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Oldest map in the world shows location of ‘Noah’s Ark’

Was Mount Ararat really the landing site of "Noah's Ark"? Researchers have now discovered astonishing facts with the help of a millennia-old map
Was Mount Ararat really the landing site of "Noah's Ark"? Researchers have now discovered astonishing facts with the help of a millennia-old map Photo: Getty Images/picturealliance/Montage von TRAVELBOOK

November 3, 2024, 6:54 am | Read time: 3 minutes

Researchers at the British Museum in London claim to have found clues to the whereabouts of “Noah’s Ark” on a 3000-year-old clay tablet. TRAVELBOOK explains what the spectacular findings are all about.

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Regarded as the world’s oldest map, the “Imago Mundi” resides in the British Museum. According to reports from the “Daily Mail” and others, it was unearthed in 1882 amidst archaeological excavations in present-day Iraq. This artifact, believed to be approximately 3,000 years old, hails from the era of the Mesopotamians or Babylonians. It shows a circular map on one side with Mesopotamia in the center. The thrilling aspect: Imago Mundi is purported to disclose the potential site of “Noah’s Ark,” among a treasure trove of other details.

Researchers decipher part of map

The reverse side features cuneiform inscriptions and symbols that serve as a guide to interpreting the map. Recent reconstructions have led researchers to claim the discovery of a path’s description on the tablet. In a video published by the British Museum on YouTube and Instagram, Dr. Irving Finkel, curator at the museum, explains the details of the find.

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As “Focus” reports, the text of the tablet contains the Assyrian word “parsiktu”. This could be understood as a reference to a large ship. Another excerpt details a journey spanning “seven miles” to a destination known as Urartu. This is the Mesopotamian version of the holy mountain Ararat in modern-day Turkey, where Noah’s ark landed, according to the Bible. According to Focus, an ancient Mesopotamian poem indicates that a man and his family brought an ark ashore there to preserve life.

Mesopotamian version of ‘Noah’s Ark’?

It is well known that the story of the Flood is not a purely Christian-Jewish tale. However, the clay tablet now apparently indicates that the Mesopotamian “Noah”, who according to “Oe24” is called Utnapishtim, also steered an ark to the same place as in the biblical story. According to the reports, it is also interesting that the epic of the Gilgamesh flood of the Mesopotamians can be dated back to around 3,000 years ago, thanks to relics that have been found. The biblical Flood is said to have occurred several thousand years earlier.

Yet, researchers emphasize that these findings hold purely scientific significance. They prove that the Mesopotamians and Babylonians had concrete ideas about the location of the ark. Nonetheless, Finkel advises against setting out in a Land Rover to hunt for the ark’s remains.

More on the topic

Ararat as the landing site of the ark is controversial

The question of Mount Ararat as the site where Noah’s Ark was found has been debated for years. According to “Oe24”, researchers from the University of Istanbul only examined the area in 2023 – and found traces that point to a possible human settlement between 3,000 and 5,000 years ago. Other experts argue that the mountain is an improbable landing spot for the ark. It is possible that it only emerged after the “Flood”.

This article is a machine translation of the original German version of TRAVELBOOK and has been reviewed for accuracy and quality by a native speaker. For feedback, please contact us at info@petbook.de.

Topics Asia News Turkey
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