Biblical answer to that question is in the "earth of Ararat."
The Bible is very explicit in saying where was exactly that fountain flood had happened when it says:
"wa-tanakh (and rested)
ha-teba (the ark)
ba-chodez (in the month)
hatzebyi (7th),
betzib'ah-'ashar (on the 17th)
yōm (day)
la-chodez (of the month)
'al (on)
harei (mountains)
'ararath (of Ararat)."
- Genesis 8:4
Moses (Torah) says that the ark had rested on the "mountains of Ararat." He uses plural here to mean a region.
And that region was also popularly known as
"'eretz ararath"
("earth of Ararat").
History indirectly relates that "earth of Ararat" to the Noah's ark in an incident during the time of king Sennacherib - an event that is hinted from prophet Isaiah's report after Sennacherib built a movable shrine of a plank claimed to be taken from Noah's ark.
"And it come to happen as he was worshipping
Beth Nisar-okh
[Great House Nisar]
his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with a sword and they fled to [the] earth of Ararat."
Let us further dissect this passage in this way:
"wayhî (and it came to pass)
hū (as he)
mischtakhāweh (was worshipping)
bêth (house)
nisrōkh (Great Nisar)
'elōhāw (his god)
wa'adhrammelekh (that Adrammelech)
washar'etser (and Sharezer)
bānāw (his sons)
hikuhu (struck him)
ba-chereb (with a sword)
wehêmāh (and they)
nimlathu (escaped in to)
'eretz (earth)
'ararath (of Ararat)..." - Isaiah 37:38
This incident was possibly reported in the kingdom of Judah, as a form of religious encouragement that Yahweh punishes Sennacherib because of his mocking the God of Abraham.
The Assyrian king never defeated king Hezekiah (r.715-686 BCE) of Judah and because of desperation, Sennacherib sought all means to win in the succeeding battles, resulting later to looting a plank from Noah's ark after he envied Abraham because that God (Yah) is caring for Judah, and he tried to bribe this God (Ya) by making Beth-Nisroch, a god made with the said plank and called its temple Araske (after the name of Lesser Araske river going to Arzap/Kazan west south of Mt. Ararat) and erected such a shrine made of bricks in his border in what is now called Mt. Cudi.
Babylonian Talmud further relates:
"He then went away,
and found a plank of Noah's Ark.
'This,' said he, 'must be the great God who saved Noah from the flood. If I go [to battle] and am successful, I will sacrifice my two sons to thee,' he vowed.
But his sons heard this, so they killed him,..." - Tractate Sanhedrin, folio 96a
The "house" that Sennacherib worshipped as the "great god" was said a plank of Noah's Ark which he probably received from a pilgrim who looted it in around 686 BCE
and which he called "Nisrokh" ("Great Nisar"), masculine of "Nisar" which was a Babylonian goddess of agriculture. Prophet Isaiah retained untranslated this name ("Nisroch"), but a Judaean servant of the Assyrian king translated it into "Dagon."
This "Dagon" could have two meanings: first as a direct translation, it means "god of agriculture" and second as a shape, it may mean "fish," referring to the shape of the ark.
It's not difficult for Sennacherib to have such a plank because in 705 BCE Argishti II ( c.713 - c.685 BCE), king of Urartu, had a peace treaty with him.
"But not 40 days had passed, two of Sennacherib's sons assassinated him and then escaped to the
mountains of Ararat.
Another son, Sacherdonos [Esarhaddon], reigned after him who appointed Achikar [Achiacharus], my brother Hanael's son, in charge of all the financial affairs of the empire. " - Tobit 1:21
"Adrammelech and Sharezer, they laid in wait for him, and killed him with the sword at the time he went to pray before Dagon his god" (Tobit 1:24)
Official cuneiform record reported that...
" On 20th Tebet Sennacherib, king of Assyria, was killed by his son in a revolt." - Babylonian Chronicle column 3:34
Tobit, a contemporary of Sennacherib and Esarhaddon, was saying that on 4th January 681 BCE Sennacherib was murdered by his sons, and since only one sword was used to kill him (as what prophet Isaiah has reported, too), it simply means only one of the two who really killed him, and
" ... they fled
eis ta ore A'rarath
(into the mountains of Ararat),
... "
on February 15, after killing any body who would reveal Adrammelech's plot, but Esarhaddon took the throne on May 29, 681 BCE.
King Esarhaddon called this
"ore A'rarath" ("mountains of Ararat")
as
"Parts Unknown"
or of nisirtu, when he officially reported:
" As for those villains [Adrammelech and Sharezer] who instigated revolt and rebellion, when they heard of the approach of my army, they abandoned their troops, and fled to
parts unknown " - ARAB 2:202
This "Parts Unknown" is what the Gilgamesh Epic called "Nisir" (Hidden).
