Archaeologists unlock 3,000-year-old secrets about creation of universe and monsters after deciphering oldest known map of the world

Researchers have finally decoded a Babylonian tablet thought to be the oldest map of the world. The Babylonian tablet has a circular map with pieces of text written in cuneiform - an ancient writing system that used wedge-shaped symbols - which describes the early creation of the world. The Imago Mundi, also called the Babylonian Map of the World, was discovered in 1882 by renowned archaeologist Hormuzd Rassam in Sippar, an ancient Babylonian city in what is now present-day Iraq Dr Irving Finkel revealed the cuneiform writing on the back of the Babylonian map that revealed the ancient people's belief in a higher power The Imago Mundi was made during a time when the Babylonian Empire was a global leader in architecture, culture, math and early scientific achievements. 'The double ring is very important because it has cuneiform writing in it which says 'bitter river' and this water was deemed to surround the known world,' British Museum expert Dr Irving Finkel said in a YouTube video. Two circles surrounded Mesopotamia on the map and were labeled as the Bitter River to indicate that Babylonians believed they were the only nation in the world Several regions and areas were labeled in cuneiform writing on the map, which Finkel laid out in a YouTube video There was an additional river - the Euphrates - that cut through ancient Mesopotamia from North to South, connecting the Bitter River on the tablet.