Introduction
The Urantia Book, (UB), gives a number of specific clues to the location
of the first Garden of Eden. Most of these clues are contained in
subsection 3 ("The Garden Site") of paper 73 entitled "The Garden of
Eden", page 823; (Paper 73, Section 3). These clues are specific enough
to offer hope for finding the remains of the Garden. The purpose of this
paper is to assemble these clues and other relevant information and to
form a hypothesis on the location of the First Garden of Eden.
The "other revelant information" used in this paper comes from two
sources, a bathymetric chart of the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and a
bathymetric/ topographic visualization of the entire Mediterranean Sea.
The bathymetric chart contains information gathered up to January, 1971.
The visualization contains data up to 1997. The chart supplies actual
depth information, while the visualization is easier to interpret than
contour lines on a map.
The Clues
The first clue to the location of the Garden is that it was "a long
narrow peninsula - almost an island - projecting westward from the
Eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea" (UB823:1; 73:3.1)
Figure 1 is a bathymetric chart of the eastern Mediterranean obtained
from the Defense Mapping Agency (chart number 5030, Atalya Körfezi to
El- Iskandarîya, DMA Stock No. 54XC054030). This chart shows contours of
the depth of the sea bottom as well as elevation contours of the
surrounding terrain. In the deep sea, depth contours of 100 fathoms (600
ft) are shown. At depths below 100 fathoms, individual soundings are
quoted to two significant digits. Presumably such depths can be read to
about 10% accuracy. This low-resolution depth information is sufficient
to discern the gross features of the ocean bottom. The original chart is
a large 3 x 4 ft document.
Figure 2 is a bathymetric/topographic visualization of the eastern
Mediterranean Sea. This visualization is what one would see from a
position in space above the Mediterranean Sea if the water were
completely transparent. This remarkable visualization was compiled under
the direction of Dr. Viacheslav K. Gusiakov of the Institute of
Computational Mathematics and Mathematical Geophysics of the Siberian
Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
An inspection of this chart reveals that the only place in the current
eastern Mediterranean which even remotely fits this clue is between the
Island of Cyprus and the border of Turkey and Syria. The matching
pattern is primarily off the Eastern coast of Cyprus, which has a long
peninsula projecting eastward towards the mouth of the Orontes river in
Turkey. This peninsula is continued underwater in the same direction for
approximately 30 miles. Another feature suggestive of a former
connection with the mainland is the 500 fathom contour which also
projects along a line parallel with the peninsula towards the mainland.
The island of Cyprus lies a little over 62 miles off the current eastern
shores of the Mediterranean.
An eastern Mediterranean location is also mentioned in the Urantia Book passage that reads:
"But still older vestiges of the days of Dalmatia exist under the waters
of the Persian Gulf, and the first Eden lies submerged under the
eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea." (UB875:4; 78:7.7)
Another clue is given as:
"The great river that watered the Garden came down from the higher lands
of the peninsula and flowed East through the peninsula neck to the
mainland and thence across the lowlands of Mesopotamia to the sea
beyond. It was fed by four tributaries which took origin in the coastal
hills of the Edenic peninsula, ..." (UB823:4; 73:3.4)
This is a strong clue, since it indicates that river which ran through
the peninsula must have been connected with the Euphrates river which
runs across the lowlands of Mesopotamia to the Persian Gulf and
presently comes to within 150 mi of the Mediterranean. Indeed, the
Euphrates river heads directly for the mouth of the Orentes river for
100 miles before turning 90 deg to the North as shown in Figure 2. This
figure also shows that the source of a tributary of the Euphrates river
is about 8 km * west* of the source of a tributary of the Orontes river
(the Nahr Aafrine).
This clue also uses the word "neck" to describe a portion of the
peninsula. This implies that the peninsula was wider offshore than at a
region closer onshore. It further implies that at least one coast of the
peninsula contained hills.
