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Noah's Ark

The ark built to the measurements God gave Noah in Genesis 6, in 3D: walk round the outside, then go in deck by deck. The lab marks what Genesis says and what is our best guess.

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The ark: 300 × 50 × 30 cubits
The ark: 300 × 50 × 30 cubits
Inside: the three decks, side cut away
Inside: the three decks, side cut away
Stores on a deck (a guess: the text gives no plan)
Stores on a deck (a guess: the text gives no plan)

Key facts

  • The ark was 300 cubits long, 50 wide and 30 high: about 135 metres long with a common cubit.
  • It was made of gopher wood and covered with pitch inside and out.
  • It had three decks, rooms (literally “nests”), a door in the side and an opening a cubit high under the roof.
  • Two of every kind of living creature went in, with seven pairs of the clean animals, and food for all.
  • Eight people were aboard: Noah, his wife, their three sons and their wives. The LORD shut them in.
  • Noah did everything just as God commanded him (Genesis 6:22).

Key verses

14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. 15 And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. 16 A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.
Genesis 6:14–16 · King James Version
Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.
Genesis 6:22 · King James Version
By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
Hebrews 11:7 · King James Version

Talk about it

  1. Noah built for years before any rain fell. What does faith look like when nothing has happened yet?
  2. God gave exact measurements but left many details out. Why might the Bible tell us some things and not others?
  3. Peter and Hebrews both look back to the ark. What does this story show us about God's judgment and his rescue?

How sure can we be?

The Bible says
  • The length, width and height, the gopher wood, the pitch, the three decks, the rooms and the door are in Genesis 6.
  • Eight people aboard and the LORD shutting the door are in Genesis 7.
Our reconstruction
  • Genesis gives no hull shape; our long barge is one reading of tevah, a box made to float.
  • The pens, the water and food stores, the stairwells and the family's quarters are speculative.
Still debated
  • Which tree gopher wood was (cypress is a guess) and what the tsohar opening looked like.
  • How long the cubit was: the size in metres depends on it.
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