The Great Flood was a Biblical event which occurred in 2348 BC when God decided to return the Earth to its pre-creation state of watery chaos and then remaking it in a reversal of creation. However, he saw Noah as a righteous man, and he told him to make an ark of gopher wood; Noah and his family, seven pairs of clean animals, a pair of unclean animals, and seven pairs of birds were shut into the ark, and, after 40 days of rain, the ark rose high above the ground. After 150 days, the waters subsided and the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat in what is now Asia Minor, and the earth became dry again; Noah was informed of this when he sent out a dove which brought back an olive leaf, showing signs of plant life once again. Noah and those aboard the ark then left, and God made a covenant with Noah by which man could eat every living thing but not its blood, and he promised to never again destroy all life with a flood. God then told Noah to be fruitful and multiply, and the Earth would be repopulated with his descendants.