Noah's ark was not a literal story...it is simply one of the many traditional stories passed down over thousands of years from cultures all over the world that retains the memory of the 'great flood' that ravaged early mankind and 'reset' civilization.
There are so many stories of this event, with so many similarities, from so many parts of the world that they must be based on a common historical event...an event so devastating and traumatic that it was forever seared into the minds of those who survived it.
What is thought to have taken place is obviously not a world wide flood in which the whole earth was covered in water, but rather an event which made it SEEM to the people then that everything was underwater. It has been theorized that several simulaneous comet impacts sometime between 10000 and 7000 BC into various parts of the earth, specifically the mediterranean, the indian ocean, parts of the atlantic and i forget where else- hit into the water with such impact as to cause tsunamis of unimaginable size and power. When these epic tsunamis hit the shoreline(where most of civilization is always concentrated) they went inland as far as hundreds of miles and obviously destroyed and innundated everything in their path. Think the 2004 indonesia tsunami, but on a vastly, vastly larger scale. The water receded, but for the people who endured it, it must have seemed that the whole world was being innundated. Most of mankind and most of the early civilizations at the time were completely destroyed.
This event is likely what spawned all the flood 'myths' that can be found in cultures all over the world and explains why there sre so many seemingly impossible similarities between them despite these cultures having no contact with each other.
Noah's ark is one of these stories to remember the event, which have evolved over the millenia to 'explain' how mankind survived it.
