The Searchers
A who’s who of the people who shaped the Ark search—from climbers and witnesses to geologists, pilots, expedition leaders, clergy and modern researchers.
Rogues gallery
People Behind the Search
Inclusion here is not endorsement. ArkSearch records who made a claim, what they actually said or did, the evidence attached to it, later criticism and the person’s historical influence on the search.
James Bryce
Open file
A major early modern Ararat ascent associated with a reported timber fragment. The dossier tracks his published account, context, chain of custody and later discussion.
George Hagopian
Open file
Known for childhood claims of visiting a large wooden structure on Ararat. ArkSearch will separate recorded testimony, chronology, interview history and corroboration issues.
Fernand Navarra
Open file
Led Ararat expeditions and reported recovering wood from high elevation. The file will follow recovery claims, photographs, dating tests and disputed provenance.
Ed Davis
Open file
Reported being shown Ark remains while stationed in the region. The archive will compare interviews, location descriptions and later efforts to identify the alleged site.
Ron Wyatt
Open file
Popularized numerous Durupınar claims. The dossier will document the claims themselves, equipment and interpretations used, and subsequent geological and archaeological criticism.
David Fasold
Open file
Played a major role in late-twentieth-century Durupınar investigation and interpretation. His evolving views are part of the site’s modern research history.
Randall Price
Open file
Associated with modern Ark research and expedition work. The full file will document projects, published assessments and site-specific conclusions.
Andrew Jones
Open file
Jones has coordinated modern GPR, ERT, LiDAR, photogrammetry, soil testing and the 2026 drilling program. His file tracks both the project’s primary data and the distinction between measured anomalies and architectural interpretation.
John Baumgardner
Open file
Baumgardner co-led the 1987 geophysical investigation and participated in the 1988 core drilling. Those records are central because they preserve direct subsurface observations from an earlier phase of the debate.
M. Salih Bayraktutan
Open file
Bayraktutan coauthored the 1987 geophysical report and participated in the 1988 drilling program. His lithologic descriptions are essential for comparing the older cores with the current project.
Lorence G. Collins
Open file
Collins examined claimed metal, wood and structural evidence and coauthored the 1996 peer-reviewed geological reassessment with David Fasold.
Murat Avcı
Open file
Avcı published the Telçeker earthflow model, explaining the boat-like feature through a displaced limestone block, weak clay units, mass movement, abrasion and dissolution.
Cenker Atila
Open file
Atila leads the officially permitted university research program. He has reported new radar features and material samples while publicly cautioning that geological explanations remain possible until laboratory and final analysis are complete.
Josephus
Open file
Preserved earlier reports concerning the Ark’s resting place and alleged surviving remains. His value is primarily as a transmitter of older traditions that can be compared with later geography.
Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī
Open file
A major medieval geographer whose geographic tradition places Cudi in the Jazira/Mosul region. ArkSearch will trace the text, place names and later identifications.
Ibn Battuta
Open file
The image above is a later nineteenth-century illustration associated with Ibn Battuta, not a contemporary portrait. His travel account is part of the medieval record associating the Cizre region with Cudi. The full dossier will distinguish what he personally observed from inherited religious geography.
Gertrude Bell
Open file
Bell climbed on Cudi Dagh in 1909, recorded the journey in her diary, and photographed summit ruins associated locally with Noah traditions. Her photographs provide an unusually valuable visual record of the site before modern Ark tourism.
Friedrich Bender
Open file
German geologist Friedrich Bender investigated Cudi Dağı after hearing local traditions that material from Noah’s Ark could still be recovered there. He reported finding highly decayed wood fragments associated with an asphalt- or tar-like substance and later published radiocarbon results. ArkSearch treats the expedition, the sample history and the interpretation that the material belonged to the Ark as separate questions.
Stephen Compton
Open file
Compton reached Mount Cudi in 2013 and documented the summit landscape, ruins, underground features and the traditional Ark-site area through photographs, video, panoramas and satellite comparison. His work provides a useful modern visual field record while proposed identifications of particular features remain interpretations requiring independent archaeological testing.
Survey overview → Traditional Ark-site panorama → Sennacherib relief record →
Bill Crouse
Open file
Crouse helped revive the historical case for Cudi in English-language Ark research, emphasizing the older Jewish, Christian and Islamic source tradition and participating in modern field visits.
Gordon Franz
Open file
Franz conducted fieldwork in the Cudi region with Bill Crouse and later presented research on Sennacherib, Mount Nipur and the rabbinic Ark-plank tradition.
Timo Roller
Open file
Roller has published on Cudi pilgrimage history, participated in Şırnak symposia and field visits, and continued presenting Cudi-focused research through 2026.
Nate Loper
Open file
Loper considers Cudi Dagh the strongest candidate for the Ark’s landing place on historical and geographic grounds. His Cudi work emphasizes the older Qardu/Corduene tradition and Sennacherib’s documented presence on Mount Nipur. In 2026 he also published a peer-reviewed critical evaluation of the Durupınar geophysical, soil, geological and drilling claims while supporting continued direct testing.
Friedrich Parrot
Open file
Parrot’s ascent helped establish modern scientific exploration of Ağrı Dağı. His expedition belongs to the transition from sacred geography to instrumented mountain exploration.
Khachatur Abovian
Open file
Abovian accompanied Parrot and became an important figure in the early modern exploration history of Ağrı Dağı.
İlhan Durupınar
Open file
The formation now bearing his name entered modern public attention after Durupınar, a Turkish military cartographer, noticed its outline in aerial survey imagery. His file anchors the site’s modern chronology.
Nicolaus of Damascus
Open file
Josephus preserves Nicolaus’s account of Mount Baris above Minyas in Armenia, associated with a flood survivor in an ark and surviving timber.
D. G. Hogarth
Open file
Hogarth documented the Apamea/Celaenae Noah tradition, including the famous provincial coinage and local religious memory associated with the Ark.
Frédéric Dubois de Montpéreux
Open file
Among the nineteenth-century travelers whose descriptions help establish that the Noah tomb tradition in Nakhchivan predates modern Ark tourism.
K. A. Nikitin
Open file
Nikitin recorded the Noah tomb shrine and local traditions in a detailed nineteenth-century description of Nakhchivan.
Bob Cornuke
Open file
Cornuke first promoted Sabalan and later a Takht-e Suleiman/Alborz candidate. ArkSearch tracks the change in proposed site, geographic argument, expeditions and material claims.
Russell Humphreys
Open file
Humphreys argued that Genesis 11:2 points to an Ark/base-camp region in the western Zagros east of southern Iraq, mentioning Zard Kuh as one possible peak.
Tim Clarey
Open file
Clarey proposed a high paleo-ridge west of Mount Ararat as the landing region based on ICR’s Flood-stratigraphic model rather than a recovered artifact or old local tradition.
Irving Finkel
Open file
Finkel’s discussion of BM 92687 highlighted a damaged outer-region passage and Flood-vessel terminology. ArkSearch distinguishes his scholarly reconstruction from stronger popular claims that the tablet literally gives directions to Noah’s Ark.
Dossier standard
Every Person Gets the Same Questions
| Field | What ArkSearch records |
|---|---|
| Role | Explorer, witness, pilot, researcher, geologist, archaeologist, clergy, promoter or critic |
| Claim to significance | Why this person belongs in the history of the search |
| Primary record | Firsthand publications, recordings, expedition notes, images or reports |
| Corroboration | Independent support, conflicts, missing records and chain-of-custody questions |
| Assessment | What can responsibly be concluded—and what cannot |