The construction of the Tower of Babel is told in the Book of Genesis, the first in the Pentateuch of Moses. The painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1563) is dedicated to this biblical story. Who has not heard about the legendary “Babylonian pandemonium”, which caused the wrath of God? As a punishment for this sin, people have since spoken in different languages ​​and have great difficulty understanding each other...

The Tower of Babel is not on the "official" list of wonders of the world. However, it is one of the most outstanding buildings of Ancient Babylon, and its name is still a symbol of confusion and disorder. During excavations in Babylon, the German scientist Robert Koldewey managed to discover the foundation and ruins of a tower. The tower mentioned in the Bible was probably destroyed before the time of Hammurabi. To replace it, another was built, 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 plain of Sahn (the literal translation of this name is “frying pan”) on the left bank of the Euphrates. It was surrounded by the houses of priests, temple buildings and houses for pilgrims who flocked here from all over Babylonia. The topmost tier of the tower was lined with blue tiles and covered with gold. A 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 account of an eyewitness from Europe.
"In the middle of each part of the city a building was erected. In one part there is a royal palace, surrounded by a huge and strong wall; in the other there is a sanctuary of Zeus-Bel with copper gates that have survived to this day. The temple sacred area is quadrangular, each side is a length of two stages. In the middle of this temple sacred area a huge tower is erected, one stage long and wide. On this tower stands a second one, and on it there are a total of eight towers - one on top of the other. An external staircase leads up around all of these. towers. In the middle of the stairs there are benches - probably for rest. On the last tower there is a large, luxuriously decorated bed and next to it there is no image of a deity. no person spends the night here, with the exception of one woman, whom, according to the Chaldeans, the priests of this god, God chooses 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 golden table, a footstool and a throne - also golden. According to the Chaldeans, 800 talents of gold went into making [all these things]. A golden altar was erected in front of this temple. There is another huge altar there - adult animals are sacrificed on it; On the golden altar, only sucklings can be sacrificed. On a large altar, the Chaldeans burn 1,000 talents of incense each year at a festival in honor of this god. Was still in the sacred area at the time about which we're talking about, a golden statue of a god, entirely of gold, 12 cubits high. I myself did not have a chance to see her, but I am only reporting what the Chaldeans told me. Darius, the son of Hystapes, passionately desired this statue, but did not dare to capture it..."

According to Herodotus, the Tower of Babel had eight tiers, the width of the lowest was 180 meters. According to Koldewey’s descriptions, the tower was one tier lower, and the lower tier was 90 meters wide, that is, half as much. It is difficult not to believe Koldewey, a learned and conscientious man, but perhaps in the time of Herodotus the tower stood on some terrace, albeit a low one, which over the millennia was razed to the ground, and during excavations Koldewey 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 like a colossal pyramid. It took 85 million bricks to build, and entire generations of rulers built the Tower of Babel. The Babylonian ziggurat was destroyed several 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, Sennacherib and Ashurbanipal took Babylon by storm and destroyed the Tower of Babel - the sanctuary of Marduk. Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt it. Cyrus, who took control of Babylon after the death of Nebuchadnezzar, was the first conqueror to leave the city undestroyed. He was struck by the scale of E-temen-anka, and he not only forbade the destruction of anything, but ordered the construction of a monument on his grave in the form of a miniature ziggurat, a small Tower of Babel.

And yet the tower was destroyed again. Persian king Xerxes left only the ruins of it, which Alexander the Great saw on his way to India. He was also amazed by the gigantic ruins - he also stood in front of 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, because the ruins would have had to be removed by ten thousand people for two months, and he did not realize his plan, since he soon fell ill and died.”

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

The builders, who no longer understood each other, abandoned their idea, and the place where this significant event took place historical event, was named Babylon, which means “confusion” in Aramaic.

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, which are often found in ancient inscriptions and are 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, experts from all over the world are trying to find traces of the legendary building that took place in ancient times. According to British scientists, they were able to discover reliable evidence of the existence of the Tower of Babel. And they were helped in this by the private collection of one of the businessmen, which includes cuneiform tablets and a fragment of stone with carvings. Deciphering the inscriptions made it possible to establish what they contain detailed description“Stelae of the Tower of Babel”, and the picture depicts King Nebuchadnezzar himself, who ruled Babylon 2500 years ago.

