The Legendary Tower of Babel

by

Bill Lazarus

Painting by Pieter Bruegel c1563 Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Austria

Ziggurats
 
The Bible has a story about the origin of language.  In the tale, Mesopotamian builders in the city of Babylon tried to erect a temple that would reach heaven.  To prevent that, God caused the workers to speak different languages.  The structure was left unfinished amid the subsequent confusion.

Scholars believe the account is based on temples erected in ancient Babylonia called ziggurats.The term means "to build on a raised area" and is essentially a terraced structure with each level

smaller than the one below it. 

Apparently common in the ancient Middle East, samples date from as far back as 3000 B.C. Archaeologists to date have uncovered 32 ziggurats, mostly in Iraq, but four are in Iran.

One built by Nebuchadnezzar, the king who captured Jerusalem in 597 B.C., rose 231 feet and contained millions of bricks.The number of sun-baked brick platforms in a ziggurat varied, but the exteriors were often glazed in different colors.They were topped by a shrine, the home of a god. Every major city had its own ziggurat and, therefore, its own god. 

In keeping with the Bible account, the buildings may have been seen as bridges between heaven and earth.  They possibly represented the mound from which the universe was created. While they do not resemble Egyptian pyramids, archaeologists believe the two are linked. 

The Egyptians may have tightened up the design and brought it to a point.  Brave explorers may have carried the ziggurat to Central and South America, where both the Inca and Aztec cultures created them.  Simultaneous invention is also possible.

Ziggurats have not disappeared.  Modern architects have copied the design in recent buildings around the world.

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