One of the brightest episodes of the Bible, undoubtedly, is the legend about the Flood. The legend of this affecting the imagination like no other, served as the eternal theme of artists of all time. Interestingly, mention of the Flood are found in folklore and legends of many peoples of our planet. Scientists have found that similar myths exist in Australia, India, Tibet and in Lithuania; they were held in dokolumbovsky America. The content of these legends are very similar. The Spaniards, having mastered in due time the New world was astonished amazing coincidence in detail all the stories of the flood in different Indian tribes.

The biblical description of the flood that happened about 5 thousand years ago, is not the first mention of this disaster. Earlier Assyrian myth written on clay tablets, talks about Gilgamesh, escaped in the ark with animals and adhering after the end of the seven days of the flood, strong winds and rain to mount Nicer in Mesopotamia. By the way, in the presentations of stories floods coincide many details: in order to see if the ground from under the water. Noah was released crow and double-dove; Ut-Napishtim - dove and the swallow. Similar are and how the construction of the ark. That this is a free presentation of one and the same event, the story of the different regional floods or the facts of really took place the flood, in which several representatives of different peoples independently from each other have been warned (or guessed, felt themselves) about the impending danger?

According to the estimates of ethnologist Andre, in 1891 was known about eighty of these legends. They probably there are already more than a hundred and sixty-eight of them in no way connected with the biblical source.

Thirteen myths, though different, came to us from Asia; four from Europe; five from Africa; nine from Australia and Oceania; thirty-seven - from the New world: sixteen - from North America; and seven from Central and fourteen from the South. The German historian Richard Hennig noticed that different peoples "duration of flooding varies from five days to two and fifty years (Aztecs). Seventeen cases it was caused by heavy rains; in others, snow, melting glaciers, cyclones, storms, earthquakes and tsunamis. The Chinese, for example, believe that all the flooding is an evil spirit kun-kun: "In a fit of anger he beats his head against one of the pillars supporting the heavens, and the heavens cast to the earth giant waterspouts".

The mythology of the flood has a world-wide scale. But whether he was really the world? Some researchers have tried to prove it. Some spoke of the Mongolian sea that once covered Central Asia and the seemingly suddenly disappeared in the earthquake, which caused a flood from East to West. Others thought that shifted the Earth's axis, causing the water of the seas and oceans rushed from the Northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere. Still others argued that the Earth millions of years was surrounded by damp, gaseous atmosphere, like Venusian; at some point cloud mass, condensed and fell to the earth in the form of a rich, long-lasting rains.

None of these hypotheses has not been confirmed. But the tradition of presenting the events of the flood show that on all continents really happened catastrophe caused short-universal flooding the land.

Most clearly this fact is confirmed in the middle East. The peoples of Palestine and Mesopotamia still preserved an awful memory of the terrible flood. Undoubtedly, all these descriptions - Assyrian, Babylonian, Sumerian, the Palestinian - were a common memory of the same event. The earliest description of the Sumerian version dates back to around 2000 BC. But after the cataclysm, described in the Bible and in the "Legend of Gilgamesh", on earth were to remain traces. It would be even strange if they have not survived. And they -- were found!

In 1928-1929 Dr. Simon Woolley spent large excavations in places where once stood the city of Ur of the Chaldees. The deeper he penetrated into the ground, the more surprising was his observation. Soon he came out on the clay layer three-four-meter thickness. However, it would be better if we will give a word to Dr. Woolley:

"We dug deeper and deeper, and suddenly the nature of the soil has changed. Instead postoronnih layers with traces of ancient culture we came across quite a smooth layer of clay, homogeneous on all its extent, judging by the composition of clay, it was caused by water. The workers suggested that we went to the muddy bottom of the river... I told them to dig further. Prokopov more than six meters, and then they found clean clay. And suddenly, as suddenly as before, on their way again appeared layers of waste rock... Hence the huge clay deposits represented a kind of milestone in the continuous course of history. There was the slow development of the net of the Sumerian civilization, and the bottom was observed traces of mixed culture... None of the natural flooding of the river could not be so much clay. Half meter layer of clay could be applied here just a giant water flow by flood, what these places never knew before. The presence of such a layer of clay shows that once, long ago, the development of local culture abruptly interrupted. Here once there was a whole civilization, which then disappeared - apparently, it swallowed up the flood ... Doubts on this account cannot be: this is the flood and there is the same historical Flood, which was described in the Sumerian legend and which formed the basis for the story about the adventures of Noah..."

