Epic of Gilgamesh — The Flood Tablet (Tablet XI)

The flood narrative from Tablet XI of the Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, quoted line-for-line from George Smith's 1876 translation in The Chaldean Account of Genesis. Smith's publication of this tablet was the first modern evidence of a pre-biblical flood story — it rocked Victorian theology. The parallels with Genesis 6–9 are striking: a divine command to build a ship, a chosen survivor and his household, a global deluge, a landing on a mountain (Nizir), the sending out of birds, and a post-flood sacrifice.