Noah's altar was a fireplace for cooking food

During the Euphrates River flood of 2900 BC, the swollen river carried Noah's runaway barge downriver into the deep water of the Persian Gulf. The barge drifted for several months in the Gulf, beyond sight of land. After months of drifting, the barge was blown by a south wind into shallow water and grounded several miles from shore in the muddy bottom of an estuary at the mouth of the Euphrates River. The Epic of Gilgamesh XI,195-196 clearly places the flood hero and his wife "at the mouth of the rivers" after the boat grounded.

After his family and the cargo were safely on high ground, Noah offered a sacrifice on an altar (Genesis 8:20). He did this at the top of a hill (shadû) according to Gilgamesh XI,156. The barge was not at the top of a hill; the altar was at the top of a hill.

Here we can see how story tellers got the mistaken notion that the barge grounded on the top of a mountain. By interpreting shadû as mountain instead of hill, when they read that Noah offered a sacrifice on an altar at the top of a mountain, the story tellers assumed that the barge, being nearby, must also have been at the top of the mountain. But the barge was actually at sea level in an estuary several miles from the base of the hill and the altar was at the top of the hill only a few dozen feet above sea level.

After Noah's barge grounded on the shore of the Persian Gulf, the only way that portions of the barge could have survived to the present is by being quickly buried in dry sand and forgotten. But the chances of this having happened are practically zero, because estuaries at the mouth of the Euphrates River near Ur and Eridu remained marshy for many years. Wood buried there, even wood covered with pitch, would eventually rot. Noah's barge has not survived and it is futile to search for it. Noah's altar has also not survived. But the site of Noah's altar has survived and is a real place that has been excavated by archaeologists. This archaeological site is identified in Chapter 5 of the Noah's Ark book.

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