“The Father of History” Herodotus was stingy and strict in choosing the wonders of the world: the Tower of Babel, the bridge over the Euphrates River, the labyrinth in the Fayum oasis. That's all.
The Tower of Babel is a sky-high pillar, which, according to biblical legend, began to be built by Ham’s grandson Nimrod and other descendants of Noah so that there would be a place to hide in the event of a new global flood. Another motive was the exorbitant pride of people, their desire to “become equal to the gods.” In a figurative sense, it is a grandiose undertaking that ended in failure due to external circumstances or miscalculations of the authors.
The Tower of Babel is one of the most outstanding structures of Ancient Babylon, and its name is still a symbol of confusion and disorder. During excavations in Babylon, the German scientist Robert Koldewey managed to discover the foundation and ruins of a tower. The tower mentioned in the Bible was probably destroyed before the time of Hammurabi. To replace it, another was built, which was erected in memory of the first. According to Koldewey, it had a square base, each side of which was 90 meters. The height of the tower was also 90 meters, the first tier had a height of 33 meters, the second - 18, the third and fifth - 6 meters each, the seventh - the sanctuary of the god Marduk - was 15 meters high.
According to the ancient biblical legend, more than four thousand years ago all people lived in Mesopotamia, that is, in the basin of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and everyone spoke the same language. Since the land of these places was very fertile, people lived richly. This made them very proud and decided to build a tower up to the sky. To build a monumental structure, people did not use stone, but unfired raw brick; bitumen (mountain tar) was used instead of lime to join the bricks. The tower grew and grew in height. Finally God became angry with the foolish and vain people and punished them: he forced the builders to speak different languages. As a result, the stupid, proud people stopped understanding each other and, abandoning their guns, stopped building the tower, and then dispersed into different sides Earth. So the tower turned out to be unfinished, and the city where construction took place and all languages were mixed was called Babylon.
However, historians and archaeologists have proven that biblical legend fully consistent with authentic historical events. It turned out that the Tower of Babel, or the ziggurat of Etemenanki (“House of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth”), was indeed built in the 2nd millennium BC, but then was repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt. The last construction took place in the 7th-6th centuries BC. The ziggurat) with high stairs and ramps had a square base with sides of about 90 m and the same height. By today's standards, the structure reached the height of a 30-story skyscraper.
The Tower of Babel was a stepped eight-tiered pyramid, lined with baked bricks on the outside. Moreover, each tier had a strictly defined color. At the top of the ziggurat there was a sanctuary lined with blue tiles and decorated at the corners with golden horns (a symbol of fertility). It was considered the habitat of the god Marduk, the patron saint of the city. In addition, inside the sanctuary there were a gilded table and bed of Marduk. Stairs led to the tiers; Religious processions ascended along them.
In Mesopotamia there was a special type of temple, completely different from the Egyptian one. So, if the pyramids were essentially tombs, then the ziggurats had solid masonry without interior spaces. At the top there was a pavilion, which, according to the beliefs of that time, represented the dwelling of the deity. The main part of the ziggurat terraces had a flat roof along the vaults. Since there was no stone suitable for construction in the main areas of Mesopotamia, and there was little wood, this kind of construction seemed the only possible one.
It should be noted that the upper platforms of the ziggurats were used not only for cultic purposes, but also for practical purposes: for the guard soldiers to view the surrounding area. In general, the defensive function permeated the entire architecture of Mesopotamia.
Currently, only the foundation and the lower part of the wall remain from the legendary Tower of Babel. But thanks to cuneiform tablets, there is a description of the famous ziggurat and even its image.
The tower stood on the left bank of the Euphrates on the Sakhn plain, which literally translates as “frying pan.” It was surrounded by the houses of priests, temple buildings and houses for pilgrims who flocked here from all over Babylonia. The topmost tier of the tower was lined with blue tiles and covered with gold. A description of the Tower of Babel was left by Herodotus, who thoroughly examined it and, perhaps, even visited its top. This is the only documented account of an eyewitness from Europe.
