50 Fun Facts About Noah's Ark

Genesis 5 lists Noah as the tenth patriarch descended from Adam. Who was Noah's father?

Lamech was 182 when Noah was born; Methuselah, the longest-lived man in the Bible, was Noah's grandfather.

According to Genesis, how long did rain fall during the flood?

The waters then prevailed 150 days before the ark came to rest; the two figures come from two interwoven sources.

How old was Noah when the flood began, according to Genesis?

He was 500 when his sons were born and died at 950, 350 years after the flood.

What are the names of Noah's three sons?

Medieval Christians treated them as founders of Asia, Africa and Europe respectively.

How long did Noah live, according to Genesis?

That is second only to Methuselah's 969; after Noah, biblical lifespans shrink toward Moses's 120.

What were the dimensions of the ark in cubits, as instructed in Genesis 6?

That is roughly 134 by 22 by 13 metres, numbers some scholars tie to a Babylonian fondness for 60.

How many decks did Noah's Ark have?

Utnapishtim's cube-shaped ark in Gilgamesh had six decks; the three-deck ark echoes the Israelite three-part universe of heaven, earth and underworld.

From what material was Noah told to build the ark?

The Hebrew word appears nowhere else in the Bible, so the King James Version simply left it untranslated.

With what was the ark to be sealed inside and out?

The Hebrew word 'koper' is thought to be borrowed from the Akkadian 'kupru', meaning bitumen.

The Hebrew word 'tevah', used for Noah's Ark, appears only one other time in the Bible, describing what?

That is why the King James Version calls Moses's vessel an 'ark of bulrushes'.

Under God's covenant with Noah after the flood, what were humans permitted to eat for the first time?

The one condition was that the blood must not be eaten; shedding human blood became a capital crime.

To how many cubits' depth were the highest mountains covered, according to Genesis?

Fifteen cubits is half the ark's height, which some read as its draught when fully loaded.

What sign did God set in the clouds as a pledge never again to destroy all life by flood?

The covenant also permitted eating meat, but not blood.

After the flood, Noah planted a vineyard and became the first person to do what?

Church Fathers such as John Chrysostom excused him because, as the first wine-drinker, he couldn't have known its effects.

Which of Noah's grandsons was cursed after Ham saw his father naked in his tent?

Why the curse fell on Canaan rather than Ham has puzzled commentators since antiquity.

Which mighty hunter and king of Babylon was a great-grandson of Noah through Ham and Cush?

Genesis 10 traces the nations of the earth from Noah's three sons.

Which Mesopotamian poem has the flood story closest to Noah's, told by Utnapishtim?

Its Tablet XI was translated in 1872 by George Smith at the British Museum, who reportedly leapt up in excitement.

In the Babylonian flood story, which three birds does Utnapishtim release from his boat, in order?

Only the raven finds food and fails to return, the sign that the waters have gone down.

On which mountain does Utnapishtim's boat come to rest in the Babylonian flood story?

The flood in that version lasts only six days and six nights.

Who is the hero of the oldest known Mesopotamian flood story, inscribed at Nippur around 1600 BCE?

His Sumerian name means 'he of long life'; the Babylonians called the same figure Atrahasis.

What shape was the ark of the Babylonian flood hero Atrahasis?

Utnapishtim's was a cube and Noah's a rectangle, yet all three have almost identical deck areas.

Which Babylonian priest wrote the last known version of the Mesopotamian flood story, in Greek, in the 3rd century BCE?

Surviving fragments show it had changed little in 2,000 years.

Which son of Prometheus is often compared to Noah for surviving a flood in an ark?

He was warned by Zeus and Poseidon and gave thanks to the gods when the waters fell.

In which modern country does Mount Ararat, traditionally identified as the ark's landing place, stand?

At 5,137 m it is Turkey's highest peak, yet it is the national symbol of neighbouring Armenia.

How tall is Greater Ararat?

Little Ararat, its sister cone, is 3,896 m; the first recorded ascent was in 1829.

Which early church historian is among the earliest people recorded searching for relics of the ark?

