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Nevertheless, people think this is where the Garden of Eden once was. They even point out an old apple-tree that once bore some apples and say, “That’s the original tree.” They think the Great Flood took place between these rivers. They think that Noah lived down there somewhere, that he built his ark down there, and that the Flood came and flooded all this valley between the two rivers, and when the Flood was over, the Ark was left high and dry on the top of Mount Ararat, a mountain way up above where the rivers rise. This valley between the two rivers was called Mesopotamia, because “Meso” means “between” and “potamia” means “rivers.” But it is now called Iraq, and that is the name you will see on the map.
On the Tigris River, high up, there used to be a big city called Nineveh, and on the Euphrates, farther downtoward where the two rivers meet, there used to be another big city called Babylon. I say “used to be,” for although these two cities were the largest cities in the World before Christ was born, they have almost completely disappeared.
Have you ever built on the beach or in a sand pile a town of houses and streets and then some big bully has come along, tramped on it, stamped on it, and kicked it to pieces? Well, Nineveh and Babylon look as if somegiant had come along and stamped all over them and kicked them all to pieces, for about all there is to be seen of them now are piles of dirt. Men have been digging in the piles for many years and they have found buried under the dirt some of the things the people of these cities once had in their homes and shops and schools and palaces, for these cities had some of the finest houses and palaces ever built. The walls and gardensof Babylon were once one of the Seven Wonders of the World, but practically nothing is now left of them.
