The Bible declares that God “planted a garden eastward in Eden,” but there is no archaeological evidence that any such place existed. Is this just a myth? 

The Bible mentioned that “the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.” (Genesis 2:8). 

If Genesis is true, then where is Eden located? And why is there no archaeological evidence for its existence? 

Fortunately, the Bible described the location of Eden and named its rivers as follows: “Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold in that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that goes around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one that goes towards the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.” (Genesis 2: 10-14). 

River Gihon is on the land of Cush, which is currently Ethiopia, and there still exists the Nile River. The other rivers still exist too. By looking at the maps, we will find that the two rivers Euphrates and Tigris (Hiddekel), already exist in Iraq. We can therefore extrapolate that the Garden of Eden was in Iraq.  But what about the Pishon River?

Titus Flavius Josephus (AD 100), a very well-known Roman historian, stated that the “Pishon, which denotes a multitude, running into India, makes its exit into the sea, and is by the Greeks called Ganges. Euphrates, as well as Tigris, goes down into the Red Sea. Now the name Euphrates, or Phrath, denotes either a dispersion or a flower; by Tiris, or Diglath, is signified what is swift, with narrowness; and Geon runs through Egypt and denotes what arises from the east, which the Greeks call Nile.” (Antiquities of the Jews, Book I) 

Hence, it is clear that the Garden of Eden was in the land between the Ganges River and the Nile River. The core of the garden is in Iraq, where the two rivers Tigris and Euphrate exist. This conclusion is supported by several points, including:

1. The ethnicity of the country is very ancient. 
2. The lands of Iraq are among the most fertile lands in the world.
3. Archaeological documents indicate that the plains of Iraq, located to the southwest of Babylon, were called Aden. 

Yet why can’t we find traces of Eden? The answer is that this part of the world already has archaeological traces of ancient life; geographical evidence of rivers is mentioned, as is the historical evidence of Titus Flavius Josephus. We would not expect any archaeological evidence, since there is no indication that Adam and Eve made pottery or built durable buildings.