A building has been erected in the middle of every part of the city. In one part is the royal palace, surrounded by a huge and strong wall; in the other there is the sanctuary of Zeus-Bel with copper gates that have survived to this day. The temple sacred area is quadrangular, each side two stages long. In the middle of this temple sacred site was erected a huge tower, one stade long and wide. On this tower stands a second one, and on it another tower; in general, eight towers - one on top of the other. An external staircase leads up around all these towers. In the middle of the stairs there are benches - probably for rest. A large temple was erected on the last tower. In this temple there is a large, luxuriously decorated bed and next to it a golden table. However, there is no image of a deity there. And not a single person spends the night here, with the exception of one woman, whom, according to the Chaldeans, the priests of this god, God chooses from all the local women.
There is another sanctuary in the sacred temple site in Babylon below, where there is a huge golden statue of Zeus. Nearby there is a large golden table, a footstool and a throne - also golden. According to the Chaldeans, 800 talents of gold went into making all these things. A golden altar was erected in front of this temple. There is another huge altar there - adult animals are sacrificed on it; On the golden altar, only sucklings can be sacrificed. On a large altar, the Chaldeans burn 1,000 talents of incense each year at a festival in honor of this god. There was also in the sacred area at the time in question a golden statue of the god, entirely made of gold, 12 cubits in height.
According to Herodotus, the Tower of Babel had eight tiers, the width of the lowest was 180 meters. According to Koldewey’s descriptions, the tower was one tier lower, and the lower tier was 90 meters wide, that is, half as much. It is difficult not to believe Koldewey, a learned and conscientious man, but perhaps in the time of Herodotus the tower stood on some terrace, albeit a low one, which over the millennia was razed to the ground, and during excavations Koldewey did not find any trace of it. Every great Babylonian city had its own ziggurat, but none of them could compare with Tower of Babel th, which towered over the entire area like a colossal pyramid. It took 85 million bricks to build, and entire generations of rulers built the Tower of Babel. The Babylonian ziggurat was destroyed several times, but each time it was restored and decorated anew. The ziggurat was a shrine that belonged to the entire people, it was a place where thousands of people flocked to worship the supreme deity Marduk.
Tower of Babel- a legendary structure of antiquity, which was supposed to glorify its builders for centuries and challenge God. However, the daring plan ended in disgrace: having ceased to understand each other, people were unable to complete what they started. The tower was not completed and collapsed over time.
Construction of the Tower of Babel. Story
The history of the tower is based on spiritual roots and reflects the state of society at a certain historical stage. Some time passed after the Flood and Noah's descendants became quite numerous. They were one people and spoke the same language. From the texts of the Holy Scriptures we can conclude that not all of Noah’s sons were like their father. The Bible briefly speaks of Ham's disrespect for his father and indirectly refers to the grave sin committed by Canaan (Ham's son). These circumstances alone show that some people did not learn lessons from the global catastrophe that occurred, but continued on the path of resistance to God. Thus the idea of a tower to heaven was born. The authoritative historian of antiquity Josephus Flavius reports that the idea of construction belonged to Nimrod, a strong and cruel ruler of that time. According to Nimrod, the construction of the Tower of Babel was supposed to show the power of united humanity and at the same time become a challenge to God.
This is what the Bible says about it. People came from the east and settled in the valley of Shinar (Mesopotamia: basin of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers). One day they said to each other: “... let's make bricks and burn them with fire. … let us build ourselves a city and a tower, its height reaching to heaven, and let us make a name for ourselves, before we are scattered over the face of all the earth” (Gen. 11:3,4). Many bricks were made from baked clay and construction began on the infamous tower, later called the Tower of Babel. One tradition claims that the construction of the city began first, while the other tells of the construction of a tower.
