A Biblical archaeologist has filmed what was once the Garden of Eden and the river system that flowed out of it, attracting substantial attention on YouTube.Joel Kramer's video Searching for The Garden of Eden's Pishon River received more than a million views within four days of being posted to his Expedition Bible YouTube channel on January 27."Genesis Chapter Two describes the location of the Garden of Eden in relationship to four rivers. Three of these rivers are known and one is a mystery, the lost river of Eden, so to speak. This is the river that the Bible calls the Pishon," Kramer said at the start of his 28-minute video.Genesis 2:10-14 in the New International Version says, "A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates."The Tigris and Euphrates maintain their ancient names today. They join at Al-Qurnah in southern Iraq, something Kramer explained in person at the location. The watercourse from the merged rivers is called the Shatt al-Arab River and it flows into the Persian Gulf. According to the Biblical account this river flowed through Eden..Kramer travelled south to the Karun River, which is thought to be the Biblical Gihon River. He stood a considerable distance in front of a bridge that crossed the river."It's the largest river in Iran. And where it has its confluence with the Euphrates and the Tigris is a border between Iraq and Iran and therefore a very sensitive place. And so it was a bit nerve wracking, going down into that area. And I wanted to get closer, but I got as close as I could," said Kramer.This left only the fourth "mystery" river of Eden. For this leg of the journey, he flew south to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, returning to the land of his childhood which he had not seen in 31 years. Kramer, his son and a cameraman drove up the Red Sea Coast to the Hejaz Mountains, then went east.Because the Biblical land of Havilah was known for being east of Egypt, Kramer knew he was in the right region. Another clue was the gold mentioned in Genesis 2."The largest and most productive goldmine in the Middle East is in Saudi Arabia and right in the area of the watershed that forms the beginning of Wadi al-Rummah, which is the main candidate for the Pishon River. Behind me here at the base of this mountain is the mine Mahd Ad Dhahab. And this in Arabic means the cradle of gold," Kramer explained."In this region, there's also 55 gold mines, this one being not only the largest of those, but the largest gold mine in all of the Arabian Peninsula. It's been mined for thousands and thousands of years."As Kramer explained near the mine, the aromatic resins and onyx of the Land of Havilah are also commodities Arabia is known for."Just to the east, you see this road where the cars are driving. And this is a paved portion of the ancient incense route. That was the south to north route, that the commodities were traded that are mentioned in Genesis 2," he said."It mentions the aromatic resins, the main ones being frankincense and myrrh, that were brought on this incense route that passes just a kilometre to the east of this mine. And then the onyx, the precious stones...are the same commodities that Arabia is famous for trading."Kramer drove in the desert to explore other parts of the Wadi al-Rummah. The riverbed was discovered by Egyptian geologist Dr. Farouk Elbaz while studying satellite images of Arabia in the late 1980s and early 1990s."Today, for most of the year, this river is dry, but it was formed in ancient times, when the land between Egypt and Assyria called Havilah had a much wetter climate that supported a continually flowing river that wound its way across the entire land. Scholars estimate that this river continually flowed until around 2000 BC when the climate changed, causing the river to dry up," Kramer explained.The riverbed was 1.7 miles across in places. Kramer said exploring it proved "nerve-wracking" as they had to push their vehicle out after getting stuck. He said the same rocks that were in the Hejaz Mountains were in the river bed, proving a powerful river more than 500 miles long once carried the stones across Arabia. .All that was left for Kramer was to show viewers the former Garden of Eden. According to the Book of Genesis, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life it once boasted were wiped out long ago in the worldwide flood Noah and his family survived on an ark."What this place looked like before the flood, we don't know. However, I wanted to go and see what it looked like today and I was quite shocked. I don't know why I wasn't expecting it to be such a wet place. But when I found there was a whole lot of water," Kramer said."The people that live here are Arabs, but they're called Marsh Arabs. Instead of sheep and goats, they eat fish and waterfowl. Instead of camels, they raise water buffaloes. And as endless as these marshes seem today, they covered a much larger area in ancient times, stretching all the way from the gulf to the ruins of the old Sumerian cities, such as Ur and Eridu."Kramer earned a Master of Arts in Archaeology at the University of the Holy Land. For over a decade, he participated in numerous dig projects. Since 2017, he has lived in Amman, Jordan. His book When God Came Down: The Archaeological Evidence, was published in 2020.
