124 HORMUZD RASSAM, ESQ., 
dead. The tablets containing cuneiform inscriptions unfortunately 
give no information whatever upon the subject, although the 
present Professor Delitzsch (the son of the famous old Professor of 
Hebrew at Leipsic) claims to have founded his views about it 
upon them. Professor Delitzsch’s opinion as to the position of the 
Garden of Eden, viz., that understood as Babylonia, rests on the 
fact that one of the Akkadian words for country is Edina, and the 
Assyrian form Edinu, the same as Eden. 
There is an additional weight lent to this statement by a fragment 
of a tablet which was acquired by the Rev. Dr. Hayes Ward, in 
Mesopotamia, when exploring there some years ago. He allowed me 
the privilege of reading the fragment. It gave, in four lines, the 
words Sipar (or Sippar); Sipar (or Sippar) Edina, i.e., Sipar of 
Eden (to adopt Professor Delitzsch’s translation) ; Sipar (or Sippar) 
Uldua; and Sipar (or Sippar) Sama¥ (Sipar of the Sungod). 
I am inclined to the view that Babylonia had some legend 
of the Garden of Eden, as the Hebrews had, but they tried to 
locate that Garden of Eden in their own country, and this is the 
Garden of Eden which Professor Delitzsch has discussed, or rather 
it is that of which he treats in his book entitled Wo lag das 
Paradies ? 
With regard to the Ur of the Chaldees, I am inclined to agree 
with Mr. Rassam. The position of Mugheir I regard as too far 
south—I may be wrong. Mr. Boscawen just now whispered to 
me that Mugheir must be Ur of the Chaldees because it was the 
city of the worship of the Moon-god, and so was Haran. I fail 
to see the exact reason for that—that is to say, I fail to see why, 
on that account, Mugheir should be the Ur of the Chaldees, but I 
hope to have an opportunity of examining the matter, and perhaps 
in an additional note on this paper I may be able to say something 
about it; but what Mr. Rassam says about the family of Abraham 
having to travel from the extreme south portion of Babylonia so 
far north-west has great weight, and if my suggestion be a correct 
one, that Ur of the Chaldees is the same as Uri, the native name 
of Akkad, it would enable Ur of the Chaldees to be located from 
120 to 150 or more miles higher up in the direction of Haran, and 
would shorten the distance to be traversed by the family of Abraham 
to that exent. 
I may add that an additional argument in favour of Mr. Rassam’s 
theory that Mugheir is not Ur of the Chaldees is, that the native 
