Deluge

the great flood that prevailed in the days of Noah. The wickedness of man; the piety of Noah; the building of the ark; the breaking up of the fountains of the ark; the breaking up of the fountains of the deep, and the opening of the windows of heaven; the rain of forty days and forty nights; the preservation of beast and fowl and creeping thing; the prevalence of water on the face of the earth; the resting of the ark on Mount Ararat; and the sending forth of the raven and the dove, are told in chapters vi, vii, and viii of Genesis. A former opinion, that the deluge of Noah was universal, has given way to the view that it was local. Similar traditions are preserved by many peoples. The most notable is that of the Chaldeans, a people akin to the Hebrews. It was found inscribed in cuneiform characters on clay tablets, and was made known in 1872. The Chaldean deluge reached its height in seven days. The ark rested on a mountain in eastern Kurdistan; the Noah-like hero of the Chaldean flood sent forth a raven, a swallow, and a dove.