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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.

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虽然如此，人们仍然认为这就是伊甸园曾经所在的地方。他们甚至还指出一棵曾经结过几个苹果的老苹果树，说，“那就是原来的那棵树。”他们认为，《圣经》所说的那场灭世大洪水就发生在这两条河流之间；诺亚就住在那里的某个地方，造好了他的方舟，洪水来了，淹没了两河流域；洪水退后，方舟搁浅在阿勒山山顶上了，这座山高耸在高涨的河水之上。两河流域叫做“美索不达米亚”，“美索”是“在……之间”的意思，而“不达米亚”是“河流”的意思，所以“美索不达米亚”就是“河流之间”的意思。但是现在那里叫“伊拉克”，是你在地图上可以看到的名字。
底格里斯河上游的岸边曾有一座叫“尼尼微”的大城市；而在幼发拉底河下游的岸边，快到两河交汇的地方，也曾有过一座叫“巴比伦”的大城市。我说“曾有过”，是因为这两个城市现在几乎完全消失了，尽管在耶稣出生之前它们都是世界上最大的城市。
你有没有在沙滩上或沙堆上建过一个小镇，有房子，有街道，这时出现了一个大坏蛋，他欺负你，对着你的小镇，又是跺、又是踩、又是踢，把它毁得粉碎？尼尼微和巴比伦看上去就好像有个巨人来了，把两个城市整个踩踏一遍，然后又将它们踢得粉碎，因为在那儿你所看到的这两个城市遗迹不过是一些泥土堆。多年来，人们一直在这些土堆里挖掘，发现了一些深埋在泥土下的东西。这些东西都曾在以前城里人家里、商店里、学校里和宫殿里，这两个城市曾拥有世界上最漂亮的房子和宫殿。巴比伦的城墙和花园曾经是世界七大奇观之一，但是现在却几乎什么也没有留下。