A Biblical archaeologist has filmed what was once the Garden of Eden and the river system that flowed out of it, attracting substantial attention on YouTube.Joel Kramer's video Searching for The Garden of Eden's Pishon River received more than a million views within four days of being posted to his Expedition Bible YouTube channel on January 27."Genesis Chapter Two describes the location of the Garden of Eden in relationship to four rivers. Three of these rivers are known and one is a mystery, the lost river of Eden, so to speak. This is the river that the Bible calls the Pishon," Kramer said at the start of his 28-minute video.Genesis 2:10-14 in the New International Version says, "A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates."The Tigris and Euphrates maintain their ancient names today. They join at Al-Qurnah in southern Iraq, something Kramer explained in person at the location. The watercourse from the merged rivers is called the Shatt al-Arab River and it flows into the Persian Gulf. According to the Biblical account this river flowed through Eden..Kramer travelled south to the Karun River, which is thought to be the Biblical Gihon River. He stood a considerable distance in front of a bridge that crossed the river."It's the largest river in Iran. And where it has its confluence with the Euphrates and the Tigris is a border between Iraq and Iran and therefore a very sensitive place. And so it was a bit nerve wracking, going down into that area. And I wanted to get closer, but I got as close as I could," said Kramer.This left only the fourth "mystery" river of Eden. For this leg of the journey, he flew south to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, returning to the land of his childhood which he had not seen in 31 years. Kramer, his son and a cameraman drove up the Red Sea Coast to the Hejaz Mountains, then went east.Because the Biblical land of Havilah was known for being east of Egypt, Kramer knew he was in the right region. Another clue was the gold mentioned in Genesis 2."The largest and most productive goldmine in the Middle East is in Saudi Arabia and right in the area of the watershed that forms the beginning of Wadi al-Rummah, which is the main candidate for the Pishon River. Behind me here at the base of this mountain is the mine Mahd Ad Dhahab. And this in Arabic means the cradle of gold," Kramer explained."In this region, there's also 55 gold mines, this one being not only the largest of those, but the largest gold mine in all of the Arabian Peninsula. It's been mined for thousands and thousands of years."As Kramer explained near the mine, the aromatic resins and onyx of the Land of Havilah are also commodities Arabia is known for."Just to the east, you see this road where the cars are driving. And this is a paved portion of the ancient incense route. That was the south to north route, that the commodities were traded that are mentioned in Genesis 2," he said."It mentions the aromatic resins, the main ones being frankincense and myrrh, that were brought on this incense route that passes just a kilometre to the east of this mine. And then the onyx, the precious stones...are the same commodities that Arabia is famous for trading."Kramer drove in the desert to explore other parts of the Wadi al-Rummah. The riverbed was discovered by Egyptian geologist Dr. Farouk Elbaz while studying satellite images of Arabia in the late 1980s and early 1990s."Today, for most of the year, this river is dry, but it was formed in ancient times, when the land between Egypt and Assyria called Havilah had a much wetter climate that supported a continually flowing river that wound its way across the entire land. Scholars estimate that this river continually flowed until around 2000 BC when the climate changed, causing the river to dry up," Kramer explained.The riverbed was 1.7 miles across in places. Kramer said exploring it proved "nerve-wracking" as they had to push their vehicle out after getting stuck. He said the same rocks that were in the Hejaz Mountains were in the river bed, proving a powerful river more than 500 miles long once carried the stones across Arabia. .All that was left for Kramer was to show viewers the former Garden of Eden. According to the Book of Genesis, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life it once boasted were wiped out long ago in the worldwide flood Noah and his family survived on an ark."What this place looked like before the flood, we don't know. However, I wanted to go and see what it looked like today and I was quite shocked. I don't know why I wasn't expecting it to be such a wet place. But when I found there was a whole lot of water," Kramer said."The people that live here are Arabs, but they're called Marsh Arabs. Instead of sheep and goats, they eat fish and waterfowl. Instead of camels, they raise water buffaloes. And as endless as these marshes seem today, they covered a much larger area in ancient times, stretching all the way from the gulf to the ruins of the old Sumerian cities, such as Ur and Eridu."Kramer earned a Master of Arts in Archaeology at the University of the Holy Land. For over a decade, he participated in numerous dig projects. Since 2017, he has lived in Amman, Jordan. His book When God Came Down: The Archaeological Evidence, was published in 2020.
