Floods have always been a part of human existence. Seasonal floods increase soil fertility bringing nutrients as they also gave birth to the agricultural revolution and the first permanent human settlements on the riverbanks of Africa and Asia (NASA p.1-3).
There is one flood, however, that continues to intrigue adventurers and scientists alike.
Story Narrated by Many Civilizations
The story of the Great Flood has passed on orally from generation to generation in many countries.
“And We perpetuated to him (praise) among the later generations“, as mentioned in the Qur’an: (The Qur’an, 37:78).
Common to all stories are the torrential rains and walls of destructive water bursting into valleys destroying everything en route (Handwerk p.1).
The accounts most similar to those of the Bible and the Qur’an are from Mesopotamia and China. In Hawaii Prophet Nuh was ‘Nu-u’ and in China ‘Nu-wah’.
All stories agree that The Flood came when the world had reached a dangerous point requiring the need to rid the world of evil (Xenohistorian p.5, 8).
Recent findings indicate that The Flood was indeed universal. Last year, explorer Robert Ballard found evidence that The Flood inundated the Black Sea in N. Turkey approximately 5500 years B.C with a local account of Prophet Nuh (Krouse p.2).
Archaeological evidence confirms the same for the Tigris-Euphrates region. Other evidence revealed by sonar technology includes the unusual formation of 1900- 2500 geometric blocks and crests in the deep waters of Cuba that remain unexplained.
The oral history of Mayans and native Yucatans of South America speak of their ancestors vanishing beneath the sea. Similar structures have been found on the corresponding South American coastline.
Off the coast of South India, local oral history refers to seven temples, six of which were swallowed by the sea. The seventh remains on the shores of Tamil Nadu. Local fishermen point to the location of the ruins consisting of foundation walls, broken pillars, steps and scattered blocks (Handwerk p1).
Many deem it impossible for our environment to create enough water to submerge even the highest mountain let alone survival under such conditions.
But Allah said in the Qur’an:
“And the heavens we raised it high with power, and most surely We are the makers of things ample. And the earth, We have made it a wide extent; how well We have then spread (it) out“ (The Qur’an, 51:47-48).
Scientists have indeed shown that two hundred million cubic miles of water are stored beneath the ocean’s floor (xenohistorian p.2). Biblical and Qu’ranic accounts tell of torrential rains that began The Flood.
Followed by the opening of the earth, it is believed the speed at which this volume of water was released caused the splitting of the continents into east and west triggered by a polar magnetic shift (xenohistorian p.2). Mountains submerged in water would explain the fish and animal fossils found in every mountainous region (Zahid p.1).