The myth of Enlil and Ninlil discusses when Enlil was a young god, he was banished from Dilmun, home of the gods, to Kur, the underworld for raping a goddess named Ninlil.

After fathering three more underworld-deities ( substitutes for Sin ), Enlil was allowed to return to Dilmun.

It is believed to be the outermost point of the ancient civilization of Dilmun, which was centered in what is present-day Bahrain.

The shallow basin that now underlies the Gulf was an extensive region of river valley and wetlands during the transition between the end of the Last Glacial Maximum and the start of the Holocene, which, according to University of Birmingham archaeologist Jeffrey Rose, served as an environmental refuge for early humans during periodic hyperarid climate oscillations, laying the foundations for the legend of Dilmun

During the end of the fourth millennium BC, the southern part of the Persian Gulf was dominated by the Dilmun civilization.

The Qatar Peninsula was close enough to the Dilmun civilization ( ca.

The earliest mentioning of Dilmun is Mesopotamian sources was in the Early Dynastic III Period, when Ur-Nanshe ( circa 2520 BC ) proclaimed that ;

In his book Greek Religion, Walter Burkert notes the connection with the motif of far-off Dilmun: " Thus Achilles is transported to the White Isle, which may refer to Mount Teide on Tenerife, whose volcano is often snowcapped and as the island was sometimes called the white isle by explorers, and becomes the Ruler of the Black Sea, and Diomedes becomes the divine lord of an Adriatic island ".

Meanwhile, Esarhaddon was waging war in the land of Bazu, situated opposite of the island of " Dilmun " ( Bahrain ), probably Qatar, " where snakes and scorpions cover the ground like ants "-a dry land of salt deserts.

Dilmun was mentioned in two letters dated to the reign of Burnaburiash ( c. 1370 BC ) recovered from Nippur, during the Kassite dynasty of Babylon.

Neo-Babylonian administrative records, dated 567 BC, stated that Dilmun was controlled by the king of Babylon.

Dilmun, sometimes described as " the place where the sun rises " and " the Land of the Living ", is the scene of some versions of the Sumerian creation myth, and the place where the deified Sumerian hero of the flood, Utnapishtim ( Ziusudra ), was taken by the gods to live forever.

The " mouth of the rivers " where Dilmun was said to lie is for her the union of the Tigris and Euphrates at Qurnah.

The mes were originally collected by Enlil and then handed over to the guardianship of Enki who was to broker them out to the various Sumerian centers beginning with his own city of Eridu and continuing with Ur, Meluhha, and Dilmun.

Muharraq's origins are ancient, going back to the time of Dilmun some 5, 000 years ago, but it came to prominence in the historical records during the era of Tylos when Bahrain came under domination of the Selucid Greeks, and Muharraq was the centre of a pagan cult dedicated to the shark god, Awal.

Adapa was a mortal from a godly lineage, a son of Ea ( Enki in Sumerian ), the god of wisdom and of the ancient city of Eridu, who brought the arts of civilization to that city ( from Dilmun, according to some versions ).

Bahrain has been proposed as the possible site of Dilmun, a land mentioned by Mesopotamians as a trade partner, source of raw material, copper, and entrepot of the Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley Civilization trade route.

She also has elements associated with the goddesses of Myceneae, the Minoans of Crete, and certain Kassite goddesses of the metals trade in Tin, Copper and Bronze between Lothal and Dilmun.

Dilmun or Telmun ( Arabic: دلمون ) is a land mentioned by Mesopotamian civilizations as a trade partner, a source of the metal copper, and an entrepôt of the Mesopotamia-to-Indus Valley Civilization trade route.

The " Persian Gulf " types of circular, stamped ( rather than rolled ) seals known from Dilmun, that appear at Lothal in Gujarat, India, and Failaka, as well as in Mesopotamia, are convincing corroboration of the long-distance sea trade.

The importance of this trade is shown by the fact that the weights and measures used at Dilmun were in fact identical to those used by the Indus, and were not those used in Southern Mesopotamia.

