An Expedition to the Garden of Eden
Chapter One of the Book of Genesis is a summary of the natural history of our universe. The current scientific understanding of the universe's natural history parallels the biblical account, eliminating the need to reconcile perceived differences. One may choose the scientific account, the biblical spiritual one, or preferably both, to understand the background for Chapter Two.
Chapter Two includes the description of the Garden of Eden and enables us to locate Eden both geographically and theologically.
Chapter Two of Genesis recounts how God formed Adam from the dust of the ground and placed him in the Garden of Eden, which God Himself had planted in the East. At the center of the garden, God placed a tree called the "Tree of Life," which bestowed eternal life on those who ate its fruit. This tree reflected the very purpose of the garden: to provide an idyllic location for God to enjoy and love His creation, and for Adam and Eve to know and love their Creator forever. For this love to be meaningful, it had to be a personal choice. Therefore, God also placed the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil" in the garden as a self-centered alternative. Clearly, these two trees were not biological, but allegorical—symbolizing humanity’s choice either to walk by faith with God, as did Adam and Eve, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and others, or to go their own way.
Chapter Three recounts how Adam and Eve, though they had been walking with God, chose to eat from the tree representing self-centeredness, attempting to be like God—something He had warned them against. As a result, they were driven from the garden. Cherubim and a flaming sword were placed at the garden’s eastern entrance to guard the way to the Tree of Life.
Moses, the author of Genesis, wanted us to understand that the events in these chapters were historical, not legendary, and he described their location precisely. Genesis 2:8 states that God planted the Garden of Eden in the East—"מקדם"—which not only means "east" as a direction but also refers to Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia, meaning "between the rivers," refers to the region between the Tigris and Euphrates. In the Septuagint, the Greek word Anatolia is used for "the East," and it includes the mountain range at the northern border of Mesopotamia, which is still called Anatolia today. On maps of Mesopotamia, two additional rivers between the Tigris and Euphrates—now called the Khabur and Balikh—are visible. These four rivers all received water from a small stream on Mount Masius. Therefore, to reach Mesopotamia, one must cross at least one of these rivers. Accordingly, in Arabic, Mesopotamia is called Al-Jazeera, meaning "the islands."
Genesis 2:10 states that a river went out of Eden to water the garden and then separated פרד into four rivers. The Hebrew word "יצא" means “to exit,” not “to enter,” indicating that Eden was at an elevated location, since rivers flow downhill. Ezekiel also describes Eden as being on a mountain (Ezekiel 28:13–14). The four rivers named are the Pishon, Gihon, Hiddekel (Tigris), and Perat (Euphrates). The Tigris and Euphrates are well-known today and define Mesopotamia. The Pishon and Gihon go by different names today. The Bible notes that the Pishon flowed through the land of Havilah, while the Gihon ran along the border of Cush.
Havilah’s location can be deduced by following the ancient trade route from Egypt. One must cross the Euphrates at Carchemish, then continue east to Viransehir on the Silk Road before reaching Assyria. This places Havilah in the Khabur Basin.
Genesis 10:29–30 also states that Havilah and his brother Ophir, known for gold, lived from Mount Mesha (Masius), a mountain of Mesopotamia, toward Sephar (Sepharvaim). The city of Sepharvaim lies southeast along the Euphrates, downstream from the Khabur River, also placing Havilah in the Khabur Basin. The river flowing through the Khabur Basin is the Khabur River, originating from Mount Mesha. This identifies the Khabur as the ancient Pishon River and places the Garden of Eden on Mount Mesha. Mount Mesha, called Masius by the Greek geographer Strabo during the time of Christ, can be variably written as Massa or Masius in English, though its pronunciation is similar to the Hebrew "Mesha" (משא). It is located in northern Mesopotamia.
Cush is known because shortly after Moses wrote Genesis—using only postdiluvian geographic references—the Cushite king Cushan-Rishathaim ruled Aram-Naharaim and was defeated by Caleb’s nephew Othniel. This is the same region where Jacob met Rachel and Leah and encountered the “sons of the East” in Harran (Genesis 29:1,4; 24:10).
The Septuagint translators rendered “Cush” as Ethiopia because they were in Alexandria, Egypt, and familiar with Cushites living there—but not with those in northern Mesopotamia. This misinterpretation placed the Gihon as the Nile and the Garden of Eden in Abyssinia. Josephus was misled by this view and suggested that the Ganges was one of the Edenic rivers (Antiquities 1.1.3). The King James translators followed this interpretation, though it has been corrected in the New King James Version. If we follow the biblical identification of Cush, we see that Cush’s son Nimrod inhabited the plain of Shinar in Mesopotamia, which was also Cush’s domain (Genesis 10:8–10).
Psalm 87:4 shows Cush was related to Tyre.An intermittent stream flows along the crest of Mount Masius for about 10 kilometers, running south from the sources of the other three Edenic rivers. It is the Eden River, though millennia of erosion have reduced its flow to only the Tigris—just as the Gihon now flows only to the Khabur due to land subsidence, volcanic activity, and depleted water tables. In 1888, Paul Sintenis discovered the Masia Iris on Mount Masius’s western slopes—now known as Karaca Dag (Genesis 2:14). Mount Mesha provides water to both the Tigris and Euphrates, completing the identification of the four rivers of Eden, all originating in Mesopotamia with tributaries from a single source-Mount Mesha.
On the northwest flank of Mount Mesha, researchers from the Max Planck Institute in Germany located the primitive origin of many modern wheat varieties—specifically Einkorn wheat, the beginning of agriculture. This is the area to which Adam and Eve would have fled from the flaming sword guarding Eden’s eastern entrance. As the first biblically recorded farmers, their presence here supports the historical and geographical accuracy of the biblical account.
