It tells how the gods determined to send a flood to destroy the earth, but one of them, Ea, revealed the plan to Utu-napishtim whom he instructed to make a boat in which to save himself and his family. He orders him to take into it birds and beasts of all kinds.

Utu-napishtim obeyed and when all were aboard and the door shut the rains descended and all the rest of mankind perished. After six days the waters abated and the ship grounded. The first bird released "flew to and from but found no resting-place". https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?assetId=107404001&objectId=309929&partId=1 …

A swallow likewise returned but finally a raven which had been sent out did not return showing that the waters were receding. Utu-napishtim survived the flood for six days while mankind was destroyed, before landing on a mountain called Nimush.

https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-flood-tablet-relating-part-of-the-epic-of-gilgamesh/wQGL1dmyVmXRYA …

Utu-napishtim, who later told this story to Gilgamesh, thereupon emerged and sacrificed to the gods who, angry at his escape, granted him on the intercession of Ea divine honours and a dwelling place at the mouth of the river Euphrates.

The baked clay tablet was unearthed at Kouyunjik (Nineveh) in North Iraq.

This Assyrian version of the Old Testament flood story was identified in 1872 by George Smith, an assistent in The British Museum.

On reading the text he, ... jumped up and rushed about the room in a great state of excitement, and, to the astonishment of those present, began to undress himself.

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