130 HORMUZD RASSAM, ESQ., ON THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 
Secondly, I am sorry to dissent from the opinion expressed by 
Sir J. W. Dawson that there is any indication of the plain of 
Southern Mesopotamia having been more elevated than it is now ; 
on the contrary, it is supposed that the sea had extended in ancient 
times as far as the junction of the Euphrates with the Tigris. As 
regards the four rivers, viz., ‘‘ Kuphrates, Tigris, Kerkban, and 
Karun,” one has only to look on their respective sources in any 
map and will find that they come down from diametrically different 
localities, the present positions of the sources of the first two rivers 
being about 700 miles apart from those of the latter. 
With regard to Professor Sayce’s contention about the position 
of the traditional Garden of Eden, I regret that I am unable to 
agree with him that the plains of Southern Babylonia have 
been the abode of our first parents. I do not dispute that the 
plain of Babylonia was called in the cuneiform inscription ‘“ Kdinu,” 
but I maintain that that name has no connection with the Eden 
of the second chapter of Genesis. It is quite incomprehensible 
to me how, in the face of such a glaring evidence as the 
existence of the two Biblical and classical rivers, the Euphrates 
and the Tigris, whose sources lie about 800 miles to the north and 
about 5,000 feet above the plain of Southern Mesopotamia, there 
can be any doubt as to the original site of the Biblical Garden of 
Eden. 
With reference to the word “‘ Havilah,” as I pointed out before, 
it is not uncommon to find all over the world places having 
the same name, and as regards the derivation of the word very 
often in Semitic languages, as Professor Sayce knows, the same 
number of letters represent different meanings. 
Then with regard to the birthplace of Abraham, we can only 
rely upon the historical record of his family which points to 
‘Aram Nahraim” as the land of his nativity, and there is no doubt 
that the Hebrews never considered these words to mean Southern 
Mesopotamia. Even if we take Mesopotamia of the Greeks to 
‘mean Southern Babylonia, the ruin of ‘‘ Mogayir ” cannot be the 
Ur of the Chaldees, as that site is not situated between the two 
rivers, nor could it have ever been. 