Construction began, and, according to some legends, the tower was built to a considerable height. However, these plans were not destined to come true. When the Lord came down to earth to “see the city and the tower,” He saw with regret that the true meaning of this undertaking was arrogance and a daring challenge to Heaven. In order to save people and prevent the spread of evil on such a scale as happened in the time of Noah, the Lord violated the unity of people: the builders stopped understanding each other, speaking in different languages. The city and the tower turned out to be unfinished, and the descendants of the sons of Noah dispersed to different lands, forming the peoples of the Earth. The descendants of Japheth went north and settled Europe, the descendants of Shem settled in southwest Asia, the descendants of Ham went south and settled in southern Asia, as well as in Africa. The descendants of Canaan (Son of Ham) settled Palestine, which is why it was later called the land of Canaan. The unfinished city received the name Babylon, which means “confusion”: “for there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them throughout all the earth.”
The Bible notes that the Tower of Babel was supposed to fulfill the insane task of the builders who decided to “make a name for themselves,” that is, to perpetuate themselves, to rally around a certain center. The idea to build a tower of unprecedented size “to the skies” spoke of a daring challenge to God, an unwillingness to live in accordance with His will. Finally, its creators hoped to take refuge in the tower in the event of a repeat of the Flood. Josephus Flavius described the motives for creating the tower: “Nimrod called the people to disobey the Creator. He advised building a tower higher than the water could rise if the Creator sent a flood again - and thereby take revenge on the Creator for the death of their ancestors. The crowd agreed, and they began to consider obedience to the Creator shameful slavery. They began to build the tower with great desire.”
The tower being erected was not an ordinary structure. At its core, it carried a hidden mystical meaning, behind which the personality of Satan was visible - a gloomy powerful creature who one day decided to lay claim to God’s throne and started a rebellion in Heaven among the angels. However, having been defeated by God, he and his overthrown supporters continued their activities on earth, tempting every person and wanting to destroy him. Invisibly behind King Nimrod was the same fallen cherub; the tower was for him another means of enslavement and destruction of humanity. That is why the Creator’s answer was so categorical and immediate. Construction of the Tower of Babel was stopped, and it itself was then destroyed to the ground.Since that time, this building began to be considered a symbol of pride, and its construction (pandemonium) - a symbol of crowds, destruction and chaos.
Where is the Tower of Babel located? Ziggurats
The historical authenticity of the Biblical story about the tower to heaven is now beyond doubt. It has been established that in many cities of that time on the coasts of the Tigris and Euphrates, majestic ziggurat towers were built, intended for the worship of deities. Such ziggurats consisted of several stepped tiers, tapering upward. On the flat top there was a sanctuary dedicated to one of the deities. A stone staircase led upstairs, along which a procession of priests ascended during services to music and chants. The grandest ziggurats ever discovered was found in Babylon. Archaeologists excavated the foundation of the structure and the lower part of its walls. Many scientists believe that this ziggurat is the Tower of Babel described in the Bible. In addition, descriptions of this tower on cuneiform tablets (including the name - Etemenanki), as well as its drawing, have been preserved. It was found that it was recovering from destruction. The found tower, according to available data, included seven to eight tiers, and the height estimated by archaeologists was ninety meters. However, there is an opinion that this tower is a later version, and the original had incomparably larger dimensions. Talmudic traditions say that height of the Tower of Babel reached such a level that a brick falling from above flew down whole year. Of course, this should hardly be taken literally, but we may be talking about values an order of magnitude greater than scientists assume. Indeed, the found tower was obviously a fully completed structure, while the structure described in the Bible, according to legend, was never completed.
Babylonian myth of the Tower of Babel
The tradition that the Bible conveys to us is not the only one. A similar theme is present in the legends of peoples living in different ends Earth. And although the legends about the Tower of Babel are not as numerous as, for example, about the Flood, there are still quite a lot of them and they are the same in meaning.
Thus, the legend of the pyramid in the city of Choluy (Mexico) tells about ancient giants who decided to build a tower to heaven, but it was destroyed by celestials. The legend of the Mikirs, one of the Tibetan-Burman tribes, also tells of giant heroes who planned to build a tower to heaven, but whose plan was stopped by the gods.
