The Real Noah's Ark

British Museum curator, Dr Irving Finkel and a team of experts embark on a challenge to build the vessel that inspired the Biblical Ark, using instructions taken from an ancient tablet. The quest reveals an untold history of boat building and story-telling that sheds new light on the origins of Noah’s Ark and the Hebrew Bible. In 1948, a British RAF pilot, Leonard Simmons, discovered a tablet covered in mysterious writing when he was serving in Iraq.

After 40 years lying forgotten, his son Douglas brought it to an expert, Irving Finkel, at the British Museum. Immediately it became clear that the tablet was 3,700 years old. Closer investigation revealed that it was an ancient instruction manual for building a huge boat to survive a flood – a boat that would go on to inspire the Epic of Gilgamesh, which in turn led to the story of Noah’s Ark.