An engineer has made a bold claim that the Garden of Eden was located in Africa, challenging the traditional belief that it lay in the Middle East.
According to the Bible, the Garden of Eden was a paradise where God placed Adam and Eve, featuring a river that split into four branches: Gihon, Euphrates, Tigris and Pishon.
Many scholars have long assumed that because the Tigris and Euphrates run through modern-day Iraq[1], Eden must have been in that region.
However, Mahmood Jawaid, a chemical engineer based in Texas[2], argued Eden was actually in Bahir Dar, a fertile region in northwestern Ethiopia[3] near the southern end of Lake Tana, where the Blue Nile begins.
Jawaid based his research on a careful reading of both the Bible and the Quran, analyzing descriptions of Adam and Eve, the rivers and the garden itself.
The 2025 study, which has not been peer-reviewed, noted the Blue Nile could correspond to the Biblical Gihon, and Lake Tana’s outflows divide into multiple waterways, potentially forming the four rivers described in Genesis.
Early human evolution also played a role in this theory, proposing that Adam may have evolved from Homo habilis or a late form of Australopithecus in the East African Rift Valley near Olduvai Gorge, a region considered a cradle of humanity.
From there, Adam and Eve could have been ‘placed’ in the highlands of Bahir Dar, a paradise at a higher elevation, before descending, what the Quran describes as ‘habata,’ to settle in the Rift Valley.
This is because the region sits about 6,000 feet above sea level, boasting lush vegetation, abundant wildlife and the flowing Blue Nile, features that align with both the Biblical description of Eden’s rivers and the Quranic concept of a garden on Earth.
An American engineer has proposed that the Garden of Eden was located in Ethiopia due to the landscape and Blue Nile that runs through the area
‘All clues point to Bahir Dar, near Lake Tana, a region of striking beauty, abundant vegetation, and the source of the Blue Nile, which fits the ancient description of Eden’s rivers,’ Jawaid wrote.
The Gihon, in particular, is said to encompass the land of Cush, an ancient term widely associated with Ethiopia.
Jawaid seized on that linguistic clue, arguing that the Gihon corresponds to the Blue Nile, which begins at Lake Tana before winding northward through Sudan to join the White Nile in Khartoum.
‘Lake Tana fits the description of Eden perfectly,’ he writes, noting that volcanic ridges enclose the surrounding highlands and feed multiple river systems.
In his reconstruction, Lake Tana itself represents Eden, while the Garden of Eden lies immediately to the south, around Bahir Dar, ‘east of Eden’ in biblical phrasing, where the river emerges from the lake.
The Book of Genesis discusses a ‘flaming sword,’ which God placed at the entrance of the garden to prevent humans from accessing the Tree of Life after Adam and Eve were banished.
The Tree of Life was a literal tree with fruit that would grant eternal life. After Adam and Eve sinned by eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they were expelled from Eden to prevent them from also eating the Tree of Life and living forever in their fallen state.
Jawaid’s study suggested that the ‘fiery flashing sword’ could be represented by the volcanic ridges surrounding Lake Tana in the Ethiopian Highlands.
Mahmood Jawaid, a chemical engineer based in Texas , argued that Eden was actually in Bahir Dar, a fertile region in northwestern Ethiopia near the southern end of Lake Tana, where the Blue Nile begins
According to the Bible, the Garden of Eden was a paradise where God placed Adam and Eve, featuring a river that split into four branches: Gihon, Euphrates, Tigris and Pishon
‘Considering that the valley is surrounded by historically active volcanoes, it is very much possible that the active volcanoes formed the flaming sword mentioned in the Bible,’ he shared.
The study drew on both the Bible and the Quran, noting that each describes a garden on Earth, distinct from the eternal Paradise reserved for the righteous, and pointed out that the region’s temperate climate, fertile soil, and abundant water supply mirror the scriptural depiction of a place free from hunger, thirst and oppressive heat.
Jawaid highlighted the works of Virginia Morell, who recently explored the region and found ‘gardens are filled with colorful bougainvillea, towering hibiscus and sweet-scented frangipani bushes.’
The engineer proposed that the Garden of Eden sat on the edge of Lake Tana, which is fed by the Blue Nile
‘The birds are in abundance, ‘songbirds, sugar-stealers, buffalo weavers, rosy finches, flitted from bloom to bloom. Dense stands of papyrus grow along parts of Lake Tana’s shoreline,’ according to Morell.
‘With its languid air and bounty of flowers and birds, Bahir Dar is about as close as one gets to paradise in Ethiopia.
‘The singing of the birds and the breeze scented with jasmine, ginger, and honeysuckle make the environment very uplifting. The fig and mango trees, acacias, and the foreign eucalyptus provide nice shade on the grassy banks of the Blue Nile around the area.’
These details, according to Jawaid, suggested that the region would be the closest place to paradise on Earth.
The engineer also pointed out that the region’s temperate climate, fertile soil, and abundant water supply mirror the scriptural depiction of a place free from hunger, thirst and oppressive heat.
‘Since according to the Quran, Adam and Hawwa [Eve] were protected from the sun and heat, Bahir Dar must have been the ideal place, where they could enjoy different kinds of fruits, hear the bird sing and smell scented breeze,’ reads the study.