Garden Of Eden And The Fertile Crescent

What role did tales of the Fertile Crescent play in the writing of the story in Genesis about the Garden of Eden?

This crescent-shaped land area that included a large part of ancient Mesopotamia contains the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the ones mentioned in the Garden of Eden story. It strikes me that this story is likely based in part on legends of this area--to the east, as described. There were likely stories told to the Hebrews and other about an area that must have seemed like paradise when described to desert dwellers.

The question had to have been asked--"If our god loves us and is powerful, why are we stuck in the desert?" If this is true, it's anyone's guess as to when this question was asked in relation to the other myths of Abraham's family religion. But, the answer that was given might have come in the form of the Garden of Eden story. They were in the garden at first, but an ancient ancestral couple blew it for everyone, getting them all banished. But if the garden still existed, as current travelers insisted, why couldn't they go back? Ah, cherubim are guarding the gate. We can't get in, so we shouldn't even try. The remaining contradictions can be sloughed off to fancy tales of lying travelers.

(An aside--there is at least one case of a Native American who was killed by his tribe after returning from a visit to Washington, D.C. because the descriptions  given of the city, its buildings, and its people were thought to be outrageous lies.)

The tale was born, and of course molded over time, as happens for all myths. Maybe the Hebrews' claim of a promised land in Palestine instead of Mesopotamia come from the existence of this story. If their origin was the Tigris and Euphrates region, why else would they not battle their way back there instead of Palestine?