Who in our time has not heard the myth about the legendary Tower of Babel? They learn about this unfinished building from deep childhood. But not every skeptic knows that this tower has a confirmed real existence. This is evidenced by the notes of the ancients and modern archaeological research. Today we go to Babylon to the remains of the Tower of Babel.

Biblical Legend of the Tower of Babel

The biblical legend about how people wanted to build a tower to heaven, and for this they received the punishment in the form of separation of languages, is best read in the biblical original:

1. There was one language and one dialect throughout the whole earth.

2 Moving from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and settled there.

3 And they said to one another, Let us make bricks and burn them with fire. And they had bricks instead of stones, and earthen pitch instead of lime.

4 And they said, Let us build ourselves a city and a tower, its height reaching to heaven, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth.

5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of men were building.

6 And the Lord said, Behold, there is one people, and they all have one language; and this is what they began to do, and they will not lag behind what they decided to do;

7 Let us go down and confuse their language there, so that one does not understand the speech of the other.

8 And the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth; and they stopped building the city [and the tower].

9 Therefore his name was given: Babylon, for there the Lord confused the tongue of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them over the whole earth.

History, construction and description of the Etemenanki ziggurat

Babylon is famous for its many structures. One of the main personalities in the exaltation of this glorious ancient city - Nebuchadnezzar II. It was during his time that the walls of Babylon, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Ishtar Gate and the Processional Road were built. But this is just the edge of the iceberg - during all forty years of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar was engaged in the construction, restoration and decoration of Babylon. He left behind a large text about his work done. We will not dwell on all the points, but it is here that there is a mention of the ziggurat in the city.

This Tower of babel, which according to legend could not be completed due to the fact that the builders began to speak different languages, has another name - Etemenanki, which means the House of the Cornerstone of Heaven and Earth. During excavations, archaeologists were able to discover the huge foundation of this building. It turned out to be a ziggurat typical for Mesopotamia (we can also read about the ziggurat in Ur), located at the main temple of Babylon, Esagil.

The Tower of Babel, Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1563 )

During the whole time the tower was demolished and restored several times. For the first time, a ziggurat was built on this site even before Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC), before it was already dismantled. The legendary structure itself appeared during the reign of King Nabupalassar, and the final construction of the summit was taken over by his successor Nebuchadnezzar.

The huge ziggurat was erected under the direction of the Assyrian architect Aradahdesh. It consisted of seven tiers with a total height of about 100 meters. The diameter of the structure was about 90 meters.

At the top of the ziggurat was a sanctuary covered with traditional Babylonian glazed bricks. The sanctuary was dedicated to the main deity of Babylon - Marduk, and it was for him that a gilded bed and a table were installed, and gilded horns were fixed on the top of the sanctuary.

At the base of the Tower of Babel in the Lower Temple there was a statue of Marduk himself made of pure gold with a total weight of 2.5 tons. About 85 million bricks were used for the construction of the Etemenanki ziggurat in Babylon. The tower stood out among all the buildings of the city and gave the impression of power and grandeur. The inhabitants of this city sincerely believed in the descent of Marduk to their habitat on earth and even talked about this to the famous Herodotus, who visited here in 458 BC (a century and a half after its construction).

From the top of the Tower of Babel, another one from the neighboring city, Euriminanki in Barsippa, was visible. It is the ruins of this tower for a long time attributed to the biblical. When Alexander the Great lived in the city, he proposed to rebuild stately structure again, but his death in 323 BC left the building forever dismantled. In 275, Esagila was rebuilt, but Etemenanki was not rebuilt. Only its foundation and immortal mention in the texts remained a reminder of the former great building.

In which country was the Tower of Babel located? Does it exist now and where are its remains? We understand together with the 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 that are familiar even today about the tower and the pandemonium were taken from legends.

