Utnapishtim is the flood survivor who builds a boat in the Epic of Gilgamesh. The god Ea warns him that the gods intend to send a devastating flood, and Utnapishtim constructs a vessel to preserve life.
The flood episode appears in Tablet XI of the Standard Babylonian version of the epic. Utnapishtim is instructed to abandon his possessions, build the boat, and take aboard his family, craftsmen, and living creatures. After the flood, he releases birds to determine whether the waters have fallen.
The account shares several motifs with the Genesis story, including divine warning, a large boat, survival of a flood, birds, and a sacrifice after landing. The two narratives are not identical, however: their gods, names, boat descriptions, and theological frameworks differ.
Utnapishtim is sometimes called “the Babylonian Noah,” but that is a comparative label, not his name in the Mesopotamian text. In the epic, he and his wife receive immortality after surviving the flood.