They are the raiders of the lost ship.
Archaeologists may be closer to finding the final resting place of Noah’s Ark after noticing a strange feature on a 440-year-old world map called a Planisphere.
Created in 1587 by Italian cartographer Urbano Monte, this expansive opus consists of 60 hand-drawn sheets that can be assembled into a 10-foot-wide circle, making it the largest known original map in the world.
The Planisphere, housed at Stanford University’s David Rumsey Map Center, includes intricate depictions of continents, distant lands, and mythical monsters, all arranged in a way that places the North Pole at the center.
One of its most notable features, however, is the alleged depiction of Noah’s Ark resting in Turkey’s Ararat mountains – thought to be the resting place of the biblical lifeboat.
Genesis 8:4 significantly states that the mythical ark ended up in the “mountains of Ararat” after the 150-day Great Flood that flooded the Earth.
In the X-ray document, independent researcher Jimmy Corsetti said that the Planisphere exposure was “in the same area” in height as the location of Durupinar,” an unusual formation that “stopped the ship” near the mentioned mountains.
Included are images of the ship’s vault in terrestrial facsimile, one of many made during the Age of Exploration, when European explorers redrawn the known world from their voyages to Asia and the Americas.
Coincidentally, the dimensions of the so-called ark tomb corresponded to the biblical measurements of 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high – about 515 feet wide by 86 feet wide by 52 feet wide.
This region has been studied extensively for decades as researchers hope to discover if this region is, in fact, the end of its last journey.
More recently, Noah’s Ark used ground-penetrating radar to reveal a series of corridors running through the center of the “ark” and along the inner edge of what may have been an ark, leading to a central area called the atrium.
This structure seemed to match the description of the Bible which shows that the ark had three floors for Noah, his family and two different animals.
“God told Noah to bring the animals in. So these animals would live there, along with Noah and his family,” said Andrew Jones, Noah’s Scans researcher. “What’s interesting is that these spaces are lined up underground – and they don’t just happen.”
He added that infrared thermography (IRT), a heat-sensing technology that can detect underground structures, found “a ship-shaped shell still preserved deep in the soil.”
Because of the age of the suspected ship, Jones does not expect to find actual fossils, but he did find soil samples that could prove it was man-made.
“In 2024, we took 88 random soil samples inside and outside that ship,” Jones said. “And what they showed was that the soil inside the ark had three times more organic matter than the outside, and 38 percent more potassium.”
He added, “It shows that the soil is unique. And the grass, in the fall, is yellow just inside.”
Researchers had previously said that the chemical composition showed evidence of wood decay.
“If you know soil science – as I am a soil scientist – you will understand that potassium levels, organic matter, and pH can all be affected by organic matter,” said William Crabtree, another member of Noah’s Ark Scans. “If this was a wooden boat and the wood had decayed over time, we would expect to see higher potassium levels, changes in pH, and higher organic content – and that’s exactly what we found.”
Meanwhile, fossils of ancient coral and seashells excavated near the so-called cave, which sits about 6,500 meters above sea level, may provide evidence of the biblical flood.
However, some experts say that this may be the result of the movement of tectonic plates that push the area up above the ancient sea level.