Is it possible that before the uplifting of the land adjoining the
eastern Mediterranean there could have been a connection of the
Euphrates with what is now the Orontes river, continuing on through a
land bridge to Cyprus, connecting with the 4 rivers originating in
coastal highlands now emptying into Famagusta Bay? These 4 rivers enter
the bay near Koma tou Yialou, Boghaz, between Boghaz and Salamis, and
south of Salamis. Another river, the Pedieos, also empties into
Famagusta Bay but its origin is in the central highlands of Cyprus (not
far from Mount Olympus) rather than in the coastal highlands. If so, it
means that the direction of flow of the Orontes river has been reversed
by the uplifting of the coastal mountains.
In this same vein, the Bible (Genesis 1:10) states:
"A river fowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and
became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one
which flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and
the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The
name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which flows around the
whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel, which
flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates."
Thus the Biblical account of Eden indicates that the river which flowed through Eden was connected to the Euphrates river.
There is yet another strong clue:
"The coast line of this land mass was considerably elevated, and the
neck connecting with the mainland was only twenty-seven miles wide at
the narrowest point." (UB823:4; (73:3.4)
As shown in Figure 1 a width of 27 miles is consistent with the size of a
possible land bridge to Cyprus. The entire eastern Mediterranean covers
only about 5 deg of latitude, (from 31° 30" N to 36° 30" N) or
approximately 350 miles in extent. Thus there are only 13 independent
places in this area at which a feature 27 miles wide could exist. A
feature which is 27 miles across at its narrowest point is a large
feature relative to the size of the Eastern Mediterranean.
Questions
The period of time when the Garden was occupied is fairly precisely given in:
"This paper depicts the planetary history of the violet race, beginning
soon after the default of Adam, about 35,000 B.C., ..." (UB868:2;
78:0.2)
This raises the issue of the time scale required for the eastern
Mediterranean land masses to rise. Could this rise occur within a period
of time less than 37,000 years? The feature on the bathymetric charts
which might be the Edenic land bridge now lies at a depth of
approximately 500 fathoms, or 3,000 ft. The peak elevation of the
terrain of the Eastern Mediterranean region is approximately 1,500 m, or
about 5,000 ft. Assuming the land bridge elevation was originally about
1,000 ft, the submerged First Eden has sunk around 4,000 ft, while the
land bordering the eastern Mediterranean has risen around 4,000 ft. The
average rate of change of elevation in these regions must therefore have
been about 1.2 inches per year. Is this is a geologically possible rate
of change of elevation?
Another question of importance to this investigation is the time at
which the Mediterranean Sea was formed. I am presently investigating
this question.
The most likely remain of the Garden is the great brick wall built to
prevent incursions by raiders and/or wild animals. The UB says:
"The first task was the building of the brick wall across the neck of the peninsula." (UB824:1; 73:4.2)
Of course if the brick wall was made of unfired bricks, a long
submergence may have dissolved the bricks making their location more
difficult, if not impossible.
Another object which might be located is the stone temple of the Universal Father.
"only the stone wall (of the Temple) stood until the Garden was subsequently submerged" (UB826:4; (73:6.7)
This temple was located in the center of the peninsula, just south of a great mound, or hill.
"At the center of the Edenic peninsula was the exquisite stone temple of
the Universal Father, the sacred shrine of the Garden." (UB824:5;
73:5.1)
"Soon after their awakening, Adam and Eve were escorted to the formal
reception on the great mound to the north of the temple. This natural
hill had been enlarged and made ready for the installation of the
world's new rulers." (UB 829:7; (74:2.5)
The end of the Garden was described as follows.
