Scientists have successfully deciphered the oldest map of the world, inscribed on a tablet approximately 3,000 years ago. Researchers believe that among the drawings on the tablet is a map to "Noah's Ark," as reported by DailyMail.
The Babylonian artifact, known as Imago Mundi, resembles a circular diagram featuring cuneiform symbols, which the Babylonians used to describe the creation of the world. Staff members at the British Museum, where the tablet is housed, conducted a thorough analysis and decoded certain parts of the text. Among other findings, they discovered a story in an ancient language that closely resembles the biblical tale of Noah and his ark.
The researchers found that the reverse side of the tablet contains a "key" leading to a mysterious object. The text states that a traveler must pass "seven leagues to see the 'parsiktu'."
The term "parsiktu" (parsiktu) has previously been found on other Babylonian tablets, denoting a boat that saved lives during the Great Flood. The tablets indicate a route to "Urartu," where a man and his family docked with the ark.
In the text, Urartu is the Assyrian equivalent of "Ararat," which translates from Hebrew to mean mountain. According to biblical legend, Noah was meant to leave his vessel on this mountain.
"This shows that the stories are essentially the same, and one certainly derived from the other. However, in Babylon, they believed that the ark truly existed. The tablet explains the path to the ark," says British Museum curator Irving Finkel.
The Imago Mundi tablet has puzzled scholars since its discovery in 1882 in what is now Iraq.
It is known that this type of cuneiform script was used exclusively by the Babylonians, who depicted on the tablet a map of the world, or at least the known part of it at the time. At the center of this map lies Mesopotamia, encircled by what is referred to as the "bitter river," which, according to Babylonian beliefs, surrounded the entire world.
Over the long period since its discovery, the tablet has been damaged, but it once featured eight additional triangles. Researchers believe these figures represented the mountains mentioned on the back of the tablet.
The tablet states that if a traveler follows the indicated route, they will eventually encounter a gigantic vessel on the mountain.
"This is a description of the ark that was built by the Babylonian version of Noah," notes the researcher.
The Babylonian version states that the god Ea sent a flood that destroyed all humanity except for Utnapishtim and his family. They built an ark at the command of their god and took animals on board.
The story of the Gilgamesh flood is known from clay tablets dating back approximately 3,000 years. In contrast, the biblical account claims the flood occurred around 5,000 years ago.
The Bible states that Noah's ark came to rest on the "mountains of Ararat" in Turkey after its 150-day voyage. The peak of the mountain in question indeed resembles the shape and size of Noah's ark, according to the biblical narrative.
However, most historians and archaeologists do not believe in a literal interpretation of the ark story.
It is worth noting that researchers have speculated where the Ark of the Covenant is actually hidden. The mystery of the legendary biblical ark, which is said to possess mystical properties and brings death to all who touch it, remains an enigma that spans millennia.