According to the existing this moment versions, the famous Tower of Babel is the ziggurat of Etemenanki, ancient temple 91 meters high. This assumption has been put forward by experts a long time ago, since the ruins of the once great Babylon were discovered by Robert Koldewey at the end of the century before last. Again open city confirmed the existence of one of the wonders of the world - the Gardens of Babylon, and also provided “food for thought” about the biblical tower.

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

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

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

In general, the legend about the mixing of languages ​​with the help of the Tower of Babel is unique in its own way, since the legends of other nations are similar to it, either in the first part (building a “staircase” to heaven), or in the second - which simply talks 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 the 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.

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

In Africa (in the Wasena tribe) there is a very interesting legend about how people began to speak different languages. As it should be, in the beginning all peoples had one language, but during severe hunger people lost their minds and scattered around different parts light, muttering incomprehensible words, which then became the language of some 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 festivals, 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 of understanding each of the languages, and this “mediator” taught people everything: how to cook, hunt, and observe established laws. Then all the people were sent in different directions.

Legends of many nations reflect what people once had mutual language, and some scientists are even trying to establish what language the first inhabitants of the Garden of Eden, including the insidious serpent, spoke. There have been and still are a great many languages ​​and dialects on the planet, and a huge number of them can no longer be restored.

Unfortunately, these initially imperceptible losses over time turn into complex puzzles, contained in symbols and letters incomprehensible to subsequent generations. Although some of these inscriptions no doubt contain information that could shed light on some of history's greatest mysteries.

In the first book of Moses' Genesis it is said: “The whole earth had one language and one dialect. People who moved from the East found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to each other: “Let us make bricks and burn them with fire.” And they had bricks instead of stones. , and earthen tar instead of lime. And they said: let us build ourselves a city and a tower, with its height reaching to heaven; and we will make a name for ourselves, before we are scattered over the face of the whole earth.

And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men were building. And he said: Behold, there is one people, and they all have one language; and this is what they began to do, and they will not deviate from what they planned to do. Let us go down and confuse their language there, so that one does not understand the speech of the other. And the Lord scattered them from there throughout all the earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore the name was given to it Babylon; for there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them throughout all the earth" (First Book of Moses' Genesis, chapter 11, paragraphs 1-9).

Yes, according to " Old Testament", different languages ​​appeared on earth and the Tower of Babel was built. But did this grandiose structure really exist?

The German archaeologist Robert Koldewey (1855-1925) tried to answer this question. From 1898 to 1917, he excavated the site of ancient Babylon and discovered a foundation with ruins. But the scientist suggested that the biblical tower was destroyed long before King Hammurabi, who ruled in the first half of the 18th century BC. e. In memory of her, people erected another, no less majestic structure.

According to Koldewey's assumption, it had a square base. The length of each side reached 90 meters. The tower was also 90 meters high and consisted of 7 tiers. The first tier was the highest. Its height reached 33 meters. The height of the second tier was 18 meters. The third, fourth, fifth and sixth tiers were the same in height. It was 6 meters. The last tier was a sanctuary to the god Marduk. Its height reached 15 meters.

The majestic structure towered on the left bank of the Euphrates. Around there were temple buildings, dwellings of priests and houses intended for pilgrims. The sanctuary at the top was tiled blue color and decorated with gold ornaments. This description of the architectural masterpiece of antiquity was left by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who lived in the 5th century BC. e. But apparently he already described the third tower, since the second was destroyed by the Assyrian king Sennacherib in the 7th century BC. e.

The third version of the biblical shrine was restored only 100 years later by the king of the New Babylonian kingdom, Nebuchadnezzar II, who also built the gardens of Semiramis. But Herodotus was in Babylon already during the Persian rule. He was the only resident of Europe to describe the majestic structure. Here's what it looked like in his words:

“In one part of the city there is a royal palace surrounded by a wall. In another part of the city there is a huge structure consisting of seven towers stacked on top of each other. You can climb to the very top via an external staircase. Next to it there are benches on which you can rest. The top of the tower is crowned with a table and a bed made of gold. The temple is watched by a woman chosen from among the local residents. Next to the majestic structure there is an altar on which animals are sacrificed.

