Location of Noah's Flood

The Mesopotamian Plain is shown as the place where Noah's Flood took place. The oldest and most advanced civilizations known in history were established in this region. In addition, this region is geographically suitable for a large flood because it is located in the middle of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. One of the reasons that increased the effect of the Flood is most likely that these two rivers overflowed their beds and affected the region.

The second reason why this region is considered to be the place where the Flood occurred is historical. In the records of many civilizations in the region, numerous documents have been unearthed that describe a Flood that occurred during the same period. These civilizations, who witnessed the destruction of Noah's people, must have felt the need to record the formation and consequences of this disaster in historical records. It is also known that most of the legends that describe the Flood are of Mesopotamian origin. The most important of these are the archaeological findings. These show that a great flood did indeed occur in this region. As we will examine in detail, this flood caused the civilization in the region to stagnate for a while. Clear traces of such a great disaster were unearthed from under the ground during the excavations.

According to excavations in the Mesopotamian region, this region has faced many disasters throughout history, such as floods and the overflowing of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. For example, around 2000 BC, a year during the reign of Ibbi-sin, the ruler of the great city of Ur in the southern part of Mesopotamia, is described as "after a flood that destroyed the boundaries between heaven and earth". Around 1700 BC, a year during the reign of Hammurabi of Babylon is described as "the destruction of the city of Eshnunna by a flood".

In the 10th century BC, during the reign of the ruler Nabu-mukin-apal, there was a flood in the city of Babylon.2 Major floods also occurred in the region in the 7th, 8th, 10th, 11th and 12th centuries AD. In the 20th century, this occurred in 1925, 1930 and 1954.3 It seems that the region is always prone to floods and that it is clearly possible for a large-scale flood to destroy an entire nation, as stated in the Quran.

How High Did the Waters Rise?

Another debate about the flood is whether the waters rose high enough to cover the mountains. As is known, the Quran states that the ship landed on "Cudi" after the flood. The word "Cudi" is sometimes taken as the name of a specific mountain, whereas in Arabic it means "high place-hill". Therefore, it should not be ignored that "Cudi" in the Quran may have been used only to describe the ship's landing on a high place, not as the name of a specific mountain. It can also be deduced from this meaning of the word "Cudi" that the waters reached a certain height, but still did not rise to the level of the great mountains. In other words, the flood did not swallow the entire earth and all the mountains on the earth as described in the Torah, but only covered a certain area.