Finally, in Babylon itself there was a myth about the “great tower”, which was “the likeness of heaven.” According to the myth, its builders were the underground gods of the Anunnaki, who erected it for the purpose of glorifying Marduk, the Babylonian deity.
The construction of the Tower of Babel is described in the Koran. Interesting details are contained in the Book of Jubilees and the Talmud, according to which the unfinished tower was destroyed by a hurricane, and the part of the tower remaining after the hurricane fell into the ground as a result of an earthquake.
It is significant that all attempts by the Babylonian rulers to recreate even smaller versions of the tower failed. Due to various circumstances, these buildings were destroyed.
Country Sinaar
A very interesting story is about the Tower of Babel, set out in the Book of Jubilees - an apocryphal book that mainly sets out the events of the book of Genesis in the countdown of “jubilees”. Jubilee means 49 years - seven weeks. A special feature of this book is the exact chronology of events in relation to the date of the creation of the world. In particular, here we learn that the tower took 43 years to build and was located between Assur and Babylon. This land was called the country of Sinaar... read
The Mystery of Babylon
At the moment when the builders of the Tower of Babel began work, the spirit of self-destruction of mankind invisibly came into action. Further, the Bible speaks of the mystery of Babylon, with which the highest measure of wickedness is associated. When the builders of the tower were stopped by the division of languages, the mystery of Babylon was suspended, but only until a time known only to God... read
The European Union is an empire restored
Despite the passing of millennia, the spirit of Babylon in humanity has not faded away. At the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries, Europe united under the banner of a single parliament and government. In essence, this meant the restoration of the ancient Roman Empire with all the ensuing consequences. After all, this event was the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy relating to the end of times. Surprisingly, the European Parliament building turned out to be built according to a special design - in the form of an unfinished “tower to the sky.” It's not hard to guess what this symbol means... read
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In which country was the Tower of Babel located? Does it exist now and where are its remains? Let's figure it out together with EG.
The name of the city of Babylon is mentioned in the holy books - the Bible and the Koran. For a long time it was believed that in fact it did not exist at all, and the metaphors about the tower and pandemonium, which are still familiar today, came from legends.
For several centuries, the inhabitants of Iraq did not even suspect that the hills on the outskirts of the modern city of Al-Hilla, a hundred kilometers from Baghdad, hide the ruins of the world's first metropolis and that same Tower of Babel. But in the 19th century there was a man who revealed to the world the secret of the ancient ruins. It was an archaeologist from Germany Robert Koldewey.
Like a phoenix
Reference: Babylon (translated as “gate of the gods”) was founded no later than the third millennium BC, and was located in the south of Ancient Mesopotamia (between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers), in the Akkadian region. The Sumerians, one of the oldest peoples who settled here, called it Kadingirra. The city changed hands more than once during the invasions of numerous conquerors.B - 1st millennium BC e. it became the main city of the Babylonian kingdom created by the Amorites, where the descendants of the Sumerians and Akkadians lived.
Tsar Hammurabi(1793 -1750 BC) from the Amorite dynasty, having conquered all the significant cities of Mesopotamia, united most Mesopotamia and created a state with its capital in Babylon. Hammurabi is the author of, in fact, the first legislative code in history. The laws of Hammurabi, written in cuneiform on clay tablets, have survived to this day.
Under Hammurabi, Babylon began to grow rapidly. Many defensive structures, palaces, and temples were built here. The Babylonians had many gods, and therefore temples were erected in honor of the goddess of healing Ninisina, the moon god Nanna, the thunder god Adad, the goddess of love, fertility and power Ishtar and other Sumerian-Akkadian deities. But the main thing was Esagil - a temple dedicated to the patron god of the city, Marduk.
