Kenneth Maldonado, age 11, of Gallup, N.M., for his question:

WHERE IS THE GARDEN OF EDEN?

The Bible tells us God created a garden for Adam and Eve, the first man and woman on earth. The garden was called Eden, a word that comes from a Sumerian word meaning plain.

In Chapter 2 of Genesis, the garden is described as containing beautiful fruit bearing trees and the tree of life and the tree of knowledge. A river flowed from the garden and divided into four streams. Two of these are supposed to be the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. The other two, called Pison and Gihon in the Bible, have not been identified but may be the Nile River and the Persian Gulf.

The Bible tells how a serpent tempted Eve in the garden of Eden. Both Eve and Adam ate forbidden fruit. As a punishment, both were driven out of the garden and afterward had to earn their living by hard work.