• What Happened to the Tower of Babel in Ancient Babylon?

    From Internetado@21:1/5 to All on Sun Mar 2 10:58:34 2025
    XPost: soc.history

    A work of art rendering the Tower of Babel in ancient Babylon.

    The Tower of Babel, written about by the ancient Greek historian
    Herodotus, was said to "reach up to the sky." It was a huge building
    which stood as a symbol of the power possessed by the ancient city of
    Babylon. Thought to be at least one hundred meters tall, it is even
    mentioned in the Bible, but the grand structure no longer towers over
    Babylon (now modern-day Iraq). One might rightfully wonder what ever
    happened to it.

    The Tower of Babel, which stood at the heart of the bustling metropolis
    of Babylon, is shrouded in mystery with many researchers and scholars
    having speculated at its design, appearance, height, and architectural
    make-up. However, they have only really been able to agree on one
    thing: the tower was said to reach up to the sky. Herodotus, the
    ancient Greek historian known as the father of history, described this
    great structure as a wonder of the world.
    Ancient Greek historian Herodotus.

    The narrative of the Tower of Babel appears in Genesis 11:1-9 as an
    origin myth and parable, meant to explain why the world's people speak different languages. According to the story, a united human race with a
    single language migrated eastward, eventually appearing in the land of
    Shinar. When the land was reached, the group built a city and tower
    with its top stretching all the way to the sky. Having observed the
    city and tower, Yahweh confounded their speech so that they were no
    longer capable of understanding each other. He then sent everyone to
    different ends of the world.

    The Tower of Babel also appears in a text called the the Greek
    Apocalypse of Baruch, written some time between the fall of Jerusalem
    and the founding of the Roman Empire around 70 AD to the 3rd century
    AD.

    This text, one of the pseudepigrapha, described the rewards of sinners
    and the righteous in the afterlife. According to the this, among the
    sinners were those who first conceived of the Tower of Babel. In the
    account, Baruch is first led-in a dream-to see the resting place of the
    souls of "those who built the tower of strife against God, and the Lord banished them."

    He is then shown another place, where, occupying the form of dogs,
    "Those who gave counsel to build the tower, for they whom thou seest
    drove forth multitudes of both men and women, to make bricks; among
    whom, a woman making bricks was not allowed to be released in the hour
    of child-birth, but brought forth while she was making bricks, and
    carried her child in her apron, and continued to make bricks."

    As written in the Greek Apocalypse of Baruch:
    ...the Lord appeared to them and confused their speech, when they had
    built the tower to the height of four hundred and sixty-three cubits.
    And they took a gimlet, and sought to pierce the heavens, saying, Let
    us see (whether) the heaven is made of clay, or of brass, or of iron.
    When God saw this He did not permit them, but smote them with blindness
    and confusion of speech, and rendered them as thou seest.

    Some scholars have linked the Tower of Babel with known structures, particularly Etemenaki, a ziggurat dedicated to the Mesopotamian god
    Marduk, in Babylon.

    The legacy of Babylon's Tower of Babel

    Over the years, the Tower of Babel has appeared in many works of art
    and other forms, including novels, video games, and TV shows.
    Argentinian novelist Jorge Luis Borges wrote a book titled The Library
    of Babel, and A.S. Byatt's novel Babel Tower explores the question of
    whether language can be shared. The tower even appears in the video
    game Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones.

    But with all the myth, folktale, and mystery surrounding the Tower of
    Babel, it is important to know what actually happened to it and why it
    is no longer a standing monument in the Middle East.
    Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Credit: Carla216. CC BY 2.0/flickr

    Babylon, like many other ancient cities, eventually fell into ruin, and
    its citizens plundered the Tower of Babel, using its bricks to build
    their own homes. Some time after this (still quite some time ago),
    Babylon and its monumental tower sank into the sands of the Iraqi
    desert and "disappeared," so to say.

    Archaeologists have been working since 1811 to excavate the capital of
    the ancient world, but it was aerial photography that provided the
    first real clues as to the location of the tower. The photographs show
    the tower';s square-shaped outline in the center of the city. Today,
    nothing but a waterhole remains.

    https://greekreporter.com/2025/03/02/tower-babel-ancient-babylon/

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    Eduardo - Brasil
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