Earlier this year the media buzzed with claims that archaeologists had uncovered the possible remnants of a temple from the Garden of Eden in eastern Turkey. This important site, called Gobekli Tepe, was first discovered in 1994, but now 45 of the upright stones have been exposed. The complex is dated from the Ice Age and is the oldest known temple, long before Stonehenge (UK) and other similar stone formations.

But don’t pack the vacation bags just yet. The Flood destroyed the world as Noah knew it (see 2 Peter 3:6), covering the original Garden under thousands of feet of sediment. So the rivers flowing out of Eden, including the two called the Tigris and Euphrates (Genesis 2:14), cannot be the same rivers today. Also, the modern rivers come from different sources and then merge, whereas Eden’s rivers came from one source and then divided into four rivers.

While this new discovery should shed light on the early cultures that arose after people left the Tower of Babel, the temple’s location is certainly not Eden.

* A. Curry, “Gobekli Tepe: The World’s First Temple?” Smithsonian, November 2008, www.smithsonianmag.com/historyarchaeology/gobekli-tepe.html