What type of wood does Genesis name for Noah's Ark?

Genesis names gopher wood as the material for Noah's Ark.

In Genesis 6:14, God tells Noah to make the ark from gopher wood and to cover it inside and outside with pitch. The Hebrew term translated as “gopher wood” is unusual: it appears only in this passage, so its exact botanical identity is not known with certainty. Many English Bibles retain the transliteration rather than identifying a specific tree.

Because of that uncertainty, translations and commentators have proposed possibilities such as cypress or another durable conifer. Those suggestions are interpretations, not a definitive identification supplied by Genesis. The safest canonical answer is therefore the wording “gopher wood.”

The passage also describes the ark as having rooms, a door in its side, and lower, middle, and upper decks. These construction details make the account more like a set of building instructions than a simple mention of a boat.