For several centuries, the inhabitants of Iraq did not even suspect that the hills at the outskirts of the modern city of Al-Hill, a hundred kilometers from Baghdad, hide the ruins of the world's first metropolis and the same Tower of Babel. But in the 19th century, a man was found who revealed to the world the secret of the ancient ruins. It was an archaeologist from Germany Robert Koldeway.

Like a phoenix bird

Reference: Babylon (translated as "the gate of the gods") was founded no later than the third millennium BC, located in the south of Ancient Mesopotamia (between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers), in the Akkad region. The Sumerians, one of the most ancient 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.

King Hammurabi (1793 -1750 BC) from the Amorite dynasty, having conquered all the important cities of Mesopotamia, united most of Mesopotamia and created a state with the 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 our time.

Under Hammurabi, Babylon began to grow rapidly. Many defensive structures, palaces, temples were built here. The Babylonians had many gods, and therefore temples were erected in honor of the goddess of healing Ninisina, the god of the moon Nanna, the god of thunder 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 saint of the city, the god 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 XIII century the Assyrians began to rule it, in the VII-VI - the Chaldeans, and in the IV 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, so that in the end, like the Phoenix bird, it would rise again from the ashes.

City of wonders

It is believed that Babylon reached its greatest prosperity under the Chaldean king Nebuchadnezzar IIwho ruled between 605 and 562 BC. He was the eldest son Nabopalassara, the founder of the New Babylonian dynasty.

From an early age, Nebuchadnezzar ("the firstborn, dedicated to the god Naboo") proved 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 channels.

Nebuchadnezzar pacified the rebellious Jews, who now and then 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 - so much was measured for them 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, but in his memoirs, Nebuchadnezzar noted that most of all he is proud of the rebuilt cities and the roads that run through them. Many modern cities would envy Babylon. It became the largest metropolis of the Ancient World: it had a million inhabitants.

International trade was concentrated here, science and arts flourished. Its fortifications were impregnable: from all sides the city was surrounded 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 carved from rare rocks, the houses of the nobility were decorated with huge bas-reliefs, and the walls of numerous temples and palaces were decorated with images of mythical animals. To connect the East and West areas 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 that time.

Paying tribute to the city, the king did not forget about his needs. According to an ancient source, he did his best to "build a palace for my Majesty's dwelling in Babylon."

The palace had a throne room, richly decorated with images of columns and palm leaves, made with colored enamel. The palace was so good that it was nicknamed "The Miracle of Humanity".

In the north of Babylon, on specially created stone heights that looked like mountains, Nebuchadnezzar built a palace for his wife Amanis... She was originally from Media and missed the usual places. And then the king ordered to decorate the palace with lush vegetation, so that it resembled 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 steps looked like a giant stepped pyramid.

The Babylonian "Hanging Gardens", which laid the foundation for the legend of the "Hanging Gardens of Babylon" (the legendary Asian conqueror and queen of Babylon, who lived in another period), became the seventh wonder of the world.

Feasts of Belshazzar

Nebuchadnezzar II ruled Babylonia for over 40 years, and it seemed that nothing could stop the city from flourishing further. But the Jewish prophets for another 200 years predicted his fall. This happened during the reign of the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar II (according to other sources - the 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 defenses, did not really care. The city lived luxuriously and cheerfully. The Jews generally considered it an immoral city, where debauchery reigns. King Belshazzar gathered at least a thousand people for the next feast and ordered the guests to be served wine 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 wrote on the wall incomprehensible words in Aramaic: "Mene, Mene, Take, Uparsin." The astonished king called the prophet Daniel, who was captured by Babylon as a young man, and asked to translate the inscription. It read: "Numbered, numbered, weighed, divided", Daniel explained that this is God's message to Belshazzar, in which the imminent death of the king and his kingdom is predicted. Nobody believed the prediction. But it came true on the 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 a drained channel. Belshazzar was killed by the Persian soldiers, Babylon fell, its walls were destroyed. Later it was conquered by the Arab tribes. The glory of the great city has sunk into oblivion, he himself has turned into ruins, and the "gates of the gods" are forever closed for mankind.

