THE TOWER OF BABEL
The Book of
Genesis tells how the desendants of North started to build a tower with its top
in the heavens. Some scholars believe that the foundations of the tower
the Tower of Babel can still be seen on the site of ancient Babylon in southern
Iraq.
The tower was
not a straight sided building like a church tower. It was in fact a
ziggurat, a stepped pyramid about 90m (300 ft) high. It was built during the
reign of Nebuchadnezzar II. who ruled Babylon between about 605 and 562
BC. Nebuchadnezzar also built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the
seven wonders of the ancient world. The Babylonians called the tower
Etemenanki, the 'House if the foundations of Heaven and Earth".
According to the Greek historian Herodotus, it consisted of eight levels, topped
by a temple to the city's paramount god. Marduk Herodotus reported that in the
temple was a bed which was used for fertility rites. The room might also
have been an astrological observatory.
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