However, the gods did not save Babylonia from the invasions of invaders. At the end of the 17th century BC. e. The Babylonian kingdom was conquered by the Hittites at the beginning of the 16th century BC. e. it passed to the Kassites, in the 13th century the Assyrians began to rule it, in the 7th-6th centuries - the Chaldeans, and in the 4th century BC. e. the city of Babylon became the capital of the state Alexander the Great. The conquerors did not spare the city and therefore Babylon was destroyed more than once, only to eventually, like the Phoenix bird, be reborn from the ashes.
City of Wonders
It is believed that Babylon reached its greatest prosperity under the Chaldean king Nebuchadnezzar II, who reigned between 605 and 562 BC. He was the eldest son Nabopalassara, founder of the Neo-Babylonian dynasty.
From an early age, Nebuchadnezzar (“the first-born, dedicated to the god Nabu”) showed himself to be an excellent warrior. His army conquered several small states in the territory of the modern Middle East, and everything that was valuable there was taken to Babylonia. Including free labor, which turned the desert into an oasis with numerous canals.
Nebuchadnezzar pacified the rebellious Jews, who continually rebelled against Babylonia. In 587, the Babylonian king destroyed Jerusalem and its main temple Solomon, took the sacred vessels from the temple and resettled the Jews under his supervision.
The “Babylonian captivity” of the Jews lasted 70 years - that was how long they had to realize their mistakes, repent of their sins before God and again turn to the faith of their ancestors. They were allowed to return home when the Persian king Cyrus conquered Babylonia.
Oddly enough, in his memoirs Nebuchadnezzar noted that most of all he was proud of the rebuilt cities and the roads that ran through them. Many would envy Babylon modern cities. It became the largest metropolis Ancient world: it had a million inhabitants.
International trade was concentrated here, science and the arts flourished. Its fortifications were impregnable: the city was surrounded on all sides by walls up to 30 meters thick with towers, high ramparts, and water tanks.
The beauty of Babylon was amazing. The streets were paved with tiles and bricks cut from rare rocks, the houses of the nobility are decorated with huge bas-reliefs, and the walls of numerous temples and palaces are decorated with images of mythical animals. To connect the Eastern and Western districts of the city, Nebuchadnezzar decided to build a bridge across the Euphrates River. This bridge, 115 meters long and 6 meters wide, with a removable part for the passage of ships, is an engineering marvel of the time.
While paying tribute to the city, the king did not forget about his needs. He reports ancient source, tried a lot to “build a palace for my Majesty’s dwelling in Babylon.”
The palace had a throne room, magnificently decorated with images of columns and palm leaves made in colored enamel. The palace was so beautiful that it was nicknamed “The Miracle of Humanity.”
In the north of Babylon, on specially created stone elevations that looked like mountains, Nebuchadnezzar built a palace for his wife Amanis. She was from Media and missed her usual places. And then the king ordered to decorate the palace with lush vegetation so that it would resemble the green oases of Media.
They brought fertile soil and planted plants collected from all over the world. Water for irrigation was raised to the upper terraces with special pumps. The green waves descending in ledges looked like a giant stepped pyramid.
Babylonian "Hanging Gardens", which laid the foundation for the legend of " hanging gardens Semiramis" (the legendary Asian conqueror and queen of Babylon, who lived in a different period), became the seventh wonder of the world.
Belshazzar's feasts
Nebuchadnezzar II ruled Babylonia for more than 40 years, and it seemed that nothing could stop the city from flourishing further. But the Jewish prophets predicted his fall 200 years ago. This happened during the reign of the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar II (according to other sources - his son) Belshazzar.
As the biblical legend testifies, at this time the troops of the Persian king Cyrus approached the walls of Babylon. However, the Babylonians, confident in the strength of the walls and defensive structures, were not very worried about this. The city lived luxuriously and cheerfully. The Jews generally considered it an immoral city where debauchery reigned. King Belshazzar gathered at least a thousand people for the next feast and ordered wine to be served to the guests in sacred vessels from the Jerusalem Temple, which had previously been used only for serving God. The nobles drank from these vessels and mocked the God of the Jews.