This is how Herodotus could see the Tower of Babel

It should be noted that each city of the Babylonian kingdom had its own tower or ziggurat - a religious structure consisting of truncated pyramids stacked on top of each other, with a sanctuary at the top. But all of them were significantly inferior in height to the Tower of Babel. Koldewey believed that at least 80 million bricks were spent on its construction, and several generations of rulers built it.

The tower was destroyed several times by the conquerors, but then it was restored and decorated. At the same time, the restored structure became higher and higher. It was a central place of worship for the god Marduk and was visited by thousands of pilgrims every year.

When the Persian king Cyrus captured Babylon, he forbade the destruction of the city. All buildings remained intact. However, his descendant Xerxes I behaved differently. At the beginning of his reign, the inhabitants of the great city rebelled. The uprising lasted a long time, and the rebels captured a huge territory, since most of Persian army was in Asia Minor, preparing for an attack on Ancient Greece.

Only after a year had passed was it possible to restore order, and the city of Babylon was stormed for 7 months. When he fell, the formidable Xerxes ordered the destruction of all religious shrines and the execution of the priests. As a result of the ruler's order, the Tower of Babel was destroyed. All that was left of it were huge ruins.

According to legend, next to the tower stood a huge statue of the god Marduk made of pure gold. Her weight reached 600 kg. The statue was taken out of the city and sent to Persepolis, the capital of the Persian kingdom of the Achaemenid dynasty. It was apparently melted down there. Thus, the eternal city lost its status as a capital, since main symbol, giving this right, was destroyed.

When Alexander the Great defeated the Persians and decided to make Babylon the capital of his empire, he was struck by the huge ruins left behind the tower. The plans of the new ruler included dismantling the rubble, and in their place, reviving the greatest structure. But this required tens of thousands of workers. While great commander I could not allocate such a number of people, since I was planning a new grandiose campaign in the Mediterranean.

However, fate had its own way. The formidable conqueror died suddenly, and all his great plans sank into eternity. Alexander was replaced by Diadochus Seleucus. On the Tigris River he founded the new capital of his kingdom, Seleucia, and the great city began to decline. It never occurred to anyone to engage in grandiose construction work to restore the huge Tower of Babel.

After the Seleucids, the Parthians came to these lands, and then it was the turn of the Roman legions under the command of Trajan. The great city fell into complete decline, as trade routes were no longer passing through. Indigenous people gradually died out, and the ancient buildings disappeared under a layer of earth. In the 7th century, on the site of the once huge city, only a small village inhabited by Arabs remained. The rich historical past has sunk into the darkness of centuries, and with it the grandiose structure built in honor of the god Marduk has become distant history.

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In European painting, the most famous painting on this subject is Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s “Babylonian Pandemonium” (1563). A more stylized geometric structure was depicted by M. Escher in a 1928 engraving.

Literature

The plot of the Tower of Babel has received wide interpretation in European literature:

• Franz Kafka wrote a parable on this topic, “The Coat of Arms of the City” (City Emblem)
• Clive Lewis, novel "The Vile Power"
• Victor Pelevin, novel “Generation P”
• Neal Stephenson, in his novel Avalanche, gives an interesting version of the construction and significance of the Tower of Babel.

Music

It should be noted that many of the above songs contain the word Babylon in the title, but there is no mention of the Tower of Babel.

Theater

Categories:

• Ancient Babylon
• Unrealized supertall buildings
• Scenes from the Old Testament
• Concepts and Terms in the Bible
• Ziggurat
• Tower of Babel
• Genesis
• Jewish mythology

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See what the “Tower of Babel” is in other dictionaries: TOWER OF BABEL - and confusion of languages, two legends about Ancient Babylon (united in the canonical text of the Bible into a single story): 1) about the construction of the city and the confusion of languages ​​and 2) about the construction of the tower and the scattering of people. These legends are dated to the “beginning of history”... ...

See what the “Tower of Babel” is in other dictionaries: Encyclopedia of Mythology - TOWER OF BABYLON. Painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. a building that, according to biblical tradition (Genesis 11:1 9), the descendants of Noah erected in the land of Shinar (Babylonia) in order to reach heaven. God, angry at the plans and actions of the builders... ...

Collier's Encyclopedia Tower of Babel - in the Bible, a legend dated to the beginning of human history (after the flood), when they built a city and a tower to heaven (the first great construction of people). If the city was built by sedentary residents who knew how to burn bricks, then the tower was built by nomads from the East;... ...

