This is one of the oldest stories in the world, and it's about many things that still matter to us today: friendship, fame, courage, happiness. Gilgamesh and Enkidu are friends - best friends. Together they can work wonders, fight monsters, brave earthquakes, travel the world. But waiting in the dark is the one enemy they can never overcome.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest recorded story in the world. It was originally carved on twelve stone tablets which, over thousands of years, were smashed into thousands of shards. Even now, for all the painstaking work of restoration, different scholars place the events of the story in different orders, and some episodes are still lost. Gilgamesh is thought to have been a real king reigning sometime between 3200BC and 2700BC over the Sumerian city of Uruk, in Mesopotamia (now Iraq). He led expeditions into neighboring territories, to fetch back timber for his grand building projects. The story of the Flood - several floods devastated the region - found its way into other cultures, ultimately into the Bible, undergoing changes according to the religion of the teller. The work of archaeology is incomplete; some of the tile fragments still baffle interpreters. This version is a free adaptation from a variety of translations. 

This edition is written for ages 10 and above.