In Genesis, what type of wood is specified for Noah’s ark?

In Genesis, the ark is specified as being made from gopher wood.

Genesis 6:14 instructs Noah to make the ark from “gopher wood,” a term whose exact botanical meaning is uncertain. Most English translations preserve the unusual phrase rather than identifying a known modern tree species. As a result, “gopher wood” is the safest canonical answer to a question about the text.

Scholars and translators have proposed possibilities such as cypress or another resinous wood, but no identification is universally accepted. Those proposals are interpretations, not a replacement for the wording of Genesis. This uncertainty is why answers naming a specific modern species can be less precise.

The same verse also tells Noah to make rooms in the ark and cover it inside and outside with pitch. The pitch is described as waterproofing material, while gopher wood is the construction material. These are separate details often blended together in simplified retellings.