Scientists have deciphered the world's oldest map etched in a clay tablet about 3,000 years ago, finding it features the location of 'Noah's Ark' among the drawings.

The Babylonian artifact, known as the Imago Mundi, shows a circular diagram with a writing system that used wedge-shaped symbols to describe the early creation of the world.

Researchers at the British Museum, where the tablet is housed, revealed what they had deciphered last month, but a deeper analysis of their work uncovered the Biblical reference within the ancient language.

The back of the tablet acts like a key, describing what a traveler will see on their journey, with one portion says that they must pass through 'seven leagues... [to] see something that is thick as a parsiktu-vessel.'

The word 'parsiktu' has been found on other ancient Babylonian tablets, specifically to explain the size of a boat needed to survive the Great Flood.

Researchers followed the instructions, finding a path to 'Urartu' where an ancient Mesopotamian poem claims a man and his family landed an ark to preserve life.

The location is the Assyrian equivalent to 'Ararat,' the Hebrew word for the mountain Noah crashed the Biblical vessel that was constructed for the same purpose.

Dr. Irving Finkel, British Museum curator, said: '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.'

The Imago Mundi has mystified researchers since it was found in 1882 in what is now known as Iraq.

The ancient text, written in cuneiform, was only used by the Babylonians, who etched astronomical events, future predictions and a map thought to be the entire 'known world' at the time.

At the bottom center of the map sits Mesopotamia, enclosed by a circle representing a 'bitter river' that was believed to surround the entire world.