There's a
site in Iraq which is believed to be the location of the mythical garden of Eden-it even has Adam's tree!
From the Arab News Saudi Arabia's First English Language Daily
Agence france Presse Published on Sunday, April 13, 2003
AL-qurna, Iraq-
It is believed to be the Garden of Eden, the mythic place where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers join, the cradle of mankind.
Today it is a desolate wasteland of excrement, cracked paving stones and bullet holes. The eucalyptus known as Adam's tree, a place of attraction for Christians, Muslims and Jews alike, stands bleached and dead.
"Once we believed it to be a little parcel of paradise on earth," said Qassem Khalif, an English teacher. "Every generation was taught that this was the true Garden of Eden and this was Adam's tree... Now as you can see for yourself, it is ruined, there is no respect, no humanity, no..."
He struggled for the words. "No loving or kindness."
Wether you believe the holy tradition or not, Mesopotamia, the fertile crescent between the watery junction of Euphrates and the Tigris, was home to the first modern man.
It was here that the alphabet was invented and our days divided into 24 hours. It was here the first epic poems were composed to hand down our collective history, and where we learned how to cultivate crops.
And it was here that Saddam Hussein's Baath Party built a center in the 1970s, in this village known as Al-Qurna, trying to capitalize on the tourist who poured here.
But within years the war had begun with next door Iran, remembered here by a shelter sandbagged against attack. The site fell into neglet and disrepair. The walls and floor of the center are now cracked and warped.
Beneath the Garden is a mudflat polluted with urban waste where children fight packs of dogs before plunging in to swim and fish. "Since those years Iraq has been all but closed. It is so foolish. How can the Garden of Eden be closed?" Khalif said.
"Look at what is left. It is a tragedy. We feel ashamed for we are its keepers. It is our truest hope that when peace comes to Iraq, the people of the world will come back here," he said.
In the wake of the last gulf war, Saddam made the region a victom of his scorched earth policy, punishment for the southern support of British and American forces and the failed uprising against him.
The ruling Baath drained the water and destroyed the life of the indigenous Marsh Arabs, descendants of the ancient people of Sumeria and Babylon.
It was rudely disguised as a feat of civil engineering designed to turn the salty marshes into cultivable farmland but the world saw it as no more than revenge.
Why is every Biblical action concentrated in the Mid East-all the stories the locations are Israel, Palestine, Iran, Iraq, Egypt & a couple of other nearby sites?
Even the Garden of Eden is located thereabout. Why didn't God speak of North & South America, China, Japan, Korea, South Africa & Swaziland?
Topic: Al Qurnah-the Garden of Eden