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118 proach to Earth's vicinity; and Nibiru's gravitational pull could up- set the ice cap's balance and cause it to slip into the Antarctic Ocean. The immense tidal waves that this would cause could engulf the whole globe. When the Igigi orbiting Earth confirmed the certainty of such a catastrophe, the Anunnaki began to assemble in Sippar. the spaceport. Enlil, however, insisted that mankind be kept unaware of the coming Deluge; and at a special session of the Assembly of the Gods, he made all of them, and especially Enki, swear to keep the secret. The last part of the Atra-Hasis text, a major part of the Epic of Gilgamesh, and other Mesopotamian texts describe at length the events that followed—how the catastrophe of the Deluge was used by Enlil to achieve the annihilation of mankind; and how Enki, op- posed to the decision which Enlil forced upon the Assembly of the Gods, contrived to save his faithful follower Ziusudra ("Noah") by designing for him a submersible vessel that could withstand the avalanche of water. The Anunnaki themselves, on a signal, “lifted up" in their Rukub ilani ("chariots of the gods"), the fired-up rocket ships "setting the land ablaze with their glare." Orbiting the Earth in their shuttlecraft, they watched in horror the onslaught of the tidal waves below. All that was upon the Earth was swept off in one co- lossal avalanche of water: A.MA.RU BA.UR RA.TA—"The Flood swept thereover." Sud, who had created Man with Enki. "saw and wept... . Ishtar cried out like a woman in travail... the gods, the Anunnaki. weep with her." Rolling back and forth, the tidal waves swept the soil away, leaving behind vast deposits of mud: "All that had been created, turned back to clay." In The 12th Planet we have presented the evidence for our con- clusion that the Deluge, bringing about an abrupt end to the last Ice Age, had occurred some 13,000 years ago. As the waters of the Deluge "went back from off the land" and started to subside, the Anunnaki began to land on Mount Nisir ("Mount of Salvation")—Mount Ararat. There Ziusudra/Noah also arrived, his vessel guided by a navigator provided by Enki. Enlil was outraged to discover that the "seed of Mankind" was saved; but Enki persuaded him to relent: The gods, he argued, could no longer exist on Earth without the help of man. "And the Lord blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them: 'Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the Earth.' " of There THE WARS OF GODS AND MEN Ziusudra/Noah