The biblical figure of Noah, who seems to be not the only person forced to wander the seas and oceans during the devastating flood that took place in time immemorial. Legends of severe flooding can be found not only in the Bible, but also in sources from around the world, including Tibetans, Native Americans and many others.
In his book Rocks Don't Lie: The Geologic Study of the Flood, David Montgomery of the University of Washington looked scientifically at the facts that formed the basis of the legends.
During the Ice Age, advancing and receding ice sheets changed the level of the world's oceans, as a result of which lakes were formed, which turned out to be locked by boulders. Then the glaciers began to melt, and the water began to get out of its traps, undermining the stone structures. In other places, seawater was restrained by natural embankments, which began to collapse, and water streams burst outward with great force.
When natural barriers had already ceased to cope with melting water, millions of liters of water began to cover the surface of the land, driving animals and people out of their homes. The memory of these events formed the basis of many flood legends around the world.
Tibet: Buddhist missionary Padmasambhava, known in Tibet as Guru Rinpoche, according to legend, was able to tame ancient Tibetan demons. One of these demons lived in a lake formed by the Tsangpo River. After the demon was defeated, the water from the lake left and left behind a fertile land.
During the 2002 expedition, Montgomery found evidence that the gorge formed by the Tsangpo River filled with water many times. The most recent time this happened was about 1100-1400 years ago, around the time when Guru Rinpoche appeared in these places. When the natural dam gave way, a huge amount of water rushed down the mountain. Instead of a lake, a fertile valley was formed here, which today is a real granary of Tibet.
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USA: The deep lake has formed many times behind the glaciers and turned the mountain valleys of eastern Washington into two giant lakes. Between 15 and 13 thousand years ago, the water of these lakes broke through natural barriers at least 25 times. Streams of water carved interesting formations and unusual canyons in the rock, and even moved giant boulders the size of houses over a distance of hundreds of kilometers.
The Yakima and Spokane tribes told the early missionaries about these floods, according to Montgomery. Local residents could even show those points on the hills that allowed their ancestors to escape from inevitable death.
Persian Gulf: Other researchers have found evidence of major floods exactly where they might have inspired the Bible story of Noah and his ark.
According to archaeologists, the waters of the Persian Gulf may have covered the oldest and largest human settlements outside Africa. The green oasis was roughly the size of the British Isles and was home to humans between 74 and 8 thousand years ago. Then the water could break through natural barriers and flood the area.
Scientists believe there is strong evidence that biblical myths tell of real floods that took place somewhere in the Persian Gulf. If we pay attention to the myths of the Book of Genesis, these same myths are repeated almost word for word in the Babylonian and Sumerian sources, written no later than 2500 BC.