In Genesis, what kind of wood was Noah’s Ark made from?

In Genesis, Noah’s Ark was made from gopher wood.

Genesis 6:14 instructs Noah to build the vessel from “gopher wood” and to make rooms inside it before waterproofing it with pitch. The Hebrew term is unusual and appears only in this passage, so many translations retain it rather than identifying a modern tree species.

The phrase is sometimes rendered as “cypress wood” or “resinous wood” in translations and interpretations, but “gopher wood” is the traditional English wording and the standard answer to this question. The text does not provide a botanical description that would allow scholars to identify the tree with certainty.

The Ark account appears in Genesis chapters 6–9. It describes a large vessel built to preserve Noah, his family, and animals during the Flood. Ancient flood stories from Mesopotamia also describe specially built boats, but their materials and wording differ from Genesis.