1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:16,312 This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture. 2 00:00:16,312 --> 00:00:20,839 The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations, but not necessarily 3 00:00:20,839 --> 00:00:27,929 the only ones to the mysteries we will examine. 4 00:00:27,929 --> 00:00:35,781 The Bible says mankind's first home was a garden paradise called Eden. 5 00:00:35,781 --> 00:00:38,545 God created Adam and Eve to tend the garden. 6 00:00:38,545 --> 00:00:44,874 He warned them never to eat from the tree of knowledge. 7 00:00:44,874 --> 00:00:49,441 One day a serpent hissed a jealous message to Eve. 8 00:00:49,441 --> 00:01:08,429 If you eat the forbidden fruit, you will become as wise as your Creator. 9 00:01:08,429 --> 00:01:29,180 The first woman and man succumbed to temptation. 10 00:01:29,180 --> 00:01:33,146 God feared his creations would next eat from the tree of life. 11 00:01:33,146 --> 00:01:39,716 He cast Adam and Eve from the garden and gave mankind a legacy of earthly toil. 12 00:01:39,716 --> 00:01:52,415 There is another legacy, a longing to rediscover the place where it all began. 13 00:01:52,415 --> 00:01:56,341 The dawn of civilization is thought to have occurred in that part of the world we now 14 00:01:56,341 --> 00:01:58,624 call the Middle East. 15 00:01:58,624 --> 00:02:03,031 The great pyramids of Egypt have endured nearly 5,000 years. 16 00:02:03,031 --> 00:02:10,842 In the epic journey of mankind, however, they are relatively recent milestones. 17 00:02:10,842 --> 00:02:16,090 The builders of the pyramids grappled with the same question that puzzles modern men. 18 00:02:16,090 --> 00:02:18,694 Where did it all begin? 19 00:02:18,694 --> 00:02:25,063 One answer lies in the Judeo-Christian tradition of an earthly paradise that existed somewhere 20 00:02:25,063 --> 00:02:26,746 in the Middle East. 21 00:02:27,106 --> 00:02:31,032 Biblical scholars have devoted lifetimes to interpreting the section of Genesis which 22 00:02:31,032 --> 00:02:33,276 describes the location of Eden. 23 00:02:33,276 --> 00:02:38,684 A passage in the Old Testament states that Eden was watered by a stream which rose out 24 00:02:38,684 --> 00:02:46,415 of the garden and branched out into four rivers, the Tigris, Euphrates, Peshon and Gion. 25 00:02:46,415 --> 00:02:51,943 The Tigris and Euphrates are familiar enough, but what are the Peshon and Gion? 26 00:02:51,943 --> 00:02:54,467 Where are they in the modern world? 27 00:02:55,469 --> 00:03:01,598 The great river of Egypt is the Nile, thought by some to be the Gehon of Genesis. 28 00:03:01,598 --> 00:03:06,485 There would be no city of Cairo without the Nile, only desert. 29 00:03:06,485 --> 00:03:10,491 To the ancients, the river was a god. 30 00:03:10,491 --> 00:03:15,498 All their great monuments and temples were built near its banks. 31 00:03:24,512 --> 00:03:38,533 The obelisk at Karnac took nearly a decade to quarry, transport and erect. 32 00:03:38,533 --> 00:03:42,539 The holiest of monuments here was not stone, however. 33 00:03:42,539 --> 00:03:47,546 It was the sacred pool, symbol of life in the desert. 34 00:03:47,546 --> 00:03:51,552 Water is a recurrent theme in all accounts of mankind's beginnings. 35 00:03:51,552 --> 00:03:58,562 If we assume that the Nile is the western boundary of the search for Eden, it is to the rising sun 36 00:03:58,562 --> 00:04:02,568 that we must look for clues to the location of the fourth river. 37 00:04:06,574 --> 00:04:12,583 The east of Karnac is the Red Sea, separating Africa from the Arabia and Peninsula. 38 00:04:12,583 --> 00:04:19,594 Fraders and tankers have recently inundated these waters, but the coast of Arabia is no stranger to commerce. 39 00:04:20,595 --> 00:04:26,604 Jidda is the major seaport, bustling with the enormous wealth Arab oil has brought. 