Some Meluhhan vessels may have sailed directly to Mesopotamian ports, but by the Isin-Larsa Period, Dilmun monopolized the trade.

* Indus Valley-Mesopotamian trade passing through Dilmun

The Persian-Gulf style of circular stamped rather than rolled seals, also known from Dilmun, that appear at Lothal in Gujarat, India, and Failaka Island ( Kuwait ), as well as in Mesopotamia, are convincing corroboration of the long-distance sea trade.

However, in the early epic " Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta ", the main events, which center on Enmerkar's construction of the ziggurats in Uruk and Eridu, are described as taking place in a world " before Dilmun had yet been settled ".

In the epic Enki and Ninhursag, Enki, as lord of Ab or fresh water ( also the Sumerian word for semen ), is living with his wife in the paradise of Dilmun where

Nevertheless Dilmun had no water and Enki heard the cries of its Goddess, Ninsikil, and orders the sun-God Utu to bring fresh water from the Earth for Dilmun.

Looking for Dilmun.

Thus, despite Dilmun's appearance in ancient texts dating from 3300-2300 BC archaeologists have failed to find a site for Dilmun dating to this period.

However, the exact location of Dilmun is unclear, it might be associated with the islands of Bahrain, Eastern Province, Qatar and nearby Iranian coast in the Persian Gulf.

Although the exact location of Dilmun is unclear, it might be associated with the islands of Bahrain, the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and nearby Iranian coast in the Persian Gulf.

Theresa Howard-Carter ( 1987 ) realizing that these three locations possess no archaeological evidence of a settlement dating 3300-2300 BC, has proposed that Dilmun of this era might be a still unidentified tell near the Shatt al-Arab between modern-day Qurnah and Basra in modern day Iraq.

This characteristic is especially true of the region of Bahrain, whose name in Arabic means " two seas ", and which is thought to be the site of Dilmun, the original site of the Sumerian creation beliefs.

Following the collapse of the Kassite dynasty, Mesopotamian documents make no mention of Dilmun with the exception of Assyrian inscriptions dated to 1250 BC which proclaimed the Assyrian king to be king of Dilmun and Meluhha, as well as Lower Sea and Upper Sea.

The name Tylos is thought to be a Hellenisation of the Semitic, Tilmun ( from Dilmun ).

One inscription states that ships of Dilmun ( Bahrain ) brought him wood as tribute from foreign lands.

Dilmun is usually identified as Bahrain, an island in the Persian Gulf on the east side of the Arabian peninsula.

Despite the scholarly consensus that ancient Dilmun encompasses three modern locations: ( 1 ) the eastern littoral of Arabia from the vicinity of modern Kuwait to Bahrain ; ( 2 ) the island of Bahrain ; ( 3 ) the island of Failaka east of Kuwait, few have taken into account the radically different geography of the basin represented by the Persian Gulf before its reflooding as sea levels rose about 6000 BCE ; the earliest known site is Qal ' at al-Bahrain which is dated no earlier than c. 2200 BC according to Flemming Hojlund.

Dilmun, furthermore, is said to lie " in the east where the sun rises ," a situation that does not apply to the eastern Arabian littoral, Failaka or Bahrain, all of which lie south of Sumer and Eridu.

* Bahrain National Museum's hall of Dilmun

The Ahlamû (= wanderers ) are first mentioned in the el-Amarna letters alluding to the king of Babylon ; the presence of the Ahlamû are also attested in Assyria, Nippur and even at Dilmun ( Bahrain ); Shalmaneser I ( 1274-1245 BC ) defeated the Shattuara, King of Mitanni and his Hittite and Ahlamû mercenaries are mentioned in the Jazirah.

Direct contacts ceased even during the Mature Harappan phase between these two centers and Oman and Bahrain, Magan and Dilmun had become intermediaries.

Some of the earliest records of the use of the foot come from the Persian Gulf bordered by India ( Meluhha ), Pakistan, Balochistan, Oman ( Makkan ), Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain ( Dilmun ), the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia where in Persian architecture it is a sub division of the Great circle of the earth into 360 degrees.