An international team working the boat-shaped Durup?nar formation near Mount Ararat says permitted core drilling has begun both inside and outside the outline of what some believe is Noah's Ark, and that a hole inside the area that would be the hull stopped when the bit broke on a layer harder than limestone.

Typically, petrified wood is harder than limestone.

Durup?nar is a 157-meter, 515-foot boat-shaped mound first spotted in 1959 by Turkish Army Capt. ?lhan Durup?nar.

The group investigating, Noah's Ark Scans, is partnered with Sivas Cumhuriyet University and says this is the first deep, dry, permitted core program in the site's recorded history.