Historically, what prophet Isaiah has reported " 'eretz ararath" ("earth of Ararat") is what Tobit called "ore A'rarath" ('mountains of Ararat'), which eventually called "Parts Unknown" by king Esarhaddon (681 BCE). And this Parts Unknown are what flood epic called "Nisir" ("Unknown"), and one of the mounds or hills on this Nisir, according to Gilgamesh Epic, was the landing site of the huge boat of Utnapishtim (Noah).
The 630's BCE version of Gilgamesh Epic has said that:
"the wooden-boat was held tight and could not move on a hill country of Nisir."
" KUR-ú KUR (Hill country)
ni-sir (Nisir)
GIŠ (wooden)
eleppu (boat)
is-bat-ma (held-tight)
a-na (that)
na-a-ši (its-movement)
ul (not)
id-din (allowed). " - Gilgamesh Epic, tablet 11, line 141
King Ashurbanipal (669- c.627 BCE), the publisher of the Standard Epic of Gilgamesh, claimed that the version he has had was written by Sin-leqi-unninni (1000 BCE).
Most likely this Sin-leqi-unninni who had edited the Epic of Gilgamesh was the scribe who inserted
tablet 11 (Flood Story)
to be included. If he was the source of the name
"Nisir,"
then it simply means this Sin-leqi-unninni edited the Epic of Gilgamesh in around 880 BCE, because the term "Nisir" has its first appearance in historical cuneiform record when it was used by king Ashur-nasir-pal in 881 BCE during a campaign in Urartu, particularly in Nodshirakan (Adiabene) - a range of mountains and hills from Lower Zab river to Ziyaret (Zaranda-Bari border). And this may also imply that the standardization of Gilgamesh Epic was to mimic the victory of king Hezekiah of Judah in using literature (books published by king Solomon) to tightly unite citizens and soldiers in one faith. King Hezekiah translated the books of king Solomon into Judaean langauge understandable to laymen (cf. Proverbs 25:1). And those published books may include the ancient versions of Moses' writings, particularly about their God Yahweh.
King Sennacherib tried to discourage Judaeans by mocking the name of Yahweh, but he failed and never defeated Jerusalem, and made retirement from spoiling much failures against Jerusalem; but never forget his lost that later he revived his interest by trying to bribe Noah's God and by mimicking a symbol of unification: Beth Nisroch, a house god Nisar, claimed as derived from a plank of Noah's Ark. Unfortunately, this same house god triggered indirectly his death on January 4, 681 BCE after his barbaric idea that he would sacrifice alive his two elder sons if he could win the battle.
So, with the term "Nisir" we can be certained that Sin-leqi-nninni had edited the complete Epic of Gilgamesh around 880 BCE, and also the possible reason why he put an incipit "Sha naqba īmuru ("He who Saw the Deep") to mean that Utnapishtim had seen the deep (flood or the Yaredu [descent, down of Mashu]) or that Gilgamesh had seen the "Unknown" (Nisir).
Sin-leqi-unninni possibly plagiarized the Flood Story from the Epic of Atrahasis, Sumerian Epic of Ziusudra, and apparently from Moses' Flood story.
The original Epic of Gilgamesh may have no Flood Story (tablet 11). It has the incipit or opening words:
"Shūtur eli sharrī" ("Surpassing All Other Kings").
King Ashurbanipal has an indication that the Gilgamesh Epic of Sin-leqi-nninni was plagiarized from Epic of Atrahasis as it mentions "Atrahasis" in the story and it copied directly some lines from Atrahasis' epic.
The oldest copy of the Atrahasis Epic can be dated by colophon (scribal identification) to the reign of Ammi-Saduqa (1550-1530 BCE), grandson of king Hammurabi of Babylon.
It is expected that Babylonians became concern about this story, as their founder
"Sumu-abum" (1798-1785 BCE)
was proud to be called "Whose Father is Shem." Shem was a chronologically contemporary of king Nuabu ("Whose Father is Noah") of Assyria.
According to king Hammurabi's list of ancestors, Nuabu (c. 2000 BCE) was the 10th generation after Tudiya-Adam, the first ruler of Assyria.
Genesis 2:14-15 describes that "Adam" was the first ruler of ASSYRIA, particularly in the western part.
Ugarit (Syrian) scribe had also a version of Atrahasis Epic.