40 00:04:26,604 --> 00:04:34,616 Modern office buildings are rising from the arid soil, rapidly crowding out the ramshackle structures of an earlier, quieter time. 41 00:04:34,616 --> 00:04:41,626 Jidda is the Arabic word for grandmother, and although the city is the gateway to the holiest shrines of Islam, 42 00:04:41,626 --> 00:04:45,632 it has great significance to Christians and Jews as well. 43 00:04:46,634 --> 00:04:54,646 A rubble-strewn plot of ground is all that remains of a great Christian shrine destroyed by Muslim zealots in 1928. 44 00:04:54,646 --> 00:05:00,655 The shrine marked the legendary tomb of Eve, grandmother of humanity. 45 00:05:02,658 --> 00:05:06,664 The burden of their fall from grace weighed heavily on Adam and Eve. 46 00:05:06,664 --> 00:05:10,670 Tradition has it they separated when they were cast out from Eden. 47 00:05:10,670 --> 00:05:14,676 Eve made her way across the desert to the place that is her namesake. 48 00:05:14,676 --> 00:05:17,680 Jidda. There she died. 49 00:05:20,684 --> 00:05:25,692 Of all the modern Arab states, Arabia clings most tenaciously to its past. 50 00:05:25,692 --> 00:05:32,702 It is the land of Mohammed, and long before him, the great Jewish king Solomon, mind gold here. 51 00:05:32,702 --> 00:05:37,710 Legends are not easily dismissed in a place with such a rich history. 52 00:05:38,711 --> 00:05:41,716 Arabia is a land of seeming contradictions. 53 00:05:41,716 --> 00:05:46,723 gasoline is virtually free, but water is sold for 25 cents a glass. 54 00:05:46,723 --> 00:05:50,729 Part of the price perhaps for Eve's temptation. 55 00:05:53,734 --> 00:05:57,740 And it taught the toil was the legacy of Adam and Eve's fall. 56 00:05:59,743 --> 00:06:05,751 The same tradition which says Eve wandered in the desert says Adam struggled in the Judean wilderness. 57 00:06:07,754 --> 00:06:13,763 In Judea, nomads still tend their flocks in the hills above the Dead Sea. 58 00:06:16,768 --> 00:06:22,777 Beyond the wilderness is Jerusalem, where the old ways are honored as they are in Jidda. 59 00:06:27,784 --> 00:06:32,792 Highest Jews chant prayers at a wall built 2,000 years ago by Herod. 60 00:06:33,793 --> 00:06:40,804 Near this sacred and ancient place, Adam is said to have emerged from the wilderness. 61 00:06:40,804 --> 00:06:48,815 A beautiful mosque stands above Herod's wall. It is among the most sacred shrines of the Muslim faith. 62 00:06:50,818 --> 00:06:55,826 The delicate Arabic script inlaid in tile is from the Quran. 63 00:06:56,827 --> 00:07:04,839 It tells of Mohammed's struggle to return mankind to the purity Eden represents to all faiths. 64 00:07:04,839 --> 00:07:11,850 The great dome of the mosque falls an ancient place with immense religious significance. 65 00:07:11,850 --> 00:07:17,859 On an ancient rock, Abraham is said to have offered to sacrifice his son. 66 00:07:17,859 --> 00:07:22,866 Mohammed is believed to have stepped from the rock into heaven. 67 00:07:22,866 --> 00:07:28,875 It is also the place one tradition says where Adam returned to die. 68 00:07:28,875 --> 00:07:34,884 The persistent question remains, where is the fourth river mentioned in Genesis? 69 00:07:38,890 --> 00:07:42,896 The traditional resting places of Adam and Eve are east of the Nile, 70 00:07:42,896 --> 00:07:47,903 east of Jidda and Jerusalem, of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. 71 00:07:47,903 --> 00:07:54,914 In the second millennium before Christ, that part of the world watered by the two rivers was ruled by the Assyrians. 72 00:07:54,914 --> 00:08:01,924 They were searching for paradise too and may have found it in the great gulf with the Tigris and Euphrates empty. 73 00:08:05,930 --> 00:08:08,935 I am Asher Bonifall, king of the Assyrians. 74 00:08:08,935 --> 00:08:11,939 My legions are the most powerful on earth. 75 00:08:11,939 --> 00:08:16,947 From Mesopotamia, we strike west into Egypt and south into the Gulf of Arabi. 76 00:08:16,947 --> 00:08:22,955 There is great wealth in the Gulf, wealth to feed my armies, but there is more. 77 00:08:22,955 --> 00:08:25,960 Stories of a place called Dilman. 78 00:08:25,960 --> 00:08:33,972 It is said that no one dies there and the natives pluck pearls from the ocean like dates from the palm. 79 00:08:33,972 --> 00:08:37,978 If there is such a place, it shall be mine. 80 00:08:38,979 --> 00:08:43,987 Into the Gulf, Asher Bonifall sent advance elements of his army. 81 00:08:43,987 --> 00:08:46,991 The scouts returned with incredible reports. 