Durupınar Site is Geographically Possible, but the Drogue Stones are a Bad Argument

I just saw someone promoting a Wyatt page for the landing place.

I wondered what the coordinates were, and instead of Arzep, I founda Arzap:

Durupınar site : Arzap drogue stones
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durup%C4%B1nar_site#Arzap_drogue_stones

Now, I'll quote each of the 3 paragraphs. I'll then discuss why this is not a good argument for each.

The Arzap drogue stones are a number of large standing stones found near the Durupınar site by amateur archaeologist Ron Wyatt with the aid of David Fasold and others. Fasold interpreted the artifacts as drogues, stone weights used to stabilize the Ark in rough seas, because they all have a chamfered hole cut at one end as if to fasten a rope to them, and his reading of the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Babylonian mythical account of the flood, suggested to him that such stones were used.[10][27]

The Gilgamesh epic has a Flood story with a very impossible "Ark" — a giant version of a coracle. Not my go-to for sea safety matters on the Ark.

But let's underline a few words:

to stabilize the Ark in rough seas

Rough seas occur only in shallow water. The Schooner Wyoming, which has been touted so much as a refutation of the Ark, despite huge differences, explicit or probable, sank in the Nantucket Sound — a place where the medium depth of water is 9 meters.

Bea Tremblay made the point that rough seas would have destroyed the Ark quickly. I looked up a few things, and it seems her go to was a sea with a depth of 100 fathoms (the Spanish ones being shorter than the English ones).

The Ark would not yet have been in water when the rising waters were only that deep. We find a hint it was built on the highest pre-Flood mountain of the whole earth, I'm quoting chapter 7:

10 And after the seven days were passed, the waters of the flood overflowed the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of the life of Noe, in the second month, in the seventeenth day of the month, all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the flood gates of heaven were opened: 12 And the rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. ... 17 And the flood was forty days upon the earth, and the waters increased, and lifted up the ark on high from the earth. 18 For they overflowed exceedingly: and filled all on the face of the earth: and the ark was carried upon the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed beyond measure upon the earth: and all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. 20 The water was fifteen cubits higher than the mountains which it covered.

One not totally stretched reading is, it's after forty days that two things happen at once:

• [T]he waters ... lifted up the ark on high from the earth.
• The water was fifteen cubits higher than [all] the [high] mountains which it covered.

Probably the waters kept increasing after that, but Noah had no way to know exactly how much. For the moment when the Ark started floating, it would have been fifteen cubits known from the water line.

In other words, once the water covered the mountain, which was as high as or higher than any other mountain on earth, by 15 cubits, the ark popped up to match the new height of the water level. It makes perfect sense if the water line was 15 cubits up.

Everything outside that mountain would have been lower and already covered by lots more water than 15 cubits. Unlike the mountain which was flooded after 40 days, the plane outside was flooded after only seven. In other words, the Ark was not risking any shallows. Until obviously, the landing, which may have been somewhat rough.

Drogue stones were the equivalent of a storm anchor on ancient ships. They have been found in the Nile and elsewhere in the Mediterranean area, and like the stones found by Wyatt and Fasold, they are heavy and flat with a hole for tying a line at one end. Their purpose was to create drag in the water or along shallow sandy bottoms: the stone was attached to one end of a boat, and the drag produced would cause the bow or stern to face into the wind and wind-blown waves.[10]

Let me underline:

to create drag in the water or along shallow sandy bottoms:

This was neither needed nor possible during the global Flood.

A geological investigation of samples from the stones, published by geologist Lorence Collins in co-authorship with their original discoverer David Fasold, found that they are of local rock and thus could not have been brought from Mesopotamia, the Ark's supposed place of origin.[17] Similar stones found throughout ancient Armenia are recognised as pagan "holy stones" converted to Christian use by the addition of crosses and other Christian symbols. Many are found in Christian cemeteries, as these were.[26]

For my part, I don't see why the Ark would be from Mesopotamia. The Gilgamesh epic says that, but then that is probably to glorify Shuruppak, which clearly existed after the Flood, even after Abraham, and did so before the tablets we have of Gilgamesh were written. Insofar as the Ark was built on a very high mountain, Armenia could make sense. However, I think the present mountain range of Armenia is post-Flood. In fact, if it had been in place, exactly as now, even a high mountain in it would have been a bad place to build the Ark, since the there were too many other mountains near by.

If you ask me where I think the Ark was built, I'd say Spain or Russia, as in Altai. In both places you had Neanderthals and Denisovans (in Spain referred to as Heidelbergian or Antecessor, for the Denisovans) before the Flood, which makes either a likely place of origin for Noah's inlaws. That makes either of them likely. Theologically it is interesting that neither of the places has a majority of Protestants in the population. I favour a mountain which was scraped off the place and left the high plain known as the Meseta in Spain.

Back to the landing place. Durupınar Site is in the Mountains of Armenia, so is Mount Judi. Durupınar Site is East of Göbekli Tepe, so is Mount Judi. Both places match Genesis 8:4. If Babel is Göbekli Tepe, both also match Genesis 11:2, with the correct translation of miqqedem. If Babel is geographically near Classical Babylon, neither does, you'd have to go as far East in Armenia as Arzak to find a place from which the voyage there would be a voyage from the East, and even then it would be more North-South than East-West.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
Pope St. Marcellus
16.I.2024

Romae, via Salaria, natalis sancti Marcelli Primi, Papae et Martyris; qui, ob catholicae fidei confessionem, jubente Maxentio tyranno, primo caesus est fustibus, deinde ad servitium animalium cum custodia publica deputatus, et ibidem, serviendo indutus amictu cilicino, defunctus est.

He's the guy Marcel Lefebvre was named for./HGL

PS, the following image is precisely how you should not imagine the Ark in the Flood. Unlike the following picture, the Ark was not a boat, and the Flood was not a storm in a coastal region./HGL

Credits to a video about / by Hancock, 1 min 36 sec in:
https://youtu.be/MvThRpP8MTw?si=IuCPRMNjGHwR_A6W&t=96