And suddenly a human hand appeared in the air and inscribed on the wall incomprehensible words in Aramaic: “Mene, mene, take, upharsin.” The amazed king called the prophet Daniel, who, while still a young man, was captured in Babylonia, and asked to translate the inscription. It read: “Numbered, numbered, weighed, divided,” Daniel explained that this was God’s message to Belshazzar, which predicted the imminent destruction of the king and his kingdom. Nobody believed the prediction. But it came true that same October night in 539 BC. e.
Cyrus took the city by cunning: he ordered the waters of the Euphrates River to be diverted into a special canal and entered Babylon along the drained channel. Belshazzar was killed by Persian soldiers, Babylon fell, its walls were destroyed. Later it was conquered by Arab tribes. The glory of the great city sank into oblivion, it itself turned into ruins, and the “gates of the gods” were forever closed to humanity.
Was there a tower?
Many Europeans who visited Babylon searched for traces of the tower described in the biblical legend.
Chapter 11 of the book of Genesis contains a legend about what the descendants of Noah, who escaped the Great Flood, planned to do. They spoke the same language and, moving from the east, came to a plain in the land of Shinar (in the lower reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates), where they settled. And then they decided: let’s make bricks and build “for ourselves a city and a tower, its height reaching to heaven, and we will make a name for ourselves before we are scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
The tower kept growing, rising into the clouds. God, who observed this construction, remarked: “Behold, there is one people, and they all have one language; and this is what they began to do, and they will not deviate from what they have planned to do.”
He did not like that people imagined themselves to be higher than the sky, and he decided to mix their language so that they would no longer understand each other. And so it happened.
Construction stopped because everyone began to speak different languages, people were scattered throughout the entire earth, and the city where the Lord “confused the language of the whole earth” was given the name Babylon, which means “confusion.” Thus, the original “Babylonian PILLAR-CREATION” is the creation tall building, and not a bunch of little things and confusion.
The story of the Tower of Babel would probably have remained a legend if traces of the colossal structure had not been discovered during the excavations of Babylon. These were the ruins of a temple.
In Ancient Mesopotamia, temples were built that were completely different from the usual European ones - tall towers called ziggurats. Their peaks served as sites for religious ceremonies and astronomical observations.
Among them, the Babylonian ziggurat Etemenanki stood out, which meant “House where heaven meets earth.” Its height is 91 meters, it had eight tiers, seven of which went in a spiral. The total height was about 100 meters.
It was estimated that at least 85 million bricks were needed to build the tower. On the upper platform stood a two-story temple, with a monumental staircase leading to it.
At the top there was a sanctuary dedicated to the god Marduk, and a golden bed intended for him, as well as gilded horns. At the foot of the Tower of Babel, in the Lower Temple, stood a statue of Marduk made of pure gold, its age was 2.5 tons.
It is believed that the temple existed during the reign of Hammurabi; it was destroyed and rebuilt more than once. The last time was under Nebuchadnezzar. In 331 BC. e. By order of Alexander the Great, the tower was dismantled and was going to be reconstructed, but the death of Alexander the Great prevented the implementation of this plan. Only majestic ruins and biblical legends remain as a memory for humanity.
THE TOWER OF BABYLON is the most important episode from the story about ancient humanity in the book of Genesis (11.1-9).
According to the biblical account, Noah's descendants spoke the same language and settled in the Valley of Shinar. Here they began the construction of a city and a tower, “with its height reaching to heaven, let us make a name for ourselves,” they said, “before [in MT “lest”] we be scattered over the face of the whole earth” (Gen. 11.4). However, the construction was stopped by the Lord, who “confused the languages.” People, having ceased to understand each other, stopped construction and scattered throughout the earth (Gen. 11.8). The city was named "Babylon". Thus, the story about the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11.9) is based on the consonance of the Hebrew name “Babylon” and the verb “to mix.” According to legend, the construction of the Tower of Babel was led by Ham’s descendant Nimrod (Ios. Flav. Antiq. I 4.2; Epiph. Adv. haer. I 1.6).
