The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest pieces of literature in the world. Rooted in Sumerian poetry dating back to 2100 BCE, it was later written down, preserved, and adapted by the Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. The work centers on the titular character and his failed quest to achieve immortality. In 1849, the Library of Ashurbanipal (r. 669-631 BCE) was discovered in Nineveh by Austen Henry Layard – an astonding collection of over 30,000 cuneiform tablets. Layard’s assistant, Hormuzd Rassam, unearthed the Epic of Gilgamesh in the 1850s. In the 1870s, it was first translated by the British scholar George Smith. More modern English translations of the Epic include Thompson (1928), Sandars (1960), Ferry (1992), George (1999), Foster (2001), Mitchell (2004), Davis (2014).

Below is a wonderful illustrated map made by “Q Atlas”

Prologue & Book One: The prologue declares that Gilgamesh, the ancient king of Uruk, took a long journey and brought back the story of the flood. Descended from the gods, he gave the city strong walls and built magnificent temples. As a young man, Gilgamesh grows arrogant, so the gods create Enkidu to challenge him. Enkidu is a wild man, living among animals, until he is [lured] to civilization. He then lives with the shepherds and defends the flocks. Gilgamesh begins to have dreams about the coming of Enkidu, and his mother interprets them to mean that the gods are sending a friend. Enkidu travels to the city to confront Gilgamesh’s tyranny. Enkidu loses the fight, but immediately becomes Gilgamesh’s best friend.

Uruk: the city of Uruk was founded around 5000 BCE in the region of Sumer, located in modern-day Iraq. It is considered by many as the birthplace of civilization, as writing was invented here. In his work Search for Paradise Land, Michael Rice writes, “perhaps the most important single contribution which the Sumerians made to the progress of mankind was the invention of sophisticated writing systems. It is difficult, maybe even impossible, to think of any invention which has contributed more to the fulfilment of man’s destiny, nor one which has added more to the enjoyment of the world in which we found himself placed by the whim of the gods.” By 2900 BCE, it boasted a population of 50,000 people. It was during this time that bronze was first smelted, ushering in what historians call the “Bronze Age.” The approximate time period for the supposed reign of Gilgamesh is sometime between 2700 and 2500 BCE.

Book Two and Three: Gilgamesh has a dream, and is sad because it relates that he can never be immortal. Meanwhile, Enkidu is growing tired of city life. The two friends decide to go and fight Humbaba, the giant who protects the sacred cedar forest. They ask for and gain the sun god Shamash’s protection. After a long journey, they lure the giant out of the forest by chopping down one of his trees. They fight, defeat him, and take cedars from the forest. However, by killing Humbaba, they anger the god Enlil. After the defeat of Humbaba, the goddess Ishtar proposes to Gilgamesh. But he rejects and mocks her. When she tells the other gods of his arrogant behavior, they release the Bull of Heaven to punish Gilgamesh. Enkidu and Gilgamesh, however, kill the bull. While they’re celebrating, Ishtar appears and they mock her again. The gods then curse Enkidu with a mysterious illness. After several weeks, he dies, and Gilgamesh and the whole city of Uruk grieve for the great hero.

The Sacred Cedar Forest in Lebanon: according to the website Lebanon Untravelled, “early translators of the Epic assumed that the ‘Cedar Forest’ refers to the Lebanon Cedars.” This wikipedia page states that, “the Cedars of God is a forest in the Kadisha Valley of Bsharre, Lebanon. It is a vestige of the extensive forests of the Lebanon cedar that thrived across Mount Lebanon in antiquity. The earliest documented references of the Cedars of God are found in the Epic of Gilgamesh.”

Book Four: Frightened by Enkidu’s death, Gilgamesh goes on a quest to find the secret of immortality. He passes through the gate of the Scorpion Men and travels through total darkness.

Anti-Lebanon Mountains as Mashu/the gate of the Scorpion Men: in her translation, NK Sandars writes that after Enkidu’s death, “so Gilgamesh travelled over the wilderness, he wandered over the grasslands, a long journey, in search of… everlasting life… so at length Gilgamesh came to Mashu, the great mountains about which he had heard many things, which guard the rising and the setting sun. Its twin peaks are as high as the wall of heaven and its paps reach down to the underworld. At its gate the Scorpions stand guard.” In the glossary of names, Sandars states, “The word [Mashu] means ‘twins’ in the Akkadian language. A mountain with twin peaks into which the sun descends at nightfall and from which it returns at dawn. Sometimes thought of as Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon.” The Anti-Lebanon Mountains are a long mountain range that forms most of the border between Syria and Lebanon.

