The Bible tells us that God planted his Garden of Eden in the east of Eden. A river came out of Eden, which was further divided into four rivers - Pison, Tikhon, Hiddekel, Euphrates. The first people lived in paradise until they ate the forbidden fruits from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Hence the following: if God planted paradise in Eden, then Eden cannot occupy an area smaller than paradise. Consequently, Eden is a territory, a locality, and paradise is an isolated space in a given locality, an incubator for the first people - Adam and Eve, a reserve with a world tree in the center, and after the expulsion of the primitive family - a place to house the disembodied souls of the righteous. But where was this notorious area?
Coordinates of happiness
The Bible makes it clear that heaven and Eden are not in heaven, but on earth. In other words, although the Bible is a vague book, we are talking about a very specific area, which in ancient times was easy to recognize by its description - otherwise, why specify the address of Paradise and Eden so precisely? The river system served as a special sign by which it was easy for the ancients to find this area. But today it is difficult to understand what the ancient authors of the Bible meant - a large river divided into four branches, four rivers merging into one channel, or five rivers connected by a buffer lake.
Depending on how Eden and Paradise are located relative to each other, the picture of the river system also changes. If paradise was inside Eden, then a full-flowing river irrigated paradise, and at the exit it was divided into four rivers, or four branches. If paradise and Eden were located side by side, close to each other, then a large river flowed through Eden and paradise, and four channels already lay outside of them.
The names of the biblical rivers mean little to modern man. The only recognizable river is the Euphrates. And under the Hiddekel River, connoisseurs guess the Tiger. But with Pison and Tikhon, it's just a misfortune - what kind of rivers, where they flowed, is completely incomprehensible.
Basically, Eden was placed somewhere between the Tigris and the Euphrates, as well as in the Armenian Highlands, near Mount Ararat, where, as you know, Noah's ark moored. Armenia was considered a good place for Eden and Paradise: the sources of the Euphrates and the Tigris are not far away, and Pison and Tikhon were associated with Phasis and Araxes. Even in the 17th century, the botanist Tournefort was sure that paradise was located between Erzurum and Tiflis!
Promotional video:
Often, Eden was located in countries whose geography was poorly or not at all studied - in India, China, on distant tropical islands, in the southern and western seas, about which until the 15th century the idea was very vague. And when there were not many unexplored places left, Eden moved to the wilds of Africa, the wild forests of South America, or even to the extreme north or extreme south …
John Mandeville, for example, placed paradise on a flat mountain top that almost touches the moon. That is, although on earth, but practically in heaven. His paradise was surrounded by a mossy wall, and in the very center of this paradise there was a well, from which four rivers flowed down and spread further over lands and countries! He correlated Pison with the Indian Ganges, Tikhon with the Nile.
Running out of versions
But traditionally, two versions fought with each other: Small and Big Eden. According to the first version, Eden with its paradise was located between the Tigris and the Euphrates, that is, in Mesopotamia. According to the second - between the Euphrates and the Ganges. The dimensions of Eden, respectively, differed tenfold!
They tried to unite these versions: Eden was placed between the Euphrates and the Ganges, and paradise - between the Tigris and the Euphrates. But this, of course, did not help the search for Eden. But Luther did the most radical thing with heaven and Eden. He simply announced that there was nothing to look for: both paradise and Eden were washed away by the Flood.
However, even today, interest in the search for Eden has not faded at all. This is due to both the successes of biblical archeology and the emergence of non-traditional theories of human development.
And yet, mostly scientists place the Gardens of Eden in traditional places - in Mesopotamia, North Africa or the Caucasus. The Mesopotamian version is based on the reality of the Tigris and Euphrates, the channels of which still remain in their former places. This is the Little Eden of the Middle Ages. From the eyes of researchers, it is hidden by the sands … or the waters of the Persian Gulf. It is at the bottom of the Persian Gulf that Eden and the Garden of Eden are placed by professor of archeology Juris Zarine from the USA.
According to his version, about six thousand years ago, the abundant fertile land, in the language of the Sumerians "Eden", was flooded, and the Sumerians had to flee from the elements. Ancient artifacts are still found at the bottom of the bay - statues, building foundations, road lines …
The North African version places Eden between the Nile and the Euphrates, on the lands of the so-called Fertile Crescent, where the most ancient civilizations of antiquity were born. Some scholars expand the boundaries of Eden to the Caucasus Mountains.
Truly, a real battle is going on for the Caucasus. It is not for nothing that the Caucasus is called the cradle of humanity. Turks, residents of the former Soviet republics and patriotic Russians are especially eager to locate Eden in the Caucasus. For example, the Adyghe and Kuban Cossacks persistently place the biblical Eden in the Kuban and northern spurs of the Caucasus.
The best proof for local paradise seekers is the abundance of apple orchards! The main biblical fruit really feels great in the Krasnodar Territory!
More daring minds originally place Eden and paradise on the Black Sea bottom - it was there, in their opinion, was the native land of Noah, which was destroyed by the waters of the Flood. But even if we manage to find Noah's Ark on the Caucasian Ararat, it will not bring us any closer to the location of Eden! After all, Noah used his ship generations after people left paradise. So Eden and the Garden of Eden were clearly in a different place …
However, several versions look absolutely fantastic. They suggest looking for Eden in the sunken Atlantis, in the frozen Antarctica, in the place of the deceased Arctida or in the underground country of the sages Agartha.
Or maybe it was found long ago?
The Old Testament is the oldest collection of myths and legends that are based on real events.
The exodus of people from paradise is just a metaphorical attempt to explain the migration of ancient peoples. Zechariah Sitchin argues that people were created for slave labor through genetic engineering by a more highly developed civilization of the Anunnaki, and initially lived compactly in "paradise booths", that is, in incubators. Then the "gods-astronauts" settled them all over the Earth and began to use them for mining and growing agricultural products. In paradise, people were slaves. And they sought to free themselves from the Anunnaki masters. Some managed to escape. This is how the ancient nomads appeared - nomadic pastoralists, whose descendants later composed the Old Testament.
Magazine: Mysteries of History No. 18, Nikolay Kotomkin