Source: Bibliotecapleyades
Dilmun has probably aroused more curiosity than any other place mentioned in the cuneiform records of Mesopotamia. Many books have been written about this land of mystery, probably second only to that of Atlantis. Unlike Atlantis, however, there are many recorded references to Dilmun which assures us that it was a geographic location somewhere in the Middle East.
Dilmun was a land intimately associated with Sumer and Akkad, and just like Meluhha (Africa) and Magan (Egypt) supplied their cities with many economic necessities either through tribute or by commercial exchange. Dilmun was also a sacred or holy land often called the residence of the gods, a sort of garden of Eden, often referred to as "the land of the living," that is, the land of immortality.
Despite the references to Dilmun in Mesopotamian literature and myths, its location is still in dispute among scholars. We know for sure that Dilmun was not just a literary fiction for it is mentioned in economic texts as early as the 24th Century BC and as late as the First Millennium BC.
Recent theories identify it as the island of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. This was proposed by Geoffrey Bibbey in his study Looking for Dilmun. This identification, however, relies heavily on the inscription of Sargon of Assyria, circa 720 BC, who asserted that among the kings paying him tribute were "Uperi, king of Dilmun, whose abode is situated like a fish in the midst of the sea where the sun rises." Despite the discrepancy on the sunrise, the statement of Sargon has been taken to mean that Dilmun was an island and that the sea was the Persian Gulf.
The difficulty in locating the land of Dilmun is due largely to modern translations of the Sumerian and Akkadian texts where arbitrary interpretations are given to the original texts. A major source of information on this land are the accounts of the travels of Gilgamesh. Two epics are often mentioned in this respect, the famous Gilgamesh Epic which is in twelve cuneiform tablets, and the lesser known but complete poem called Gilgamesh and the Land of the Living.
Dilmun was looked upon by the Sumerians as a blessed paradise that was intimately related to Sumer on a religious or spiritual level. The land of Dilmun is described in the myth Enki and Ninkhursag as a bright, clear, and pure land, called the "land of the living" where there is no illness and death does not exist. Dilmun is thus a land of immortality.
The land is in charge of Enki who orders Utu to bring up fresh water from the ground, thereby turning it into a paradise, a divine garden green with fruit-laden fields and meadows. It is a veritable garden of Eden.