82 00:08:49,996 --> 00:08:53,000 It seemed there was a land called Dilman. 83 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:58,008 The inhabitants did pluck pearls from the ocean like dates from a palm. 84 00:09:02,014 --> 00:09:05,018 Flowers bloomed, sending the air with their perfume. 85 00:09:05,018 --> 00:09:08,022 The date palms were heavy with fruit. 86 00:09:08,022 --> 00:09:12,028 Asher Bonifall's men had never seen such abundance. 87 00:09:12,028 --> 00:09:16,034 Everywhere there was greenery, lush and inviting. 88 00:09:18,037 --> 00:09:22,043 On a Dilman seal, a tree flanked by two mysterious figures. 89 00:09:22,043 --> 00:09:30,055 The record of Asher Bonifall's expedition gives us one of the earliest indications that Adam and Eve's garden might have existed. 90 00:09:30,055 --> 00:09:33,060 Might still exist. 91 00:09:34,061 --> 00:09:40,070 Thus, the key to finding Eden and the fourth river of Genesis may lie in finding Dilman. 92 00:09:40,070 --> 00:09:43,075 Somewhere in the Persian Gulf. 93 00:09:49,084 --> 00:09:53,089 To understand the Middle East, one must study the sea. 94 00:09:57,095 --> 00:10:03,104 Long before the ancient Phoenicians were probing the Mediterranean from their harbors in modern day Lebanon, 95 00:10:03,104 --> 00:10:08,112 a great ocean gulf separating Arabia from Persia was already alive with commerce. 96 00:10:11,116 --> 00:10:16,124 The same tools and techniques that built ancient sailing ships are still in use today. 97 00:10:19,128 --> 00:10:23,134 Nautical craftsmanship has been handed down through a hundred generations. 98 00:10:23,134 --> 00:10:30,145 With little more than a saw and their memories, these men build the sturdy boats that sail the Gulf. 99 00:10:34,151 --> 00:10:38,156 From Arabia in the west come ships laden with date wine and spun cotton. 100 00:10:38,156 --> 00:10:44,165 From Persian cities in the east, the ships return with exotic vegetables and spices from India. 101 00:10:49,173 --> 00:10:56,183 Many nations have claimed the Gulf as their own. One place has seen them all come and move on. 102 00:10:57,185 --> 00:11:01,191 Bukrain is a small island off the east coast of Arabia. 103 00:11:01,191 --> 00:11:07,200 Its people have enjoyed an influence far beyond their numbers or the size of their homeland. 104 00:11:11,206 --> 00:11:16,213 Through Bukrain's seaport at Manama City flows the wealth of the Gulf. 105 00:11:20,219 --> 00:11:25,226 The islands have been independent only since 1971. 106 00:11:27,229 --> 00:11:35,241 Before that, Bukrain was a British protectorate. Before that, it was Persian. Before that, Portuguese. 107 00:11:38,246 --> 00:11:43,253 Many nations have ruled Bukrain, but she has always retained an exotic individuality. 108 00:11:46,258 --> 00:11:50,264 Perhaps nowhere else in the Arab world is there a stronger work ethic. 109 00:11:56,273 --> 00:12:00,279 The day begins early. By noon, it is too hot to work. 110 00:12:17,304 --> 00:12:19,307 Breakfast may be fresh Arab bread. 111 00:12:20,308 --> 00:12:26,317 A bitter green coffee is ritually shared by merchants preparing for the day. 112 00:12:29,322 --> 00:12:33,328 By 5 a.m., the vegetable market is ready for business. 113 00:12:33,328 --> 00:12:40,338 Eat Vendor is a specialist selling melon from Egypt, citrus from Lebanon, or lush homegrown produce. 114 00:12:40,338 --> 00:12:44,344 The merchants squat in the dust, ready to bargain. 115 00:12:45,346 --> 00:12:48,350 It has been this way for thousands of years. 116 00:12:50,353 --> 00:12:55,360 Bukrain has a resiliency that allows old and new to exist in harmony. 117 00:12:55,360 --> 00:12:59,366 A modern refinery turns Saudi Arabian oil into gasoline. 118 00:12:59,366 --> 00:13:02,371 The Bukranis have little oil themselves. 119 00:13:02,371 --> 00:13:06,377 They do have the ability to exploit a good thing when they see it. 120 00:13:07,378 --> 00:13:13,387 By being invaluable to bigger, more powerful neighbors, Bukrain assures its unique place. 