In the Epic of Gilgamesh, how many days and nights did the storm last?

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the storm lasts six days and seven nights.

In Tablet XI, Utnapishtim describes the violent storm that overwhelms the world after he enters the boat. The storm and flood are said to rage for six days and seven nights; on the seventh day, the weather becomes calm. This is a distinctive chronological detail in the Mesopotamian flood narrative.

The number is easy to confuse with the 40 days and 40 nights of rain in Genesis. The two stories share flood motifs, including a chosen survivor, a vessel, and the preservation of life, but their timelines are not identical. The Gilgamesh account also features different divine characters and a different vessel design. Its flood episode survives in Akkadian cuneiform tablets, especially the version incorporated into the Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh.