a ship than any of the others – and this is just visually speaking. What lies beneath the surface is far more fascinating.

A lot of people are making speculations and drawing conclusions about what has been found at the Ark site before the samples even made it to the lab. The site has never been excavated, and the last core drilling attempts in the 1980’s failed because the water used to cool the bit washed away all the data. We used dry drilling this year and collected over 400 samples. We collected samples from the rims of the Ark, from deep within the core of the Ark, and from the top tier. As soon as the results are in and confirmed by experts, we will be sharing them with the world.

What we have found is very exciting and will terrify a lot of evolutionists. It’s all real. The Ark is real, the global flood happened, and the God who orchestrated it all is very real as well

LSN: What will the developments be over the coming months and years?

Witzke: First, Dr. Bakthar will be completing his final report in the next few weeks, followed by the soil sample results and core sample results in the lab. Dr. Cenker will also be holding a press conference in the coming weeks with a major announcement about a very exciting discovery. That’s all I’m allowed to say right now.

God permitting, we will begin excavating the Ark next year under Dr. Cenker Atila’s leadership and Turkish official permits and oversight.