Was there a tower?

Many Europeans who visited Babylon were looking for traces of the tower, which the biblical legend told about.

The 11th chapter of the book "Genesis" contains the legend about what the descendants of Noah, who were saved after the Great Flood, planned to do. They spoke the same language and, moving from the east, came to the plain in the land of Shinar (in the lower reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates), where they settled. And then they decided: we will make bricks and build "for ourselves a city and a tower, as high as heaven, and we will make a name for ourselves, before we scatter over the face of the whole earth."

The tower kept growing, rising into the clouds. Overseeing this construction, God observed: “Behold, one people, and all have one language; and this is what they began to do, and they will not lag behind what they decided to do. "

He did not like the fact that people imagined to exalt themselves above the sky, and he decided to mix their language so that they would no longer understand each other. And so it happened.

The construction came to a standstill, because everyone began to speak in different languages, people were scattered throughout the earth, and the city where the Lord "mixed the language of the whole earth" was given the name Babylon, which means "confusion". Thus, the original "Babylonian PILLAR-CREATION" is the creation of a tall structure, and not a heap-small and confusion.

The story of the Tower of Babel would probably have remained a legend if during the excavations of Babylon, traces of a colossal structure had not been found. These were the ruins of a temple.

In Ancient Mesopotamia, temples were built that were completely different from the usual European ones - tall towers, which were called ziggurats. Their peaks served as sites for religious rituals and astronomical observations.

Among them, the Babylonian ziggurat of Etemenanki stood out, which meant "The 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 is estimated that at least 85 million bricks were needed to build the tower. A two-story temple towered on the upper platform, a monumental staircase led to it.

At the top 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, there was 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, they were going to reconstruct it, but the death of Alexander the Great prevented the implementation of this plan. Only the majestic ruins and biblical legends remain in the memory of mankind.

The Tower of Babel is not on the "official" list of wonders of the world. However, it is one of the most prominent structures of Ancient Babylon, and its name is still a symbol of confusion and disorder. During excavations in Babylon, the German scientist Robert Koldewey was able to find the foundation and ruins of the tower. The tower mentioned in the Bible was probably destroyed even before the era of Hammurabi. It was replaced by another, 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.

The tower stood on the Sakhn plain (the literal translation of this name is "frying pan") on the left bank of the Euphrates. It was surrounded by houses of priests, temple buildings and houses for pilgrims who flocked here from all over Babylonia. The uppermost tier of the tower was faced with blue tiles and covered with gold. The 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 eyewitness account from Europe.
"In the middle of each part of the city, a building is erected. In one part there is a royal palace, surrounded by a huge and strong wall; in the other, the sanctuary of Zeus-Bel with copper gates that have survived to this day. The temple sacred site is quadrangular, each side is two stages In the middle of this sacred site of the temple is erected a huge tower, one stadia long and wide, on this tower stands the second, and on it another tower, in total eight towers - one on top of the other. Outdoor staircase leads upward around all these towers. There are benches in the middle of the stairs, which must be for relaxation. A large temple was erected on the last tower. In this temple there is a large, luxuriously decorated bed and a golden table next to it. However, there is no image of the deity there. And not a single person spends the night here, except for one woman, whom, according to the Chaldeans, the priests of this god, God chooses for himself 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 gold table, a footstool and a throne - also gold. According to the Chaldeans, 800 talents of gold were used to make [all these things]. A golden altar has been erected in front of this temple. There is also another huge altar - adult animals are sacrificed on it; on the golden altar, only suckers can be sacrificed. On a large altar, the Chaldeans burn 1000 talents of incense annually at a festival in honor of this god. Was still in the sacred site at the time about which in question, golden statue of a god, made entirely of gold, 12 cubits high. I myself did not have a chance to see her, but I only convey what the Chaldeans told. This statue was passionately desired by Darius, the son of Gistap, but did not dare to seize it ... ".