NK Sandars continues, “Gilgamesh… did as the Man-Scorpion had said, he followed the sun’s road to his rising, through the mountain. When he had gone one league the darkness became thick around him… When he had gone seven leagues the darkness was thick and there was no light, he could see nothing ahead and nothing behind him. When he had gone eight leagues Gilgamesh gave a great cry, for the darkness was thick and he could see nothing ahead and nothing behind him. After nine leagues he felt the north wind on his face, but the darkness was thick and there was no light, he could see nothing ahead and nothing behind him. After ten leagues the end was near. After eleven leagues the dawn light appeared. At the end of twelve leagues the sun streamed out.”

Book Four continued: He emerges in the land of the gods, where Shamash warns him not to cross the sea. Gilgamesh refuses to turn back. At the seaside, he meets Siduri… who tells him to live in the present and to stop seeking immortality. But Gilgamesh goes on. He finds the ferryman Urshbabi, and begins his journey across the sea to the home of Utnapishtim.

Failaka Island as the Garden of the Gods: NK Sandars continues, “there was the garden of the gods; all round him stood bushes bearing gems. Seeing it he went down at once, for there was fruit of carnelian with the vine hanging from it, beautiful to look at; lapis lazuli leaves hung thick with fruit, sweet to see. For thorns and thistles there were haematite and rare stones, agate, and pearls from out of the sea. While Gilgamesh walked in the garden by the edge of the sea… Beside the sea she lives, the woman of the vine; Siduri sits in the garden at the edge of the sea, with the golden bowl and the golden vats that the gods gave her. She is covered with a veil.” In his lecture series The Bible and Western Culture, Michael Sugrue calls her a kind of “cosmic barmaid.” In his work The Archaeology of the Arabian Gulf, the British scholar Michael Rice calls her the, “tutelary goddess of the Gulf.”

Šiduri encourages Gilgamesh to abandon his quest, accept his mortality, and enjoy the simple pleasures afforded to us in life. Sandars translates her speech as, “Gilgamesh, where are you hurrying to? You will never find the life for which you are looking. When the gods created man they allotted to him death, but life they retained in their own keeping. As for you, Gilgamesh, fill your belly with good things; day and night, night and day, dance and be merry, feast and rejoice. Let your clothes be fresh, bathe yourself in water, cherish the little child that holds your hand, and make your wife happy in your embrace; for this too is the lot of man.” Nevertheless, Gilgamesh pushes on. He says to Šiduri, “‘How can I be silent, how can I rest, when Enkidu whom I love is dust, and I too shall die and be laid in the earth. You live by the sea-shore and look into the heart of it; young woman, tell me now, which is the way to Utnapishtim?” Šiduri directs him to the ferryman Urshanabi

In his work The Archaeology of the Arabian Gulf, Michael Rice writes that, “the garden of which Siduri was the mistress was said to bear trees laden with jewels. It has been suggested that this is a reference to the frequently intense phosphorescence of the Gulf’s water, caused by the coral in the shallows… it seems most probable that Failaka was Siduri’s island… if this were so it would account for the sanctuary on the island and for its reputation as a place sacred to the goddess, under whatever name—a reputation so long enjoyed.” I have written quite a bit about Failaka, which you can see on these posts.

Book Five: Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh the story of the flood and how he himself gained immortality. The god Ea warned him that Enlil was sending a flood to wipe out humanity, and instructs Utnapishtim how to build a boat to survive the flood. Utnapishtim takes his family, servants, and animals on the boat. The storm begins, the gods of the dead rise from the abyss, and most human life is wiped out as the other gods mourn. After Utnapishtim and his wife survive the flood, Enil makes them immortal and makes them the guardians of the rivers. Utnapishtim explains that to become immortal, Gilgamesh must make the gods feel sorry for him. However, Gilgamesh fails the challenge to accomplish this. Utnapishtim then banishes Gilgamesh from the land of the gods, and similarly banishes Urshanabi for bringing a mortal across the sea. Utnapishtim’s wife feels sorry for Gilgamesh, and helps Gilgamesh learn how to find a plant that grants eternal youth. Gilgamesh finds the plant, but later a serpent steals it. Urshanabi and Gilgamesh return to Uruk, where Gilgamesh describes the glories of his city. After his death, Gilgamesh is remembered for building the city’s walls and temple, and for bringing back the story of the flood.

