What is now considered the oldest book ever written in the world?

The Epic of Gilgamesh (written c. 2150-1400 BC) is now considered the oldest book that has ever been written in the world. Even if the earliest writings were on clay tablets and were probably administrative lists, the first written story that came to human beings is The Epic of Gilgamesh. It is a mythologized account of an historical figure, Gilgamesh, a ruler of the Sumerian city-state of Uruk, believed to have ruled sometime between 2700-2500 BC.

It is now widely known that The Gilgamesh Epic has inspired many works of art, literature, and music. It was only after the First World War that the Gilgamesh epic reached a wide public audience, and only after the Second World War that it was featured in a variety of genres.

Copies of The Gilgamesh Epic continue to be available today in many forms including an e-book edition. There is only one copy available on clay tablets. It is found at the British Museum.