9 Scientific Explanations For Famous Bible Stories

Sticking with our water theme, what's the deal with Noah? The animals went in two by two and it rained for 40 days and 40 nights, we all know the story, but what actually happened?

We already know that a significant stretch of land, known as Doggerland and home to large communities of people, that connected the UK to the European continent was sent down to the depths around about this time. 

There are a great many epic flood myths from a number of traditions around the world, including the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh, the Roman tale of Deucalion and Pyhrra and Irish legends of Queen Cesair who sailed for seven years when the oceans drowned the whole of Ireland.

So could a similar thing have happened in the Mediterranean to give rise to the story of Noah's flood?

At around 5,000 B.C., it is thought that sea levels would have risen enough to cause the then freshwater lake of the Black Sea to rise and expand, flooding the surrounding area.

It was once hypothesised that this flooding would have happened all at once, raising sea levels by up to 150 feet in one great deluge and truly making it seem like the end of the world for the people living on the shoreline. 

However, recent research has suggested that the rise in sea levels might have been more modest, around 30 feet, but this would still be enough to cause persistent and damaging flooding to the surrounding farmland.

Though not the mega-flood that was once thought, but potentially still enough to cause damage to homes, crops, livestock and even produce famine and death. The story, and many others like it, will have been passed down through oral traditions and, like always, will have been picked over and embellished until it grew up into the many flood legends throughout history, including Noah's flood.