121 00:13:14,389 --> 00:13:15,390 In the world. 122 00:13:20,398 --> 00:13:27,408 The pulse of the gulf may well be the rush of oil through pipelines, but oil plays no part in genesis. 123 00:13:30,413 --> 00:13:34,419 Water is the fluid of Eden, nectar of the desert. 124 00:13:35,420 --> 00:13:41,429 To keep decorative trees alive under Bukrain's brutal sun, they must be watered daily. 125 00:13:41,429 --> 00:13:44,433 Water is Bukrain's secret. 126 00:13:49,441 --> 00:13:56,451 The potter's kiln is built into a huge rock mound that may tell much about Bukrain's special relationship with water. 127 00:13:56,451 --> 00:13:59,456 There are dozens of the large mounds on the island. 128 00:14:00,457 --> 00:14:05,465 Archaeologist P. B. Cornwall was the first to recognize their significance. 129 00:14:05,465 --> 00:14:10,472 In 1940, he dug into one of the mounds and discovered that it was a tomb. 130 00:14:10,472 --> 00:14:12,475 Probably a royal tomb. 131 00:14:12,475 --> 00:14:15,480 And probably older than the Great Pyramid at Giza. 132 00:14:15,480 --> 00:14:20,487 5,000 years older than the modern graveyard at its base. 133 00:14:23,492 --> 00:14:28,499 There are perhaps 50,000 people who have been buried in the tomb. 134 00:14:29,500 --> 00:14:32,505 There are several smaller mounds on the island. 135 00:14:32,505 --> 00:14:35,509 Most of them long since looted. 136 00:14:41,518 --> 00:14:45,524 They tell us that the ancient population of Bukrain was large and affluent. 137 00:14:45,524 --> 00:14:50,532 Rich enough to accord death, a status surpassed only by the pharaohs of Egypt. 138 00:14:50,532 --> 00:14:56,541 And they place this lost civilization in the same millennium as the Assyrian domination of the north. 139 00:14:56,541 --> 00:15:05,554 When King Ashurbanapal sent his men to find Dilmun, they returned with reports of a civilization that defied death. 140 00:15:05,554 --> 00:15:10,561 Near Anoasis is the ghost of a much later military expedition. 141 00:15:10,561 --> 00:15:18,573 In the 16th century, the Portuguese invaded Bukrain and built a fort to protect their trade route to the far east. 142 00:15:18,573 --> 00:15:30,591 Without realizing it, the invaders were building on the ruins of a civilization that had dominated the same trade routes long before their Portuguese ancestors had ever put to sea. 143 00:15:33,596 --> 00:15:39,605 The first major excavation of the site was begun in 1953 by Professor Jeffrey Bibby. 144 00:15:39,605 --> 00:15:44,612 It revealed a sophisticated dwelling, complete with what appears to be an altar. 145 00:15:45,614 --> 00:15:53,626 More intriguing was the discovery of a limestone basin, which probably held fresh water. 146 00:15:53,626 --> 00:16:03,640 The reservoir fed into a wall channel built 20 feet below the surface of the ground, clearly an advanced irrigation system. 147 00:16:04,642 --> 00:16:13,655 The underground water supply could be tapped from well-liked chimneys constructed along the course of the channel. 148 00:16:17,661 --> 00:16:24,672 Bibby thought they probably served the additional function of allowing silt deposits to be removed from the waterway. 149 00:16:25,673 --> 00:16:33,685 Dozens of the stone chimneys appear in the desert at intervals of about 100 yards. 150 00:16:33,685 --> 00:16:40,696 Fresh water remains abundant elsewhere on the island, welling up from the ground to fill natural rock basins. 151 00:16:40,696 --> 00:16:44,701 Bukrain is surrounded by the salt waters of the Gulf. 152 00:16:44,701 --> 00:16:51,712 The sea is absorbed into the limestone bedrock of the island and percolates upward in a natural stream. 153 00:16:51,712 --> 00:16:58,722 The result is the most wonderful of all things in the desert, a miracle, an oasis. 154 00:17:01,727 --> 00:17:07,736 If we are to believe Genesis, then Adam and Eve must have crawled in just such a place. 155 00:17:22,758 --> 00:17:28,767 Perhaps we have found the fourth river which the Bible says takes us to Eden. 156 00:17:28,767 --> 00:17:33,774 It may very well be the great river flowing beneath Bukrain. 157 00:17:37,780 --> 00:17:41,786 Where there is water in Bukrain, the desert explodes with life and color. 