"... in connection with the violent activity of the surrounding
volcanoes and the submergence of the Sicilian land bridge to Africa, the
eastern floor of the Mediterranean Sea sank, carrying down beneath the
waters the whole of the Edenic peninsula. Concomitant with this vast
submergence the coast line of the eastern editerranean was greatly
elevated." (UB826:6; 73:7.1)
This great elevation of the coastline would have the effect of severing
the river running out of Eden, as would the submergence of the ocean
floor. Thus three distinct rivers would have been formed: 1. The river
running out of the highlands to the West of Eden would now run eastward
into the sea from the remaining island formed from the highlands. 2. The
remains of the river on the western shore of the Mediterranean would
run westward to the sea (the Orontes). 3. The portion of the river
running through Mesopotamia would no longer have any connection to the
Mediterranean (the Euphrates).
The statement that the "whole of the Edenic peninsula" was submerged
conflicts with the hypothesis that Cyprus is the remains of the
highlands of the western portion of the Edenic peninsula, since Cyprus
is not submerged. If the Edenic peninsula were not located between
Cyprus and the mainland, then where was it? There are no remains of the
western highlands or the peninsula anywhere else in the eastern
Mediterranean visible on the charts available to me. Perhaps the
statement "whole of the Edenic peninsula" really means the whole of the
peninsula containing the First Garden, since the word peninsula is
modified by the word "Edenic".
The elevation of the eastern Mediterranean is also mentioned elsewhere in The Urantia Book:
"For thousands of years after the submergence of the first Eden the
mountains about the eastern coast of the Mediterranean and those to the
northwest and northeast of Mesopotamia continued to rise. This elevation
of the highlands was greatly accelerated about 5000 B.C., and this,
together with greatly increased snowfall on the northern mountains,
caused unprecedented floods each spring throughout the Euphrates
valley." (UB874:7; (78:7.2)
The First Garden was apparently of enormous size. "The architectural
plans for Eden provided homes and abundant land for one million human
beings." (UB824:5; 73:5.1)
Given that the neck of the peninsula was 27 miles across, one might
assume that the Garden was approximately 27 x 27 miles in dimension, or
larger. This would place the area of the Garden at 2.0 x 10^10 square
feet. If one million people were housed within this area, then the
population density would be 1 person for every 20,000 square feet. This
is a plot of land about 143 ft square.
The book gives the length of roads and paths existing within this area.
"At the time of Adam's arrival, though the Garden was only one-fourth
finished, it had thousands of miles of irrigation ditches and more than
twelve thousand miles of paved paths and roads." (UB824:6; (73:5.2)
The area of land devoted to these paths and roads may be estimated as
1.27 x 10^8 square feet assuming an average width of the paths and roads
to be 2 ft. The ratio of the area of roads and paths to the completed
area is thus on the order of 2.5 x 10^-2. Given this ratio, one can
estimate the size of the plots of land enclosed by the roads and paths,
assuming that the plots are square. One can show that assuming the area
ratio is small compared to one, the side of the enclosed square plot is
approximately twice the path width divided by the area ratio. Thus the
side of the enclosed square land plot would be approximately 160 ft.
This is in reasonable agreement with the amount of land allotted to each
person.
Hypothesis
Based on the above clues, one can form the following hypothesis. The
first Garden of Eden was located at approximately latitude 36 deg N,
longitude 35 deg 20 min E, which is now under approximately 500 fathoms
of water. This location was once about 1000 ft above sea level. The
river which flowed through Eden had its origin in the highlands of what
is now the island of Cyprus. This river flowed eastward and connected
with the Euphrates. After the Eastern Mediterrean Sea suddenly was
created by the breach of the Sicilian land bridge by waters of the
Western Mediterranean, the land containing the Garden sunk about 4000 ft
and was submerged beneath the Mediterrean due to the weight of the
surrounding water. The eastern shore of the Mediterrean rose to maintain
isostatic equilibrium and thereby severed the connection to the
Euphrates River.
END OF PAPER
If someone could actually mount an expedition to this area and find the
archeological remains of the First Garden as described in The Urantia
Book, such a discovery would have a big impact world wide.
Fred Beckner
Source: http://www.truthbook.com/index.cfm?linkID=95
Friday, 10 September 2010
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