The arguments of Dr. Woolley sound rather categorically and therefore produce a strong enough impression. At about this time, Stephen Langdon found exactly the same alluvial deposits - that is "material traces of the flood - in Kish, a region of Ancient Babylon. In the future, similar layers of sedimentary rocks are found in the Uruk. PHARE, Tello and Nineveh...

Famous French orientalist Dorm wrote: "Now it is clear that the cataclysm, as required by Langdon, occurred in 3300 year before the birth of Christ, as evidenced by the traces found at Ur, and Kish".

Of course, cannot be a coincidence the fact that in many places of excavations in Mesopotamia were found identical to the layers of sedimentary rocks. This proves that a giant flood actually took place. So, archeological finds, literary and epigraphic works prove that the flood described in the ancient texts is quite real.

What caused the disaster? And where on Earth did so much "extra" water? Even if melted all the ice, still the level of the oceans will not rise for kilometers.

All world legends about the flood have one common item. Legends say that in those days in the sky was not... of the moon. Living in antediluvian times was called the "Domenicali" (the ancient Greeks called them "preselenci", from the Greek Selena - Moon).

So maybe this is the answer to the mystery of the flood? Our only partner thanks to its considerable weight twice a day suits on Earth a small flood-tides. The moon is stronger attracts the point of the earth surface, which is closest to it, and in podlinnoi point "grows hump". The soil is lifted on two feet, the ocean level meter, and in some places up to 18 m (Bay of Fundy in the Atlantic). Although we humans are accustomed to this everyday, it would seem that the phenomenon in our Solar system it is unique. Astronomers know of no other example of the existence of relatively easy planets of our hard companion. More correctly, scientists say, could call the earth and the moon not the planet and its satellite, and a double planet. The formation of such a system at the same time from the point of view of cosmology is not possible, which implies that the Moon is not a "sister" of the Earth, and, so to speak, wife, who came once from the black depths of space. Even called the "maiden name", first of Selenium was supposedly the core of the deceased Phaeton.

As you know, the Moon is from the Earth. And now imagine that there was a time when it was hanging over us below. The closer, the greater must be the tides and the slower the speed of apparent motion lights in our sky. If the height of the orbit of the moon to reduce exactly 10 times, it is like the geostationary satellite will hang over one point on the Earth. The height of the tides in the open ocean will exceed this a hundred meters. Little.

"Lower" the moon is still a little lower, and again she would move very slowly in the sky, now not only from East to West and Vice versa. In this case, the tidal wave from the West as if in a huge crater will rush on the East coast of America, Africa, Baltic, Mediterranean. Its peak wave should be fixed in the barrier on the Eastern shore of the Mediterranean and especially the Black seas. Here many kilometers, almost standing on one place tidal wave will easily cover the Caucasus, in a few days reaches of the Caspian sea and the Aral sea (not this the reason of formation of these drying inland seas?). Needless to say, the first in the Caucasus from under the water should be the top of Ararat...

Depending on the height of the moon the duration of such floods can vary from one month to one year. Just a few years, giant wave of the tide will make a complete revolution around the Earth, having visited in all countries. In General, word for word. All as in the legends! One remains a mystery - how aboutand again the Moon was able to quickly come to Earth, and then just as quickly deleted? But maybe if we understand why the Moon is still slow "runs away" from us, then let's deal with its sharp jerk in the past?