I went to a lecture today, given by one of my professors from Greece. He spent the last three years in Dubai teaching at the University there, and also on sabbatical. At one point he was speaking about the desert and about the gardens that are in the desert, that are like mirages. He compared the desert to hell.
His lecture got me thinking about whether Heaven and Hell are literal. The Tigris-Euphrates is often referred to as the cradle of civilization, one of the few places where life began on this earth. Some historians believe this area is where the biblical Garden of Eden was located. The area around the Tigris-Euphrates region is desert, current day Iraq.
Gardens in the desert have a paradise quality. I experienced first hand some beautiful gardens located in Alexandria, Egypt, also a desert area. They did seem to come out of nothing, and were miraculous in the fact that they could even grow in such an extreme environment.
This website gives the origin of the word "eden" as meaning luxurious or pleasure: http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Eden.html
Essentially, the Garden of Eden was a place where a person would not suffer. In the desert a person suffers.
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