In the Noah's Ark story in Genesis, what were the ark's three recorded dimensions?

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In the Noah's Ark story in Genesis, the ark's recorded dimensions are 300 by 50 by 30 cubits.

Genesis gives the vessel's length, width, and height in that order. The text does not define the cubit, an ancient unit based broadly on forearm length, so the modern metric equivalent is approximate. A commonly used estimate puts the ark at roughly 135 metres long, 22.5 metres wide, and 13.5 metres high when a cubit is taken as about 45 centimetres.

These proportions produce a long, box-like vessel rather than the streamlined shape of a modern ship. Naval engineers have sometimes examined the dimensions as a stability problem, but the biblical account presents the ark primarily as a divinely commanded refuge, not as a conventional sailing vessel. The measurements are therefore textual specifications, not archaeological measurements of a surviving boat.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Oct. 2026

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