Approximately how many lines does the Standard Babylonian version contain?

The Standard Babylonian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh contains approximately 3,000 lines.

This is the best-known Akkadian form of the ancient Mesopotamian epic. It was compiled from older material by the scholar-scribe Sîn-lēqi-unninni, probably sometime between 1300 and 1000 BCE. The poem is conventionally arranged across twelve clay tablets, although the twelfth tablet is a later, loosely connected addition to the main eleven-tablet narrative.

The surviving text is incomplete. Damage, missing tablets, and gaps mean that scholars reconstruct the original from fragments and duplicate copies, so the line count is an estimate rather than a perfectly preserved total. The Standard Babylonian version opens with the phrase “He who saw the deep,” referring to Gilgamesh’s hard-won knowledge.

A common mix-up is confusing this version with the shorter Old Babylonian form or with the earlier Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh. The Standard Babylonian text is also the version associated with the famous flood account involving Utnapishtim, making it central to modern translations and study of the epic.