Gilgamesh and Noah

It is interesting to see the similarities about the Great Flood in 'The Epic of Gilgamesh' and 'Genesis'. In both stories, God or Gods decided to destroy mankind because of their wickedness. To save the mankind, one man was chosen. The man, Utanapishtim in 'The Epic of Gilgamesh' and Noah in Genesis, was told to built a huge boat which is big enough to load a pair of every living creature on Earth. The man finally built the boat and loaded the pairs of all living creatures on Earth. Then the Great Flood wiped out all the humans and animals, and destroyed everything on Earth. The boat survived the Great Flood and landed on a mountain. The mountain was Mt. Nimush in 'The Epic of Gilgamesh', and Mt. Ararat in 'Genesis'. The boat stayed on the mountain for 7 days. After 7 days on the mountain, Utanapishtim released a dove to see if the bird found a land. The dove returned without any sign of the land. Next day, a swallow was released, but it also returned without any sign. Then a raven was released. This time, the raven didn't circle back to the boat, so Utanapishtim knew that water finally lowered, and that the land appeared. In 'Genesis', three birds were also released in the same way by Noah, and he found out that the land finally appeared after the third bird didn't return back to him.

There are some differences in both stories, but it seems that these differences are not major ones. In 'The Epic of Gilgamesh', gods lived in the very old city on the banks of the Euphrates. Anu, Enlil, Ninurta, Ennugi, Erragal, and Ea were the names. The gods never gave a reason for flood, but all of them but Enlil apposed the idea. Enlil oedered a flood to destroy all mankind. The flood was his idea, and he didn't discuss it with the other god of wisdom talked to a wall of a house to built a boat. He knew that Utanapishtim was listening and understood. In 'Genesis', God decided