The following is an excerpt from the chapter:

Genesis records a similar cataclysmic event whereby God, in despair at how loathsome all mankind (except Noah) had become, decides to destroy his creation in a great flood. He causes it to rain for forty days and forty nights until the waters cover every mountain to a depth of fifteen cubits (around eight metres). Noah was instructed to build an Ark large enough to house his immediate family together with enough pairs of each living creature to ensure continuation of life after the flood. The structure and size of the Ark are quite specific. It was to be constructed from a frame of Cypress (type of evergreen tree) covered with reeds and coated inside and out with pitch (a dark, oily residue). It had to be completely enclosed and contain three levels with a single door in one side.

The highest mountain above sea level is Mount Everest at 8,850 metres. The most intense rainfall recorded in recent times was 38.1 millimeters in one minute at Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, 1970. At that rate the water level could have reached 2,194 metres in forty days. But it’s not just the rate at which the water would have to fall, it’s the volume required – approximately 30% more than has been calculated exists in the sky, sea and land.

The dimensions of the Ark are given as 300 cubits long by 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high. A cubit is the length of a man’s arm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger (approximately one-half metre). The Ark was enormous (150m x 25m x 15m) for a timber-framed craft by both historic and modern standards. Consider that the largest wooden vessel recorded at the end of the 20th century was the Al Hashemi II in Kuwait, a dhow measuring 84m by 19m. It contained over 3000 cubic metres of wood and took 175 men more than three years to complete using less than traditional methods. Having been built on land solely for the hospitality business this particular ship has never put to sea. Perhaps our ancestors didn’t simply live longer, they built better ships!