158 00:17:41,786 --> 00:17:45,792 If we take Genesis as a mixture of revelation and allegory, 159 00:17:45,792 --> 00:17:50,800 then it is likely the author had a real place in mind when he described Eden. 160 00:17:53,804 --> 00:17:59,813 He might have been familiar with the Sumerian legend of the semi-divine king named Gilgamesh. 161 00:18:00,815 --> 00:18:05,822 In search of immortality, Gilgamesh travels to the land of Dilmourne. 162 00:18:07,825 --> 00:18:11,831 There, Gilgamesh learns that he must pursue the flower of immortality, 163 00:18:11,831 --> 00:18:14,835 which is found at the bottom of the sea. 164 00:18:14,835 --> 00:18:18,841 By eating the flower, Gilgamesh will become immortal. 165 00:18:19,843 --> 00:18:22,847 The story doesn't end halfway. 166 00:18:26,853 --> 00:18:30,859 A serpent appears, steals the flower and eats it. 167 00:18:30,859 --> 00:18:35,867 A man's old adversary once again robs him of everlasting life. 168 00:18:35,867 --> 00:18:40,874 The biblical similarities are obvious. There is more, however. 169 00:18:41,876 --> 00:18:48,886 The flower of immortality at the bottom of the sea could be a figure of speech for the pearls Bukrain is famous for. 170 00:18:52,892 --> 00:18:56,898 The ancient inhabitants of Bukrain had a peculiar custom. 171 00:18:56,898 --> 00:18:59,902 In their burial mounds, they placed a basket. 172 00:18:59,902 --> 00:19:03,908 Inside the basket, they placed a basket of flowers. 173 00:19:03,908 --> 00:19:08,916 Inside the basket, they placed a snake and a symbolic pearl. 174 00:19:10,919 --> 00:19:15,926 On Bukrain, as in Genesis, the garden gives way to desert. 175 00:19:15,926 --> 00:19:22,937 Few creatures willingly leave the oasis to take their chances in the wilderness just beyond the last blade of grass. 176 00:19:23,938 --> 00:19:29,947 Adam and Eve had a choice. They chose knowledge instead of life and were cast out. 177 00:19:30,949 --> 00:19:35,956 Magkind's prospects seemed bleak, as bleak as the interior of Bukhrain. 178 00:19:36,958 --> 00:19:41,965 If there is a single lesson to be learned from the great faiths, however, perhaps it is hope. 179 00:19:42,967 --> 00:19:45,971 The tree of life may not be lost forever. 180 00:19:46,972 --> 00:19:53,983 In one last astonishing parallel to the biblical Eden, we find a great tree growing in the Bukhrain waste. 181 00:19:53,983 --> 00:19:56,987 It seems to thrive where nothing else can. 182 00:19:56,987 --> 00:20:01,995 In shade, beckons across the sun-hade and desert floor. 183 00:20:09,005 --> 00:20:17,017 Few of the people who live on this island have ever heard of the Garden of Eden, yet they call this the tree of life. 184 00:20:18,019 --> 00:20:25,029 If we never again achieve the Garden, it will certainly not be because we lost our way in our dreams. 185 00:20:28,034 --> 00:20:39,050 There is intense curiosity among a handful of scholars and scientists who know that the real story of Bukhrain hasn't been told. 186 00:20:40,051 --> 00:20:47,062 Money for archaeological work is always scarce, and what there is of it is more likely to be spent on glamour digs in Egypt. 187 00:20:48,063 --> 00:20:56,075 Those who work here do so out of deep commitment. Piecing together a lost civilization is not as easy as piecing together a pot. 188 00:20:57,077 --> 00:21:04,087 Time may be running out. Saudi Arabia plans to build a causeway from the mainland to Bukhrae. 189 00:21:04,087 --> 00:21:08,093 It will cut through thousands of Dilm-1 burial mounds. 190 00:21:10,096 --> 00:21:15,104 It would be tragic to lose the Garden of Eden a second time. 191 00:21:16,105 --> 00:21:28,123 Coming up next, a hijacker wires herself with dynamite and demands the release of her lover from prison on FBI, The Untold Stories. 192 00:21:29,124 --> 00:21:36,135 Then on History's Crimes and Trials, the story of one of the most brazen heists of modern time, the U.S. Brinks Robbery. 193 00:21:36,135 --> 00:21:45,148 And tomorrow night on Danger Central, electrical line workers go on high-voltage suicide missions at 10, here on the History Channel.