Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Al-Areen Palace & Spa$$$
RESORT
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( 17 845 000;
www.alareenpalace.com
; Al-Areen; s/d from BD335/355; )
When the sun sets in
the descending pools of the resort's inner courtyards, it is obvious why the resort was built
on the country's only elevated ground. The atmosphere is hallowed and apart from the
soft-slippered masseurs padding from the spa to poolside, there's little to interrupt the
sense of exclusive calm.
TOP OF CHAPTER
Tree of Life
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And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom
He had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is
pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden,
and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 2:8-9
survives in the barren desert (plenty of trees and thorn bushes do that) but because it has
survived so long. No one is sure what sustains this knot of thorny branches, but it has pre-
sumably tapped into an underground spring - a miracle that has led some to suggest it is
the last vestige of the Garden of Eden. It won't be a change in the climate, however, that
will signal its downfall, but the all-too-visible change in the kind of visitor it attracts, as
daubs of spray paint all over the venerable old bark forewarn.
When standing under the spreading limbs of this tree that graces a patch of Bahrain's
southern desert, with earth movers scraping the escarpment for cement, and oil and gas
pipelines riddling alongside, it's hard to imagine anywhere less deserving of the name
'Garden of Eden'. And yet, modern scholars point to several ancient sources that suggest
Bahrain may have been the locus of paradise. In the Babylonian creation myth, the Epic of
Gilgamesh, Dilmun (Bahrain's ancient incarnation) is described as the home of Enki (the
god of wisdom), the Sweet Water From Under the Sea, and Ninhursag (goddess of the
Earth). In the Old Testament, it is possible that Hebrew and Sumerian traditions of para-
dise are similarly conflated. On encountering this Tree of Life, however, you may well
urge archaeologists searching for Eden to keep looking!
Follow signs to the tree along the Muaskar Hwy. It is just off the sealed road (take a
right turn by Khuff Gas Well 371 and turn right again along the power lines). There's no
