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Read the oldest written story on Earth, about the adventures of the historical King of Uruk. The web page provides a translation of the first 11 tablets, with some excerpts from the Old Babylonian edition. Gilgamesh is widely accepted as the historical 5th king of Uruk who reigned in the 26th century BCE. His influence is thought to have been so profound that myths of his divine status grew up around his deeds and finally culminated in the tales that inform The Epic of Gilgamesh . The Epic of Gilgamesh (/ ˈɡɪlɡəmɛʃ /) [2] is an epic from ancient Mesopotamia. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh (formerly read as Sumerian "Bilgames" [3]), king of Uruk, some of which may date back to the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2100 BCE). [1] These independent stories were later used as source material for a combined epic in Akkadian. The first surviving version of this combined epic, known as the "Old Babylonian" version, dates back ... Gilgamesh was not purely fictional. Archaeological evidence suggests that he may have been a historical king of Uruk around 2700 BCE. Over centuries, his memory grew into legend, and by the time the epic was recorded, he had been transformed into a semi-divine hero.
