Can the Garden of Eden Be Found?

In eastern Turkey there is an archaeological (ar-chae-o-log-i-cal) dig site that is creating a lot of interest. In 1994 a Kurdish shepherd was caring for his flocks when he spotted some large, oblong stones. Soon an archaeologist named Klaus Schmidt began the excavation. What his team found is said to be “extraordinary.” The scientists have dug up at least 45 of the large stones out of the ground, each inscribed with strange images including pigs, cranes, ducks, crayfish, and lions.

The stones have been said to be at least 12,000 years old. The amazed archaeologists even began calling the site the “Garden of Eden.” Of course, what they mean by the Garden of Eden is not what we see in the Bible. To them, the garden was where hunter-gatherer cavemen could pluck fruit from trees, scoop fish from rivers, and spend their days in pleasure. They think that the Fall was when these hunter-gatherers began the much harder work of farming.

The Bible teaches us that the Garden of Eden was a wonderful place where Adam, a highly intelligent man whom God had created to be perfect, tended and cared for the plants and animals. Since there was no sin, there was no death and no thorns or thistles. It was a paradise that God created for man to enjoy. It was the sin of Adam that made the life of farming difficult. From then on Adam worked by the “sweat of his face” (Genesis 3:19).

The actual Garden of Eden will never be found because it was totally wiped out in the flood, buried forever under tons of mud and sediment. The beautiful lush garden was quickly buried and the vegetation may have became fossil fuel. So we won’t ever find the Garden of Eden, but we may be using it to fuel our cars!