According to Herodotus, the Tower of Babel had eight tiers, the width of the lowest one was 180 meters. According to Koldevei's descriptions, the tower was one tier lower, and the lower tier was 90 meters wide, that is, half as much. It is hard not to believe Koldevey, a scientist and conscientious person, but, perhaps, in the time of Herodotus, the tower stood on some kind of terrace, albeit not high, which for thousands of years was leveled to the ground, and during excavations Koldevey did not find any trace of it. Each large Babylonian city had its own ziggurat, but none of them could compare with the Tower of Babel, which towered over the entire area with a colossal pyramid. It took 85 million bricks to build, and generations of rulers have built the Tower of Babel. The Babylonian ziggurat was destroyed many 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.

Tukulti-Ninurta, Sargon, Sinacherib and Ashurbanipal seized Babylon by storm and destroyed the Tower of Babel - the sanctuary of Marduk. Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt it. Cyrus, who took possession of Babylon after the death of Nebuchadnezzar, was the first conqueror to leave the city intact. He was amazed at the scale of E-temen-anka, and he not only forbade to destroy anything, but ordered to build a monument on his grave in the form of a miniature ziggurat, a small tower of Babel.

And yet the tower was destroyed again. The Persian king Xerxes left from her only ruins, which Alexander the Great saw on his way to India. He, too, was struck by the gigantic ruins - he, too, stood before them as if spellbound. Alexander the Great intended to build it again. "But, - as Strabo writes, - this work required a lot of time and effort, for the ruins would have had to be removed by ten thousand people for two months, and he did not realize his plan, as he soon fell ill and died."

The biblical story about a grandiose structure - the Tower of Babel, still haunts numerous scholars who are trying to either refute or prove the veracity of this story. According to this well-known legend, once people wanted to build such a tower that would reach the sky, and this did not please God very much, who, as punishment for human pride and self-confidence, deprived people of a common language.

The builders, who had ceased to understand each other, left their venture, and the place where this significant historical event took place was called Babylon, which in translation from Aramaic means "confusion".

However, some philologists are ready to argue with this interpretation, since in Hebrew Babylon sounds like Babel. And the words Bab-il and Bab-ilu that are often found in ancient inscriptions consonant with "Babylon" most likely mean "the gate of God", which is more consonant with the original than the Aramaic balbel.

Be that as it may, but experts from all over the world are trying to find traces of the legendary building that took place in antiquity. According to British scientists, they managed to find reliable evidence of the existence of the Tower of Babel. And they were helped in this by a private collection of one of the businessmen, which includes cuneiform tablets and a shard of carved stone. Deciphering the inscriptions made it possible to establish that they contain a detailed description of the "Stele of the Tower of Babel", and the figure shows King Nebuchadnezzar himself, who ruled Babylon 2500 years ago.

According to existing on this moment version, the famous Tower of Babel is the ziggurat of Etemenanki, ancient temple height 91 meters. This assumption was put forward by experts for a long time, since at the end of the nineteenth century, Robert Koldevei discovered the ruins of the once great Babylon. Again open city confirmed the existence of one of the wonders of the world - the Gardens of Semiramis, and also provided "information for thought" about the biblical tower.

Actually, the structure found (Temple of Etemenanki) is not quite a tower, but rather a pyramid, the width of which is 90 meters. The top of this structure was once crowned with a golden statue of the supreme god of the Babylonians - Marduk. According to one version, during the construction of this grandiose temple, King Nebuchadnezzar used captive slaves captured in the Kingdom of Judah, who spoke different dialects, and such a variety of languages \u200b\u200bamazed the Jews, who have not yet encountered multilingualism. Perhaps it was this moment that served as the basis for the plot of the Tower of Babel.

The found ziggurat of Etemenanki has seven tiers, but the famous historian Herodotus describes the Tower of Babel as eight tiers, with a width of 180 meters at the base. Archaeologists suggest that the "missing" tier may well be below, underground.

