LogFAQs > #932287182

The concept of a garden paradise stems from Persian sources - the word "paradise" itself comes from the original Persian word for "walled garden".

The idea being that in the original Persian lands, the terrain was mostly arid and rocky, and that gardens established by rich nobility would stand out as a welcome respite from the harsher reality. This in turn worked itself into the Persian worldview and cosmology via Zoroastrianism, which then influenced Hebrew thinking during the Babylonian Captivity period, when Jews would have mixed with Persians in Babylon (and then later as well, once Cyrus conquered Babylon and Judah/Israel become Persian provinces for a time). Zoroastrianism was a huge influence on early Judaism, with many elements in the early Torah/Old Testament having parallels in the Persian Avesta.

If you're looking for a legitimate Garden of Eden, you'd theoretically be looking in Iran. And you wouldn't find it because gardens don't last for thousands of years without maintenance, magical or otherwise.
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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family