The incipit of Atrahasis Epic is “When gods were in the ways of men," relating how gods (priests) were like ordinary men, working a heavy job (like farming, making garden, irrigation, and so on), which later resulted to a revolt of Anunnaki (junior gods of high earth, i.e. priests of the mountains) and ended to a resolution of sacrificing Geshtu-E, one of the gods (priests) by a ritual of mixing his blood to a human figurine soil, symbolizing appointing ordinary men to toil the land for the gods (priests).
Tablet 3 of Atrahasis Epic mentions that Enki (Ea) spoke on a reed wall in a dream to warn Atrahasis about the impending flood and gave an advice to dismantle his house to build a huge boat.
The name Atrahasis is possibly not a birthname but an alias he had received after he had wisely survived the river flood. In later edition, this name might have changed into Akkadian "Utnapishtim," whose name means "He Found Life." This latter name was a translation of the Old Babylonian name Ziusudra.
The name Ziusudra, Atrahasis, or Utnapishtim is not mentioned in the Sumerian King List Weld-Blunfell Prism (WB 444 AN1923.444) published by king Sin-magir around 1721 BCE, rather the kinglist records:
"Then Zimbir fell and the kingship was taken to Shuruppak. [And ]
Ubara-Tutu [reigned] 5 sars, 1 ner
Then the flood swept over.
After the flood had swept over, and the kingship had descended from heaven, the kingship was in Kish. [And ruled] Jushur for 33 sars."
This may mean that a devastating Shuruppak flood had really happened during the time of king Ubara-Tutu (c. 2950 BCE).
However, when another flood happened in 2029 BCE and became more dramatic because the flood hero built and survived by a huge boat, a small cuneiform kinglist (WB 62) published around c. 1950 BCE adjusted it by describing "Zin-Suddu [Ziusudra], son of SU.KUR.LAM [Shuruppak] grandson of Ubara-Tutu" as the king and priest when the flood took place.
In Babylonian language, Zi-ud-sura means "Found Long Life," which later directly translated as "Uta-Napishti" ("He Found Life").
This could be how southern Mesopotamian scribes plagiarized the Ararat flood, by changing the name of the flood hero into Ziusudra, and edited it with Sumerian langauge. Hence, around 1700 BCE the Sumerian Epic of Ziusudra was published. Fortunately the Epic of Ziusudra is honest to mention that the flood hero was living in "Dilmun," a distant place known for its woods and copper (in Diyarbakr) in the region called by the Sumerians as Erin (Cedar) untranslated in Moses (Torah) as Eden, what we called today Syria.
These trees of Eden were located from Lebanon to Assyria, according to the Bible.
"Behold, the
Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon
with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs.
The
cedars in the garden of God
could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chesnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty.
I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and
all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon,
all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth." - Ezekiel 31:3,8,16 (KJV)
And in around 880 BCE when Sin-leqi-nninni plagiarized the Epic of Ziusudra, he mentions:
"godchild of Ubaratutu, who lives a pious life in fair Dilmun where Shamash rises as it does in paradises lost and won" (Gilgamesh Epic, tablet 9, column 1, line 10)
Cedar (Erēnu) of Syria was known as the shade of Dilmun. Hebrews Hebrized that Sumerian word "Erin" into Eden, referring to the region of Cedar and various trees in Syria from Tyre to Dilmun (Diyarbakr) as we can discern from Ezekiel 31:8,16 and 28:12-13. The Tyre being mentioned by prophet Ezekiel may refer to Sumerian term "TIR" ("Forest").
King Sargon described that Tilmun (Dilmun) as near Tuttul, Mari, Yarmutu (Jarmoth), Ibla (Ebla), and Cedar (Lebanon, Syria).
"Sargon king of Kish was victorious in 34 campaigns; the city walls he destroyed as far as the shore of the sea; he caused to be moored at the wharf of Akkad ships from Melukha, and ships from Magan and ships from Tilmun (Dilmun). King Sargon prostrated himself in prayer before Dagan in Tutul; and he gave him the upper region, including Mari, Yarmutu, and Ebla as far as the Cedar Forest [Lebanon] and Silver Mountain [Taurus]. Enlil permitted no one to oppose king Sargon," - Sargon of Akkad (r. 2238-2183 BCE)
As early as 25th century BCE Dilmun was known for woods brought by its boats as officially reported by a king of Lagash.
"boats from the land of Dilmun carried the woods" - king Urnanshe (c. 2400 BCE)
This may mean that woods from Cedar Forest were carried on by the ships of Dilmun to southern Mesopotamia. According to several Uruk III (2016-1908 BCE) texts, Dilmon was a good source of copper, which was referring to Diyarbakr, hence Sumerians borrowed their term for copper from the Hurrians of the ancient Diyarbakr.