Despite the fact that experts seem to have decided on the location of the Tower of Babel, a similar legend is formed about the pyramid located in the city of Cholula (Mexico). This grandiose structure, up to 160 feet high, is very similar to the pyramids of Egypt, and even surpasses them in size. The legend about this unique building was recorded back in 1579 by the historian Duran, and the plot is very similar to the biblical one. Although it is highly probable that it was the Spanish missionaries who presented the construction of this colossal pyramid in this way.

In general, the legend of the mixing of languages \u200b\u200bwith the help of the Tower of Babel is unique in its own way, since the legends of other peoples are similar to it either in the first part (the construction of a "staircase" to heaven), or in the second, where it is simply said about the mixing of languages.

For example, some African tribes in the vicinity of the Zambezi have legends that tell that the god Niambe once demanded obedience from people. But people did not want to submit to him and decided to kill Niambe. Then the god hastily climbed into the sky, and the masts fastened together, along which people also climbed to the sky in an attempt to catch the fugitive, collapsed, and the pursuers died.

Ashanti also has a similar legend, where the offended god left the earth, ascending to heaven. Only in this case pestles for pushing the grains, which were placed one on top of the other, acted as a ladder for people.

In the same Africa (in the wa-sena tribe) there is a very entertaining legend about how people began to speak different languages. As expected, at first all peoples had one language, however, during a severe famine, people lost their minds and scattered around different parts light, muttering at the same time incomprehensible words, which later became the language of any nationality. The Californian Maidu Indians also have their own version of the confusion of languages, according to which, on the eve of one of the festivities, people stopped understanding each other, and only married couples could communicate with each other in the same language.

But God appeared at night to one of the spellcasters and gave him the gift to understand each of the languages, and this "mediator" taught people everything: to cook food, to hunt, to observe the established laws. Then all the people were sent to different directions.

The legends of many peoples find a reflection of what people once had mutual language, and some of the scientists are even trying to establish what language the first inhabitants of the Garden of Eden spoke, including the insidious serpent. There were and are a great many languages \u200b\u200band dialects on the planet, and a huge number of them can no longer be restored.

Unfortunately, these initially imperceptible losses turn into complex puzzles over time, enclosed in symbols and letters incomprehensible to subsequent generations. While some of these inscriptions no doubt contain information that could shed light on some of the greatest mysteries stories.

Who has not heard the myth about the legendary Tower of Babel? They learn about this unfinished building from deep childhood. This name has become a household name. But not everyone knows that Tower of babel really exists. This is evidenced by the records of ancient and modern archaeological research.

The Tower of Babel: a real story

Babylon is famous for its many structures. One of the main personalities in the exaltation of this glorious ancient city is Nebuchadnezzar II. It was during his time that the walls of Babylon and the Processional Road were built.

But this is only the edge of the iceberg - during all forty years of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar was engaged in the construction, restoration and decoration of Babylon. He left behind a large text about his work done. We will not dwell on all the points, but it is here that there is a mention of the Ziggurat of Etemenanki in the city.

This Tower of babel, which according to legend could not be completed due to the fact that the builders began to speak different languages, has another name - Etemenanki, which means the House of the Cornerstone of Heaven and Earth. During excavations, archaeologists were able to discover the huge foundation of this building. It turned out to be a ziggurat typical for Mesopotamia (we can also read about the ziggurat in Ur), located at the main temple of Babylon, Esagil.

Tower of Babel: architectural features

During the whole time the tower was demolished and restored several times. For the first time, a ziggurat was built on this site even before Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC), before it was already dismantled. The Tower of Babel itself appeared during the reign of King Nabupalassar, and the final construction of the summit was taken over by his successor, Nebuchadnezzar.

The huge ziggurat of Etemenanki was erected under the leadership of the Assyrian architect Aradahdeshu. It consisted of seven tiers with a total height of about 100 meters. The diameter of the structure was about 90 meters.