See what the “Tower of Babel” is in other dictionaries: Historical Dictionary - the most important episode from the story about ancient humanity in the book. Genesis (11. 1 9). According to the biblical account, Noah's descendants spoke the same language and settled in the Valley of Shinar. Here they began building a city and a tower “high to the heavens...

Collier's Encyclopedia- Babylonian pandemonium. Tower of Babel. Painting by P. Bruegel the Elder. 1563. Museum of Art History. Vein. Babel. Tower of Babel. Painting by P. Bruegel the Elder. 1563. Museum of Art History. Vein. Tower of Babel in... ... encyclopedic Dictionary"The World History"

Tower of Babel- the most important episode from the story about ancient humanity in the book of Genesis (see Gen. 11, 1 9). According to the biblical account, Noah's descendants spoke the same language and settled in the Valley of Shinar. Here they began building a city and a tower,... ... Orthodoxy. Dictionary-reference book

Collier's Encyclopedia- Book About a very tall building, structure. That day, the ocean caused a real massacre for people... The airwaves were full of messages about the emergency condition of ships in many countries. The “Tower of Babel” of our days, a cyclopean structure, collapsed under the blows... ... Phrasebook Russian literary language

Who hasn't heard the myth about the legendary Tower of Babel? People learn about this unfinished structure to the skies even in early childhood. This name has become a household name. But not everyone knows that Collier's Encyclopedia really exists. This is evidenced by ancient records and modern archaeological research.

Tower of Babel: the real story

Babylon is famous for many of its buildings. 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 and the Processional Road were built.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg - throughout the 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. We will not dwell on all the points, but this is where there is a mention of the Ziggurat of Etemenanki in the city.

This Collier's Encyclopedia, 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 translated means 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 of Mesopotamia (you can also read about the ziggurat in Ur), located at the main temple of Babylon Esagila.

Tower of Babel: architectural features

Over the years, the tower has been demolished and rebuilt several times. For the first time, a ziggurat was built on this site before Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC), but before him it had already been dismantled. The Tower of Babel itself appeared under King Nabupalassar, and the final construction of the peak was undertaken by his successor Nebuchadnezzar.

The huge ziggurat of Etemenanki was built under the direction 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 in traditional Babylonian glazed brick. The sanctuary was dedicated to the main deity of Babylon - Marduk, and it was for him that a gilded bed and table were installed here, 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. The Tower of Babel was built from 85 million bricks. Collier's Encyclopedia stood out among all the buildings of the city and created an impression of power and grandeur. The inhabitants of this city sincerely believed in the descent of Marduk to his habitat on earth and even spoke 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 from the neighboring city of Euriminanki in Barsippa was also visible. It is the ruins of this tower for a long time considered biblical. When Alexander the Great lived in the city, he proposed rebuilding the majestic structure, but his death in 323 BC left the building forever dismantled. In 275 Esagila was restored, but Collier's Encyclopedia was not rebuilt. Only its foundation and immortal mention in the texts remain a reminder of the former great building.

Tower of Babel: legend and real history

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


It is better to read the legend in the biblical original:

1. Throughout the whole earth there was one language and one dialect.

2 Traveling 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 used bricks instead of stones, and earthen resin instead of lime.

The city of Babylon, which means “Gate of God,” was founded in ancient times on the banks of the Euphrates. It was one of the largest cities Ancient world and was the capital of Babylonia, a kingdom that existed for one and a half millennia in the south of Mesopotamia (the territory of modern Iraq).

The basis of the architecture of Mesopotamia was secular buildings - palaces and religious monumental structures - ziggurats. Powerful cult towers, called ziggurats (ziggurat - holy mountain), were square and resembled a stepped pyramid. The steps were connected by stairs, and along the edge of the wall there was a ramp leading to the temple. The walls were painted black (asphalt), white (lime) and red (brick).

Jan il Vecchio Bruegel

According to biblical tradition, after Flood humanity was represented by one people speaking one language. From the east, people came to the land of Shinar (in the lower reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates), where they decided to build a city (Babylon) and a tower high to heaven in order to “make a name for themselves.”

Jan Collaert, 1579

The construction of the tower was interrupted by God, who created new languages ​​for different people, because of which they ceased to understand each other, could not continue building the city and the tower, and were scattered throughout the land of Babylon.

