New Delhi, India

The oldest map of the world - which has been drawn on an almost 3,000-year-old clay tablet - has been deciphered by scientists who have found the location of 'Noah's Ark'. 

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The Babylonian artefact - called the Imago Mundi - had a circular diagram in which there was a writing system which used wedge-shaped symbols to describe the world's early creation. 

The British Museum's researchers said that they deciphered the tablet last month, however, after a deeper analysis it was found that the ancient language had Biblical references. 

At the back of the tablet is the description of what a traveller will see on their journey and one part of it says that they should go through "seven leagues... [to] see something that is thick as a parsiktu-vessel."

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The word "parsiktu" has also been mentioned on other ancient Babylonian tablets for explaining the size of a boat which is required to survive the Great Flood. 

The researchers looked into the instructions which mentioned a path to 'Urartu' where it was claimed in an ancient Mesopotamian poem that a man and his family had landed an ark to preserve life.

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Here's what the Babylonian tablet depicts

"It shows that the story was the same, and of course, that one led to the other but also, that from the Babylonian point of view, this was a matter-of-fact thing. That if you did go on this journey you would see the remnants of this historic boat," said Dr. Irving Finkel, British Museum curator. 

Mesopotamia is sitting at the bottom centre of the map and is enclosed by a circle which represents a "bitter river" which is believed to surround the entire world. 

The tablet has been damaged but at one time it featured eight triangles which, as per the researchers, signified mountains which matched the descriptions on the back.

"Number four says 'To the fourth, to which you must travel seven leagues,'' said Dr Finkel, in a YouTube video.

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He said that the passage shows how the traveller will eventually reach the giant vessel.

"This parsiktu measurement, is something to an Assyriologist which makes their ears prick and the fact is it's only once otherwise known from cuneiform tablets and it's rather an interesting cuneiform tablet too," Dr Finkel added.

"Because it is the description of the Ark which was built, theoretically, by the Babylonian version of Noah," he said. 

(With inputs from agencies)