According to the scripture Genesis 2: 8 – 14, the garden of Eden was planted in Eden, in the East. A four-stream of the river from four countries flows to water the garden.
Where is the Garden of Eden located?
There’s good reason to believe the Garden of Eden is a real place. The Bible actually gives specific geographic coordinates for Eden.
It’s not the kind of thing you do if you’re making up some mythical story because, well, if you were lying, you’d keep it vague.
But the Bible isn’t vague.
It all about Eden.
It gives us surprisingly precise information.
So if we plot that data on a modern map, we should be able to locate the place where human history began.
New scientific discoveries make this possible.
For the first time ever, the Bible lays out four rivers that flow through Eden.
Two are well known.
The Tigris and the Euphrates both flow through modern-day Iraq and empty into the Persian Gulf.
The other two are the Pishon and the Gihon.
But no one really knew where these two rivers were on the map until now.
Thanks to new research, we have a pretty clear idea.
A newly discovered extinct river system in the Saudi peninsula fits the biblical description of the Pishon and the Gihon.
For example, the Bible says the rivers extended into a gold-producing region that we know was here and a place called Kush that we know.
So now that modern science has nailed down the likely course of all the biblical rivers, all we have to do is follow those four rivers and where they come together.
It’s the Garden of Eden.
The problem is, they don’t all seem to come together.
It’s a dilemma that’s vexed, scholars.
However.
Recent research by a guy named Ward Sanford offers a fascinating solution.
Sanford’s not a theologian. He’s a Ph.D. hydrologist who literally wrote the textbook on groundwater Geology.
In simple terms, Sanford theorizes, is that in a previous ice age, there was a natural dam at the Straits of Hormuz, meaning there was dry land in what is now the Persian Gulf.
And if the Persian Gulf is dry, the four rivers would converge.
So the place that was once the Garden of Eden is now under the waters of the Persian Gulf. At least that’s how Ward Sanford sees it.
He admits his case isn’t rock salad, but it is plausible. The gulf is surprisingly shallow, averaging only about 150 ft deep.
So, in theory, if you want to visit the remnants of the Garden of Eden. Today you can. All you need is a submarine and Sanford’s map.
Ah, but there’s a hitch.
The Bible says God placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden, cherubim, and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
So maybe it’s best to leave Eden as it IS.
