“And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.”—Genesis 2:8
Where is—or was—the Garden of Eden? As with Noah’s Ark, many have been intrigued and have hunted for this Biblical place, but all have come up empty-handed. This question isn’t answerable—at least not for the average archaeologist. Perhaps Indiana Jones or Lara Croft would be able to locate it, but the rest—with modern research agendas and scientific methodology—would not even attempt such a quest.
For our purposes, then, a more salient question is: Where did the Biblical authors think Eden was located? Numerous scholars have pondered this, and most have arrived at the conclusion that Genesis 2–11 is set in Mesopotamia, with many placing these chapters more specifically in southern Iraq.
In light of this, it is perhaps not surprising to learn that there is an area north of the Persian Gulf where the Tigris, Euphrates and Karun Rivers converge that is called the “Garden of Eden,” and the government of Iraq has recently sought to protect it. Located in southern Iraq, with parts extending into southwestern Iran and northeastern Kuwait, the Mesopotamian Marshlands—the wetland area referred to by some as the “Garden of Eden”—consists of three marshes: Central, Hammar and Hawizeh Marshes. While the Hawizeh Marsh has been a protected wetland since 2007, Central and Hammar Marshes were not designated as protected sites until April 2014. Now all three of the marshes are under international conservation management, according to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.
These wetlands have a long, rich history. They witnessed the birth of the Sumerian culture, as the world’s first cities sprung up on the edge of the marshes. In the first millennium B.C.E., this area was called the Sealand, and later it came to be known as Chaldea.
During the Neo-Assyrian empire, the people who lived in the marshes, the Chaldeans, resisted Assyrian domination. Records from the reign of the Neo-Assyrian emperor Sargon II describe his struggle to control Babylonia. Sargon II received particular resistance from Merodach-Baladan, “the swamp fox Chaldean king,” who sought the throne of Babylon for himself.1 Sennacherib, the son of Sargon II, destroyed the city of Babylon in 689 B.C.E. because of the ongoing rebellion and hunted the Chaldean rebels in the marshes.
Eventually, the Chaldeans did gain control of018 Babylonia and established their own empire. The most famous Chaldean was Nebuchadnezzar II, the king of Babylon who notoriously burned the First Temple in Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E.
Various efforts have been made to drain the marshes in the 20th century for a variety of reasons—because of mosquitos, irrigation projects and, most chillingly, Saddam Hussein’s plan to deprive his opponents who were hiding in the marshes of refuge. While this wreaked havoc on the marshes’ ecosystem, ultimately these efforts were all unsuccessful. Thanks to the new actions put in place by the government of Iraq, this vibrant ecosystem will live to see another day.
While perhaps not as vivid in our imagination as the Biblical Eden, at least this one is visitable.—M.S.
“And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.”—Genesis 2:8
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