The biblical story of the Tower of Babel provides a symbolic explanation of the reason for the emergence of the diversity of the world's languages, which can also be correlated with the modern understanding of the development of human languages. Research in the field of historical linguistics allows us to draw a conclusion about the existence of a single proto-language, conventionally called “Nostratic”; Indo-European (Japhetic), Hamito-Semitic, Altai, Uralic, Dravidian, Kartvelian and other languages were isolated from it. The followers of this theory were such scientists as V.M. Illich-Svitych, I.M. Dyakonov, V.N. Toporov and V.V. Ivanov. In addition, the story of the Tower of Babel is an important indication of the biblical understanding of man and the historical process and, in particular, of the secondary nature of the division into races and peoples for the human essence. Subsequently, this idea, expressed in a different form by the Apostle Paul, became one of the foundations of Christian anthropology (Col 3:11).
In the Christian tradition, the Tower of Babel is a symbol, firstly, of the pride of people who consider it possible to reach heaven on their own and have as their main goal “to make a name for themselves”, and, secondly, the inevitability of punishment for this and the futility of the human mind, not sanctified By divine grace. In the gift of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, scattered humanity receives the once lost ability of full mutual understanding. The antithesis of the Tower of Babel is the miracle of the founding of the Church, which unites nations through the Holy Spirit (Acts 2.4-6). The Tower of Babel is also a prototype of modern technocracy.
The image of the “city and tower” in the book of Genesis reflected a whole complex of mythological universals, for example, the idea of the “center of the world”, which was supposed to be a city built by people. The historically attested temples of Mesopotamia did fulfill this mythological function (Oppenheim, p. 135). In the Holy Scriptures, the construction of the Tower of Babel is described from the perspective of Divine Revelation, in the light of which it is, first of all, an expression of human pride.
Another aspect of the story of the Tower of Babel is that it points to the prospects for the progress of human civilization, and at the same time, the biblical narrative contains a negative attitude towards the urbanism of the Mesopotamian civilization (Nelis J. T. Col. 1864).
The image of the Tower of Babel undoubtedly shows parallels with the Mesopotamian tradition of temple building. The temples of Mesopotamia (ziggurats) were stepped structures of several terraces located one above the other (their number could reach 7); on the upper terrace there was a sanctuary of the deity (Parrot. R. 43). The Holy Scripture accurately conveys the realities of Mesopotamian temple construction, where, unlike most other states of the Ancient Near East, sun-dried or baked brick and resin were used as the main material (cf. Gen. 11.3).
During the active archaeological study of Ancient Mesopotamia, many attempts were made to find the so-called “prototype” of the Tower of Babel in one of the excavated ziggurats; the most reasonable assumption can be considered the Babylonian temple of Marduk (Jacobsen. P. 334), which had the Sumerian name “e-temen” -an-ki" - temple of the cornerstone of heaven and earth.
