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

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

Genesis 6:14 instructs Noah to make the Ark from “gopher wood” and to build rooms inside it. The Hebrew expression is unusual, and the text does not identify a modern tree species with certainty. As a result, translations generally preserve the phrase as “gopher wood” rather than naming a specific botanical equivalent.

Readers sometimes assume that gopher wood means cypress because some ancient translations and later commentators proposed cypress or another durable timber. That identification remains conjectural. The passage’s definite point is the wording of the instruction, not a securely identified species. The same verse also tells Noah to coat the Ark with pitch inside and outside.