Tower of Babel, << BAY buhl or BAB uhl, >> was a temple tower in Babylon, a city in ancient Mesopotamia. It was shaped like a pyramid with terraces—a design known as a ziggurat. The tower had seven stories, including a small shrine on top. The Babylonians called the tower Etemenanki, which meant the house of the foundation of heaven and earth. Babel is the Hebrew name for Babylon. Babylon meant gate of the god in the Babylonian language.
Archaeologists have found only some of the remains of the tower at Babylon, but ancient cuneiform texts describe its shape. The Bible contains a story of the tower’s construction (Genesis 11: 1-9). According to the Bible, Noah’s descendants settled in southern Mesopotamia after the great Flood. They started to build a great city, including a tower that would reach to heaven. But God did not want the city completed, so He made the builders speak different languages. The builders then could not understand one another, and so they stopped working and scattered over Earth. The ancient Hebrews used this account to explain the origin of languages.
