The traditional English name for the Ark’s mysterious wood in Genesis is gopher wood. Genesis 6:14 uses this expression when God tells Noah to construct the Ark. The same verse also instructs Noah to make rooms in the vessel and cover it with pitch.
“Gopher” is unusual because it does not clearly identify a known tree in modern English or have a universally accepted equivalent in biblical scholarship. Some translators and commentators have proposed cypress or another resinous timber, but these proposals remain uncertain. For that reason, many English editions preserve the transliteration “gopher.”
This uncertainty is different from uncertainty about the Ark’s dimensions. The text gives numerical measurements in cubits, but it does not define the species of wood. Modern claims that identify a particular surviving structure as the Ark cannot establish what “gopher wood” meant in the ancient passage.