Where was the Garden of Eden located?

On my third time reading the Bible all the way through, I noticed that there is some description of where the Garden of Eden was located. Due to the fact that Adam and Eve were sent away from the Garden of Eden, it's not something we would be able to find if we went looking for it. However, it's certainly interesting to find out generally where it was located.

Let's examine what the Bible has to say about this:

And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made 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 the knowledge of good and evil.

A river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four branches. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
Genesis 2: 8 -14.

The four rivers join at the Garden of Eden. The rivers of the Tigris and Euphrates are known to traverse modern-day Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran and Kuwait. The Gihon river is not known today. The land of Cush is not clearly defined, but is thought to refer to part of the area we know as Ethiopia, parts of Sudan and/or parts of the Arabian peninsula (reference 1). The Pishon river is also not known today, and there is debate as to the location of the land of Havilah (reference 2). Havilah is thought to be located somewhere in the Middle East (reference 2).

The course of rivers are likely to have changed a lot over the many years, as earthquakes, floods and other events have changed the topography of the area. None the less, it seems that the four rivers are likely to have joined somewhere in the Middle East or in Northern Africa. This is because the Tigris and Euphrates are known to be in the Middle East; the land of Cush is in modern-day Africa; the land of Havilah is not known but thought to be in the Middle East. The four rivers must therefore have joined somewhere in one of those areas.

Although we can't pin down the location any more exactly than the Middle East or Northern Africa, it's interesting to think that this region was God's chosen place for his people to start out, that this was the idyllic spot where the The Garden of Eden was located. 

Cited sources:
1. Cush (Bible), from Wikipedia.
2.  Havila, from Wikipedia.

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