What material does Genesis specify for building Noah’s Ark?

Genesis specifies gopher wood as the material for building Noah’s Ark.

In Genesis 6:14, God instructs Noah to make the ark from “gopher wood” and to cover it inside and outside with pitch. The Hebrew expression is traditionally transliterated as gopher wood, but its precise botanical meaning is uncertain. No surviving ancient timber identification settles which tree the term described.

This uncertainty creates a common mix-up: cypress, cedar, and other woods are sometimes proposed in translations or modern reconstructions, but “gopher wood” is the wording traditionally associated with the King James Bible and many related references. The text gives a material name without identifying a modern species.

The ark is also described as having compartments and being coated with pitch to make it watertight. Those details are separate from the question of what gopher wood actually was, which remains a matter of linguistic interpretation.