They see a dried-up waterfall on the cliff ahead, evidence of lakes above: they realize that here, on a plateau near the pole, the temperature is low enough for rain, although it will be boiling.
During 1964, Clarke and Stanley Kubrick were working on the story for the film, and it was at first envisaged that the discovery of an extraterrestrial object would be the climax.
"Before Eden" was one of several of Clarke's short stories sold to Kubrick, to provide background material for the exploration of the Solar System before its discovery.
The following year it was one of the stories collected in Clarke's Tales of Ten Worlds, released through Harcourt Brace.
[4] "Before Eden" has also been included in collections and anthologies such as The Starlit Corridor,[5] Yet More Penguin Science Fiction,[6] and The Nine Billion Names of God.
[7] The story has been translated into multiple languages that include German, Italian, French, Russian, Dutch, Serbian and Croatian.