At the top of the ziggurat was a sanctuary covered with traditional Babylonian glazed bricks. The sanctuary was dedicated to the main deity of Babylon - Marduk, and it was for him that a gilded bed and a table were installed here, and gilded horns were fixed at the top of the sanctuary.


At the base of the Tower of Babel in the Lower Temple was a statue of Marduk himself made of pure gold with a total weight of 2.5 tons. The Tower of Babel is built with 85 million bricks. Tower of babel stood out among all the buildings of the city and created the impression of power and greatness. The inhabitants of this city sincerely believed in the descent of Marduk to their habitat on earth and even talked about this to the famous Herodotus, who visited here in 458 BC (a century and a half after its construction).

From the top of the Tower of Babel, another one from the neighboring city, Euriminanki in Barsippa, was visible. It is the ruins of this tower that have long been attributed to the biblical. When Alexander the Great lived in the city, he proposed to rebuild the majestic building anew, but his death in 323 BC left the building forever dismantled. In 275, Esagila was rebuilt, but Tower of babel was not rebuilt. Only its foundation and immortal mention in the texts remained a reminder of the former great building.

The tower of Babel: legend and real history

The Tower of Babel is an ancient wonder of the world that adorned itself. According to legend Tower of babel reached the sky. However, the Gods were angry at their intention to reach heaven and punished people by giving them different languages... As a result, the construction of the tower was not completed.


The legend is best read in the biblical original:

1. There was one language and one dialect throughout the whole earth.

2 Moving from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and settled there.

3 And they said to one another, Let us make bricks and burn them with fire. And they had bricks instead of stones, and earthen pitch instead of lime.

Noah's descendants descend into the plain. After the flood, all people spoke the same language, since they were the descendants of Noah alone. Over time, they decided to look for a more suitable land for life and descended from the mountains to a flat plain, which they called Shinar (the meaning of this ancient word scientists failed to find out). Sennaar is located in the south of Mesopotamia - the country through which two great rivers flow to the south and flow into the Persian Gulf, the swift Tiger with steep banks and smoothly carrying its turbid waters Euphrates. The ancient Greeks called this country Mesopotamia [from the words "meso" - between, and "potamos" - the river, from here come our words Mesopotamia or Mesopotamia, and it is more correct to use the term "Meso", because we mean here not only the country between the Tigris and the Euphrates, but also adjacent to these rivers from the west and east of the territory].

People build the first city and tower on earth. There was no stone in Mesopotamia, and people built their homes from clay. The fortress walls and other structures and buildings were earthen, the dishes were earthen, the special tablets for writing were earthen, replacing the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia with books and notebooks.

For construction, bricks made of clay and air dried were used [this brick is called adobe]... But somehow they noticed that a brick caught in fire acquires the strength of a stone. The Bible tells how people, having learned how to make fired bricks, decided to build the first city on earth, and in it - a huge tower (pillar), which with its top would reach the sky [let's not forget that the creators of the Bible considered heaven to be solid]... The tower was supposed to glorify the name of the builders and serve as a guide for travelers.

The builders got together, and the work began to boil: some molded bricks, others burned them, others brought bricks to the construction site, the fourth built the floors of the tower, which rose higher and higher. Natural asphalt was used to hold the bricks together, which is called earthen pitch in the Bible. [whole asphalt lakes were in the south of Mesopotamia in those places where oil came to the surface of the earth].

God mixes the languages \u200b\u200bof people. Seeing a huge tower under construction, God was alarmed lest people really climbed to heaven and do something in his own home. He said to himself: “Here is one people, and they all have one language; and this is what they have begun to do, and they will not lag behind what they decided to do. "

God came down and mixed the languages \u200b\u200bof people - they ceased to understand each other's speech. Construction could not continue, the tower was abandoned unfinished, and people scattered from there all over the earth. The city where the tower was built was called Babylon (“confusion”), since God mixed languages \u200b\u200bthere ...

Once a year, God spends the night in his temple.