Garden of Eden, Dilmun, Bahrain - Finally been located?

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The Island of Barhain has more to add to the history. In the sandy center of the island lies thousands of little hillocks, each some 10 to 15 feet high and packed tightly together. They look like sand dunes, but the hillocks are really manmade grave mounds. Bahrain, the original Garden of Eden, is also an ancient island necropolis.

There have been a number of claims as to the actual geographic location of the Garden of Eden, though many of these have little or no connection to the text of Genesis. Most put the Garden somewhere in the Middle East.

As known from ancient history, written in the old books: Dilmun is holy, the land of Dilmun is pure. In Dilmun no cry the raven utters, Nor does the bird of ill-omen foretell calamity. The lion kills not, nor does the ravening, wolf Snatch away the defenseless lamb. Unknown is the wild dog who tears the kid. The dove does not conceal its head. No one here says, ''My eyes are sick,'' No one here says, ''My head is sick,'' No one here says, ''I am an old woman,'' No one here says, ''I am an old man.'' The maiden walks here in innocence. No lustrations need to be poured. The somber death priest walks not here, By Dilmun's walls he has no cause for lamentations.

These words come from one of the world's oldest poems. It was first written down some 4,000 years ago in the ancient Sumerian city of Nippur near the Euphrates, using cuneiform wedge script on a clay tablet.

The poem tells about the doings of the gods at the dawn of time in a sacred island paradise called Dilmun, a place closely resembling the Garden of Eden, where death and sickness did not exist and sweet waters flowed.

That Nineveh, Babylon, Thebes and Ur had all once been great cities was never entirely forgotten because their names are recorded in the Bible, even if little was known about them. But for thousands of years the legend of Holy Dilmun, the island paradise where man lived forever, disappeared.

The enthralling tale of how Geoffrey Bibby and other archeologists from the Prehistoric Museum in Aarhus, Denmark, identified the present-day Persian Gulf island of Bahrain as the site of the lost paradise of Dilmun has been told by Mr. Bibby in his book ''Looking for Dilmun.'' It is one of the most gripping archeological detective stories ever written.

As mention, Eden's location remains the subject of controversy and speculation among some Christians. There are hypotheses that locate Eden at the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates (northern Mesopotamia), in Iraq (Mesopotamia), Africa, and the Persian Gulf. Among others though some Christians see it as metaphorical.

Some think the Hebrew word "Eden" is from the Sumerian word "edin" meaning "plain" and its Akkadian equivalent is edinu (Fischer 1996, 223) which refers to the land between the Trigris and Euphrates Rivers.

Other scholars equate the garden of Eden with the similar description of ancient Dilmun. See Tombs of Dilmun. Dilum was probably the island Bahrain in the Persian gulf. There is a Sumerian story entitled Enki and Ninhursag which describes a paradise similar to Eden only it is called Dilmun. It says:

The land Dilmun is pure, the land Dilmun is clean; The land Dilmun is clean, the land Dilmun is most bright. In Dilmun the raven utters no cries, The ittidu-bird utters no the cry of the ittidu-bird, The lion kills not, The wolf snatches not the lamb, The sick-eyed says not "I am sick-eyed," The sick-headed (says) not "I am sick-headed," Its old woman (says) not "I am an old woman," Its old man (says) not "I am an old man," He filled the dikes with water, He filled the ditches with water, He filled the uncultivated places with water. The gardener in the dust in his joy (ANET 1969, 38-9).

Is the mystery about Garden of Eden finally solved, or it`s not any Garden of Eden at all? It`s all build on a beautiful dream?

Stein Morten Lund, 5 March 2009

Additional information

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