Josephus, writing earlier still, simply reported that the ark's remains could still be seen.

What did analysis show Fernand Navarra's 1955 'ark wood' from Ararat to be?

He smuggled the expedition past Turkish authorities by disguising it as a family holiday.

What informal name has been given to the modern movement of expeditions searching for Noah's Ark?

In 2020 even the creationist Institute for Creation Research admitted the ark had not been found and likely never would be.

Which event about 7,500 years ago has been proposed as a real inspiration for the flood story?

A Persian Gulf flood is the other leading candidate; there is no scientific evidence for a global flood.

Which 11th-century theologian originated the standard picture of the ark as a hull with a sloped roof and side door?

The third-century scholar Origen had imagined it as a square pyramid floating on a raft.

According to the Talmud, how much did Noah sleep during the year aboard the ark?

Sanhedrin 108b has him feeding and caring for the animals day and night.

By what name is Noah known in the Quran?

Islam counts him as the first messenger sent by God, preaching for 950 years to a people who mocked him.

In the Quran, the ark is called Safinat Nuh. What does 'safina' mean?

The Quran also uses the word al-fulk for the vessel.

In which US state is Ark Encounter, the theme park built around a full-size ark?

It opened in Williamstown in 2016, 45 miles from the same group's Creation Museum.

How long is the ark at Ark Encounter?

It is 85 feet wide and 51 feet high, arranged into 132 bays across three decks.

Which Australian creationist and CEO of Answers in Genesis founded Ark Encounter?

A 2016 federal court ruling allowed the park to require employees to sign a statement of faith.

Who plays Noah in Darren Aronofsky's 2014 film?

Anthony Hopkins plays Methuselah and Emma Watson the adopted Ila; China refused to release it.

Aronofsky's Noah drew on which non-canonical text for its fallen-angel Watchers?

The stone giants and the film's environmental message both stirred controversy.

In the 2007 comedy Evan Almighty, which actor plays a congressman ordered by God to build an ark?

Morgan Freeman returned as God; at about $175 million it was briefly the most expensive comedy ever made.

Mount Ararat forms a near-quadripoint of four states. Which country's Nakhchivan exclave is one of them?

Its summit lay under Persian control until the 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay.

The Durupınar site, promoted by some as the petrified ark, is named after whom?

İlhan Durupınar spotted the boat-shaped formation in a 1959 aerial photo taken on a NATO mapping mission; geologists on both sides of the creation debate call it natural.

Which Apollo 15 moonwalker led expeditions to Mount Ararat in search of the ark?

The eighth man on the Moon had a religious epiphany in orbit; his 1982 climb ended with a bad fall, yet he returned a month later with his wife and son.

Who led the first recorded ascent of Mount Ararat, in 1829?

He wrote that local Armenians believed the ark still sat on the summit and that no human was allowed to approach it.

According to surah 11:44 of the Quran, on which mountain did the ark come to rest?

The historian Masudi even describes the ark sailing from Kufa to Mecca and circling the Kaaba before its final landing.

Which third-century scholar pictured the ark as a square pyramid floating on a raft?

Renaissance thinkers later revived this kind of speculation about the vessel's true shape and capacity.

Who directed the 1928 Warner Bros. part-talkie epic Noah's Ark?

John Wayne, Andy Devine and Ward Bond were among the hundreds of extras in the flood scene, which used 600,000 gallons of water.

In which year did the Ark Encounter theme park open in Williamstown?

Its restaurant, Emzara's Kitchen, seats 1,500 guests, making it one of the largest restaurants in the world.

Aronofsky's 2014 film Noah was denied release in which country for 'religion-related reasons'?

It was also banned in several Muslim countries for depicting a prophet, yet still grossed over $359 million worldwide.

In Aronofsky's Noah, who plays Methuselah, the hero's grandfather?

His character cures Ila's infertility with a blessing and then stays in the forest to be swept away by the flood.

Which New Testament letter compares Noah's salvation through water to baptism?

Early church writers ran with the typology: Augustine argued the ark's proportions matched those of the human body, and so of Christ and the Church.