Ziusudra Epic reported that the flood hero was permitted to live in Dilmun.
"king Ziusudra ...they caused to dwell in the land of the country of Dilmun, the place where Shamash rises." - Epic of Ziusudra, line 261
The 630 BCE Gilgamesh Epic described further, although omitted the term Dilmon:
"Formerly Utnapishtim was a human being, but now he and his wife have become gods like us. Let Utnapishtim reside far away, at the mouth of the rivers."
- dingir-kabtu [divine important person], Gilgamesh Epic, tablet 11, lines 202-204
It indirectly describes where gods are living - at the mouth of the rivers. The dingir-kabtu, who pronounces this, is a man who represents a god. He is a priest who emphasizes his distinction from ordinary humans. And these junior gods (called Anunnaki) were human beings who presided as divine beings (priests); these gods were too much frightened by the flood.
"The Anunnaki, those great gods [were sitt]ing in thirst and hunger." - Epic of Atrahasis, OB tablet 3, lines 30-31
And that Utnapishtim (Ziusudra) became one of the gods simply means he became one of the priests. Cuneiform list WB 62 reported that the flood survivor was a gudug priest.
The rivers, whose mouth where Utnapishtim lived at, refer to Tigris in Dilmun (Diyarbakr - there is no Tigris in Bahrain), Euphrates in Mt. Abos (Yanikcukur), Lesser Araske river from Gülü lake to Arzap (Kazan), and probably a river in the border of Iran-Turkey. King of Uruk, alias Gilgamesh, after 2029 BCE was searching for the flood hero by going to traditional route: to Metsamor and then to Mashu (Mt. Ararat), and when he found him not, he went to ERIN (Cedar Forest) and then to Dilmun, and there he found Urshanabi at Arzap/Kazan; since there was still a body of water, they sailed traversing the "Waters of Death" going to Nasar, at the foot of the hill of Baris-Ziyareth Dag. And the flood hero learned their arrival at the First Landing Site.
To further determine it, we can cite king Sargon (722-702 BCE) who describes that king Uperi of Dilmon was living a mere 30 beru (116-257 km, 72-160 miles) in the midst of the sea, which could be an island in Nairi Sea (Lake Van) or on formerly rain-lake near Arzap (Kazan), south of Mt. Ararat.
Through prophet Ezekiel the location of the flood could be understood as the location where the Nephilim had been buried, and it was called "Yardu" or "Down" - a lower ground on the southern foot of Mashu (Mt. Ararat).
"There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude: her graves are round about him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused their terror in the land of the living.
Do they not lie with the other uncircumcised warriors, who were
giborim Nophilim,
who are gone
YARDU (Down)
to the grave with their weapons of war, whose swords were placed under their souls? The punishment for their sins rested on their bones, though the terror of these warriors had stalked through the land of the living." - Ezekiel 32:26-27
In Genesis 6:4 they are described as the "mighty men of old, men of renown."
"The Nephilim were on the earth in those days - and also afterward - when the sons of elohim went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of antiquity, popular men. Yah saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time." - Genesis 6:4-5
If we will follow Ezekiel's hint, we can suppose that these Nophilim had descended from Meshech and Tubal in what we called in history as the Hittite land. They were the people who had copper sources, known for smelting swords or weaponry.
Adding to the region's location is the fact that in Gilgamesh Epic tablet 11, lines 87-101 the boatman of the ship of Utnapishtim (Noah) was Purur-amurri, an Amorite - suggesting that the flood happened around 2029 BCE and was a river flood, as Amorites were living in the region of many rivers and Amorites migrated to Mesopotamian region in c. 2100 BCE.The older Atrahasis Epic can corroborate that it was a river flood.
"Like dragonflies they have filled the river. Like a raft they have moved in to the edge. Like a raft...they have moved in to the riverbank." - Epic of Atrahasis, tablet 3, column 4, lines 6-9
In the Bible it started as a fountain flood coupled with a continuous strong rain, which expectedly turned into a river flood. Later, the body of water it had left on the foot of Mt. Ararat's southern part became enough for Sin-leqi-unninni to describe it as a sea flood. That sea or lake of rain was likely still visible during the time of king Ashurbanipal (630 BCE) until the time of Herodotus (c. 425 BCE).
If we will read the hint of Urshanabi, Arzap (Kazan) was a mountain as it was an island between 880-620's BCE. Sacred stones of Urshanabi are reported by Gilgamesh Epic to be located on the island where Urshanabi lived. The area west north of Arzap was called Hell or Down (Yardu) in the epic, probably because the fire of hell (Mt. Ararat volcano) that is descending to that direction.