They tried to find the remains of the Tower of Babel already in the 12th century. Until the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries, 2 ziggurats were identified with it, in Borsippa and Akar-Kufa, on the site of ancient cities located at a considerable distance from Babylon (in the description of Herodotus the city had such big sizes, which could include both points). The Tower of Babel was identified with the ziggurat in Borsippa by Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, who visited Babylonia twice (between 1160-1173), the German explorer K. Niebuhr (1774), the English artist R. Kerr Porter (1818) and others. In Akar-Kuf, the Tower of Babel was seen by the German L. Rauwolf (1573-1576), the merchant J. Eldred, who described the ruins of the “tower” at the end of the 16th century. Italian traveler Pietro della Valle, who compiled the first detailed description site of Babylon (1616), considered the Tower of Babel to be the northernmost of its hills, which retained the ancient name “Babil”. Attempts to find the Tower of Babel in one of the 3 tells - Babila, Borsippa and Akar Kufa - continued until the end of the 19th century.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the borders of Ancient Babylon were revealed and neighboring cities were no longer perceived as its parts. After the excavations of K. J. Rich and H. Rassam in Borsippa (the site of Birs-Nimrud, 17 km southwest of Babylon, II-I millennium BC), it became clear that in connection with the Tower of Babel we cannot talk about her ziggurat, which was part of the temple of the goddess Nabu (Old Babylonian period - the first half of the 2nd millennium BC; reconstruction in the New Babylonian period - 625-539). G.K. Rawlinson identified Akar-Kuf with Dur-Kurigalza, the capital of the Kassite kingdom (30 km west of Babylon, founded at the end of the 15th - beginning of the 14th centuries, abandoned by the inhabitants already in the 12th century BC), which excluded the possibility of its ziggurat, dedicated to the god Enlil (excavated in the 40s of the 20th century by S. Lloyd and T. Bakir), considered the Tower of Babel. Finally, excavations of Babil, the northernmost of the hills of Babylon, showed that it does not hide a ziggurat, but one of the palaces of Nebuchadnezzar II.
Finding the Tower of Babel inside Babylon was one of the tasks set for the German expedition of R. Koldewey (1899-1917). In the central part of the city, the remains of a foundation platform were discovered, which in 1901 were identified with the foundation of the Etemenanki ziggurat. In 1913, F. Wetzel carried out the cleaning and measurements of the monument. His materials, published in 1938, became the basis for new reconstructions. In 1962, Wetzel completed research on the monument, and H. Schmid conducted detailed analysis collected over a century of materials and published (1995) a new, more substantiated periodization and reconstruction of the Etemenanki ziggurat.
The Tower of Babel is one of the most outstanding structures of Ancient Babylon. It was built more than four thousand years ago, but even today its name is a symbol of confusion and disorder.
A biblical legend is dedicated to the Tower of Babel, which says that initially there was one language throughout the entire Earth, people succeeded in their development and learned to make bricks from baked clay. They decided to build a tower as high as the sky. And when the Lord saw such a tower towering very high above earth's surface, decided to mix languages so that construction would no longer move.
Historians have proven that the biblical legend was about a real structure. The Tower of Babel, called a ziggurat, was actually built in the 2nd millennium BC. e., then it was destroyed many times, and it was rebuilt again. According to modern data, this structure was equal in height to a 30-story skyscraper.
The Tower of Babel was a pyramid lined with baked bricks on the outside. Each tier had its own specific color. At the top was the sanctuary of the god Marduk, the patron saint of the city. At the corners it was decorated with golden horns - a symbol of fertility. Inside the ziggurat, in the sanctuary on the lower tier, there was a golden statue of Zeus, as well as a golden table and throne. Religious processions ascended the tiers along wide staircases.
The tower rose on the left bank of the Euphrates. It was surrounded by the houses of priests, numerous temple buildings and special buildings for pilgrims who flocked here from all over Babylonia. The only written testimony of a European eyewitness was left by Herodotus. According to his description, the tower had eight tiers, with the width of the lower one being 180 meters. However, this statement is at odds with modern archaeological data.
The ruins and foundation of the tower in Babylon were discovered by the German scientist Robert Koldewey during excavations in 1897-1898. The researcher calls the tower seven-tiered, and the width of the lower tier, in his opinion, is 90 meters. Such discrepancies with Herodotus may be explained by the difference of 24 centuries. The tower was rebuilt, destroyed and restored many times. Everyone had their own ziggurat Big City Babylonia, but none of them could compete with the Tower of Babel.
This grandiose building was a shrine not only of the city, but of the entire people who worshiped the deity Marduk. The tower was built under several generations of rulers and required enormous costs work force and materials. Thus, it is known that its construction required about 85 thousand bricks. The ziggurat in Babylon has not survived to this day. But the fact that the Tower of Babel described in the Bible really existed on earth is undeniable today.