Fifteen kilometers east of Masia, on the Diyarbakir–Viransehir highway, stands a volcanic cone described by the prophet Ezekiel in his vision while looking north from the Silk Road crossing of the Khabur River. He described a large cloud with fire at its center—"כעין החשמל"—like molten metal, with flashes of lightning and the sound of an army camp. He also saw cherubim, as later identified in Chapter 10. Volcanologist Julian Pearce noted this volcano as only a few millennia old—matching Ezekiel’s timeframe. This volcano corresponds to the “flaming sword and cherubim” observed by Adam and Eve, guarding the way to the Tree of Life at the same location east of Eden.
Ezekiel also records the visit of the king of Tyre, who was anointed as a cherub and walked among the fiery stones of Eden (Ezekiel 28:13–14). All three events—Adam’s exile, Ezekiel’s vision, and the king of Tyre’s encounter,—place the Garden of Eden on Mount Mesha (Masius), a mountain in Mesopotamia.
Job also referenced this volcanic activity and the gold of Ophir in northern Mesopotamia (Job 1:3; 22:24; 28:5; 37:22).
Sennacherib, king of Assyria, declared to King Hezekiah that his ancestors had conquered the children of Eden at Telassar. Telassar—later known as Constantia—is modern-day Viransehir, located in the southern foothills of Mount Masius near the Khabur River, according to both Maunsell’s Ethnographic Map and the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. These sources further confirm Eden’s location.
Amos 1:5 connects Eden with Aram. Abraham was an Aramean who lived in Aram-Naharaim (Deuteronomy 26:5; Genesis 11:31–32), placing Eden in northern Mesopotamia.
King Solomon sent his Red Sea fleet around the Arabian Peninsula and up the Euphrates River to Parvaim (Sepharvaim) to trade for gold from Ophir—brought downriver from the Khabur Basin (2 Chronicles 3:6; 1 Kings 9:26–28).
Abram and his brother Nahor came from Ur of the Chaldeans (Genesis 11:31). The Khabur Basin is in the land of the Chaldeans (Ezekiel 1:3), meaning Moses’ knowledge of Eden’s location came from family tradition just a few generations removed from Abram and Levi. This supports the Wiseman Hypothesis.
To Moses, physical and spiritual reality were not separate. The Tree of Life expressed the close spiritual relationship Adam and Eve had with God, walking with Him in Eden. John the Apostle wrote: “This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” This defines eternal life as a spiritual relationship rather than a botanical tree. For Christians, Jesus atoned for humanity’s sin, restoring this relationship and granting eternal life to all who believe.
Luke 23:43 further shows that the Tree of Life is metaphorical. Jesus promised the repentant thief that he would be with Him that very day in Paradise—God’s garden. Revelation 2:7 affirms that this Tree of Life is in the paradise of God. “Paradise” is a Persian word meaning a park or garden. Since the Tree of Life represents the relationship between God and the believer, no pilgrimage to Mount Mesha is needed to obtain eternal life. One can know and love God through Jesus—whether in the garden or anywhere else—even though, like Adam and Eve, we sometimes fall short of loving God with all our heart, soul, strength, and our neighbor as ourselves.
1. Genesis 25:18 — Havilah is before you get to Syria on the Silk Road.
Genesis 10:29–30 — Havilah is from Mesha toward Sephar.
Genesis 2:11 — The river which flows through Havilah, the Pishon, starts in Eden.
Ezekiel 1 — Ezekiel was looking north to a volcano from the Khabur River.
Genesis 3:24 — Adam and Eve were looking east to the same volcano.
Ezekiel 28:13–14 — The king of Tyre walked among the fiery stones of a volcano in Eden.
Ezekiel 28:14; Genesis 3:24; Genesis 10:15 — All three witnesses (Adam, Ezekiel, and the king of Tyre) associated the volcano with “cherubim.”
Genesis 2:8; Ezekiel 28:13–14 — Eden is on a mountain in Mesopotamia.
Genesis 2:11, 13 — The four rivers of Eden are identifiable as the Tigris, Euphrates, Khabur, and Balikh.
Judges 3:8; Psalms 87:4 — Cush is in Aram-Naharaim.
Genesis 3:23 — Einkorn identifies Adam as the first biblical farmer.
Isaiah 37:12 — Viransehir is Telassar, at the foot of Mount Masius, where the Children of Eden lived.
Ezekiel 28:13–14 — Moses gave only post-flood landmarks for the Garden of Eden, so it couldn’t have been destroyed in Noah’s Flood; the king of Tyre went to Eden after the flood.
Strabo, Geography, Book XI, Chapter XIV — The Masia Iris identifies Karaca Dağ as Masius.
Genesis 29:1, 4 — Harran is in Mesopotamia and identifies “the East.”
Genesis 2:8 — God planted Eden in Mesopotamia in the East.Genesis 11:31; Ezekiel 1:3 — Abram lived in the Khabur Basin.
Translation from Hebrew and Greek — Mount Mesha is Mount Masius.
Job 1:3; 22:24; 28:5; 37:22 — Job confirms volcanic activity and gold in Northern Mesopotamia.
Modern and Historical Sources
Hern, Manfred, et al. Site of Einkorn Wheat Domestication Identified by DNA Fingerprinting.
Maunsell. Ethnographic Map of Turkey.
Pearce, J. A. “Genesis of Collision Volcanism in Eastern Anatolia, Turkey.” 1990, p. 155.
Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Entry: “Constantia,” p. 497.
Spruner-Menke. Historical Atlas. 1880. Note: The correct location of Carchemish was discovered by George Smith after this map.
Strabo. Geography. Book XI, Chapter XIV.