This could be the reason why Syriac scribes of Targum (Chaldee version) translated "Ararat" in Isaiah 37:38 as
"Karedu [Kardu],"
which originally may mean "Descent" and later called by the Armenians as "Nakhichevan" ("Place of Descent"), the Naxouana in Ptolemy's report.
Yerushalmi Megillah i.71b paraphrased Jeremiah 51:27's " Ararat, Minni, Ashkenaz" as
"Kordu, Harmini, and Hadayab,"
which are referring to the provinces of
" Ayrarat, Vaspurakan, and Nor Shirakan, " respectively.
Unlike to Sumerian Epic of Ziusudra, Babylonian Epic of Atrahasis, and Assyrian Epic of Gilgamesh, the Flood Story of Moses (Torah) mentions the exact location of the resting site of the big ark, and it untranslated the original name:
"mountains of Ararat."
The term "Ararat" was the Hebrew rendering of the 21st century BCE term " Aratta," which in Sanskrit and in Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta means "holy land."
A 21th century BCE cuneiform record has alluded the flood of Ararat when it says:
"Inana, the lady of all the lands, has surrounded
Aratta,
on its right and left, for her like a rising
flood.
They are people whom she has separated from other people, they are people whom Dumuzid [the Fisherman] has made step forth from other people, who firmly establish the holy words of Inana. [ . . . ] After the flood had swept over, Inana, the lady of all the lands, from her great love of Dumuzid, has sprinkled the water of life upon those who had stood in the face of the flood and made the Land subject to them." - Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, lines 557-576
The king of Aratta here is not called "king" because since the time of "Adam," the first ruler of Assyria, their "king" was but God.
In Gilgamesh and Huwawa it is said that "a decision that concerns the mountains is the business of Utu (Shamash/Sun). A decision that concerns the
GISH erin-kud
(Mountains of Cedar-felling)
is the business of youthful Utu (Sun)."
Mountains here refers to "Aratta" and Mountains of Cedar-felling refers to Eden (Syrian region). According to Sumerian, Babylonian, and Akkadian epics of the flood, Dilmun is where Shamash (Utu/Sun) rises. And they depicted it on a seal.
On this Babylonian seal, it is correctly depicted that Sun (Utu/Shamash) is rising on Lesser Masis to the east of Mashu, and located the Greater Masis on the west.
Mashu is a Twin-peaked Mountain. Native Armenians untranslated this as "Masis," but European writers changed its name into "Mt. Ararat."
Mt. Ararat is different from "mountains of Ararat," the latter being a region known to prophet Isaiah as "earth of Ararat."
Both Tobit, prophet Jeremiah and and prophet Isaiah untranslated what Moses (Torah) called "Ararat".
Moses untranslated what the primitive Urartian ancestors called "Aratta."
Aratta was a 2100 BCE term for the mountainous region above Zubi mountain (Minyas/Mannaean land) and before reaching Shubur (Amida/Diyarbakr region).
In around 1263 BCE southern part of Aratta was revived and called by Assyrian king Shalmaneser as "Uruatri," which in the 9th century BCE was called Urartu.
Around 850 BCE Arzashkun (near the starting point of Euphrates in Yanikcukur) was the first capital of Urartu before the capital was transferred to Tuspha, after 832 BCE. This may mean that the book of Genesis that contains Flood Story mentioning "Ararat" was published either before 850 BCE or but not after 832 BCE, as this Urartu almost exactly corresponds to Moses' Ararat.
Like in Torah, Quran Surah 11:44 does not mention "jabal" (mount) or "jabal Gudiyy" (Mount Judi), but al-Gudiyy (the Gudiyy). And this Gudiyy is the Arabic form of Tsa-du-u (Sha-du-u), a region known to ancient merchants as the Mountainous Region north of Urartu.
With this oldest extant Babylonian ancient world map, we can discern where exactly located "Sha-du-u," the region mentions in Gilgamesh Epic as the site of Nisir and where the huge boat landed. The map describes that Urashtu (Ararat) is above Assur and that 'Shadu-u,' known in ancient Arabic speaking people "al-Gudiyy" ("Mountain"), is located above a city of Urartu (Ararat). This could not be in Mt. Cudi of the Muslims, but Mt. Abos and beyond.
The map does not show there is an island in Muslim's Mt. Cudi. However, it depitcs that there is an island near Sha-du-u, and history says that there was an island in Dilmon, and that the flood hero lived in Dilmon. This map settles once and for all the issue regarding the whereabouts of al-Gudiyy (Sha-du-u Nisir). Al-Gudiyy was originally not in Assyria n Mt. Cudi.
Note: Babylonian Chronicle : Schrader, Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, II. pp. 281