Bahrain as Dilmun/the Garden of the Sun: Together, Urshanabi and Gilgamesh sail through the waters of death to reach the king Utanapishtim, who survived a great flood and was made immortal. In Sandar’s translation she writes, “so Urshanabi the ferryman brought Gilgamesh to Utnapishtim, whom they call the Faraway, who lives in Dilmun at the place of the sun’s transit, eastward of the mountain. To him alone of men the gods had given everlasting life... they set him to live in the land of Dilmun, in the garden of the sun.” According to Rice, this showcases the, “mystical nature [of Dilmun] enjoyed in the minds of the people of Sumer… in addition to its sacred and mercantile characters, Dilmun was conceived as an island of the dead, and so perhaps was the prototype of that strange and evocative concept of the mortuary isle which looms, shrouded in mist and lapped by the waters of death, in so many later mythologies.” Utanapishtim tells Gilgamesh that the gods sent a flood to destroy mankind, but that the water-god Enki warned him to build an ark, helping him to survive the flood. Enki then granted him immortality in the paradisaical land of Dilmun. The king tells Gilgamesh about another way to gain eternal life: the flower of immortality, which grows beneath the waves. Gilgamesh ties heavy stones to his feet, dives into the sea and retrieves it, but a snake later eats the plant. Michael Rice suggests this occurred at Khor Fasht in Bahrain.

Sumerian poetry described Dilmun as pure, virginal, and pristine, having an abundance of flourishing trees and wild animals that behave well, being free from disease, being clear and bright. It is for these reasons that Dilmun is often associated with the Garden of Eden. The Sumerians called Dilmun “the place where the sun rises” and “the land of the living.” Sumerian literature that mentions Dilmun includes Enki and Ninhursag, Enki and the World Order, The Deluge, Gilgamesh and the Land of the Living, and Nanna-Suen’s journey to Nibru.

But as Paul Lewis explains in his 1984 New York Times article Eden on the Isle of Bahrain, for millennia, “the name of Dilmun had vanished from the collective memory of mankind.” Geoffrey Bibby writes, “that Babylon and Nineveh and hundred-gated Thebes had been capitals of mighty empires long before the time of the Greeks and Romans was information that had never been lost… that Crete had been a power in the Mediterranean before the rise of mainland Greece stood clearly written in the epics of Homer… that the Hittites and Sumerians had once been great powers was indeed completely lost to history – but the names at least survived… in the early books of the Bible. But neither in classical history nor in biblical recollection nor in epic poetry nor in legend was any mention preserved of the land of Dilmun. For twenty-four hundred years no man ever heard the name of Dilmun, no extant book or paper or inscription bore mention of Dilmun.” This changed with the translation of cuneiform beginning in the 19th century. In the 1920s, during his excavations at Ur, Leonardy Woolley discovered circular stamp-seals, noticeably different from the cylinder seals in Mesopotamia. His finds include #118704, which is located in the British Museum today. It depicts a man grasping a leaping backwards looking gazelle. Around this same time, Ernest Mackay excavated tumuli in Bahrain. In 1928, the Jesuit scholar Fr E. Burrows published Tilmun, Bahrain, Paradise, in which he identified Bahrain as the ancient Dilmun. During the Second World War, Peter Bruce Cornwall excavated burial-mounds on the island and wrote a thesis, but it was never published. From 1953 until 1959, a team of Danish archaeologists headed by P.V Glob and Geoffrey Bibby conducted excavations on Bahrain. After years of speculation, they identified the island as the lost land of Dilmun. Bibby writes, “I have a feeling that people do not ‘discover lost civilizations’ but rather that, when the time is ripe, lost civilizations reveal themselves, using for the purpose whatever resources and people are to hand. This has, at least, been the case with Dilmun, which has gradually, over the last hundred years, swum back into the surface waters of world history, after being completely submerged for twenty-four hundred years.”