The tower stood on the left bank of the Euphrates on the plain of Sahn, which literally translates as “frying pan.” It was surrounded by the houses of priests, temple buildings and houses for pilgrims who flocked here from all over the Babylonian kingdom. A description of the Tower of Babel was left by Herodotus, who thoroughly examined it and, perhaps, even visited its top.

...Babylon was built like this... It lies on a vast plain, forming a quadrangle, each side of which is 120 stadia (meters) in length. Circumference of all four sides The length of the city is 480 stadia (meters). Babylon was not only a very large city, but also the most beautiful of all the cities I know. First of all, the city is surrounded by a deep, wide and water-filled ditch, then there is a wall 50 royal (Persian) cubits wide (26.64 meters) and 200 cubits high (106.56 meters).

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1563

If the Tower of Babel existed, what did it look like and what did it serve? What was it - a mystical path to heaven to the abode of the gods? Or maybe a temple or an astronomical observatory? The scientific history of the search for the Tower of Babel began with several pieces of painted bricks found at the site of the Kingdom of Babylon by the German architect and archaeologist Robert Koldewey. The fragments of the brick bas-relief were a good enough reason for Kaiser Wilhelm II and the newly founded German Oriental Society to generously finance excavations of the ancient city.

On March 26, 1899, Robert Koldewey solemnly began excavations. But only in 1913, due to the fact that the level groundwater decreased, archaeologists were able to begin exploring the remains of the legendary tower. At the bottom of deep excavations, they freed from under the layers the remaining part of the brick foundation and several steps of the staircase.

Marten Van Valckenborch I

Since then and to this day, an irreconcilable struggle has continued between supporters of various hypotheses, representing the shape of this building and its height in different ways. The most controversial thing is the location of the stairs: some researchers are sure that the steps were outside, others insist on placing the stairs inside the tower.

The tower mentioned in the Bible was probably destroyed before the time of Hammurabi. To replace it, another was built, which was erected in memory of the first. The Tower of Babel was a stepped eight-tiered pyramid, each tier of which had a strictly defined color. Each side of the square base was 90 meters.

Marten van Valckenborch, 1595

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. By today's standards, the structure reached the height of a 25-story building.

Calculations suggest that about 85 million mud bricks from a mixture of clay, sand and straw were used for the construction of the Tower of Babel, since there are few trees and stones in Mesopotamia. Bitumen (mountain tar) was used to connect the bricks.

Marten van Valckenborch, 1600

Robert Koldewey managed to excavate famous hanging gardens Semiramis, which was not built by this legendary queen, but was built by order of Nebuchadnezzar II for his beloved wife Amytis, an Indian princess who, in dusty Babylon, yearned for the green hills of her homeland. Magnificent gardens with rare trees, fragrant flowers and coolness in the sultry city were truly a wonder of the world.

In 1962, an expedition led by the architect Hans-Georg Schmidt continued to explore the ruins of the tower. Professor Schmidt created new model buildings: two side staircases led to a wide terrace located at a height of 31 meters from the ground, the monumental central staircase ended on the second tier at a height of 48 meters. From there four more flights of stairs led up, and at the top of the tower stood a temple - a sanctuary of the god Marduk, lined with blue tiles and decorated with golden horns at the corners - a symbol of fertility. Inside the sanctuary were the gilded table and bed of Marduk. 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.

Professor Schmidt compared his calculations with data on a small clay tablet discovered by archaeologists. This unique document contains a description of a multi-tiered tower in the Babylonian kingdom - the famous temple of the supreme deity Marduk. The tower was called Etemenanki, which means “the house where heaven meets earth.” It is unknown when exactly the original construction of this tower took place, but it already existed during the reign of Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC). Now on the site of the “skyscraper temple” there is a swamp overgrown with reeds.

Cyrus, who took control of Babylon after the death of Nebuchadnezzar, was the first conqueror to leave the city undestroyed. He was struck by the scale of Etemenanka, and he not only forbade the destruction of anything, but ordered the construction of a monument on his grave in the form of a miniature ziggurat - a small Tower of Babel.

Over its three-thousand-year history, Babylon was destroyed to the ground three times and each time rose again from the ashes, until it completely fell into decay under the rule of the Persians and Macedonians in the 6th-5th centuries BC. The Persian king Xerxes left only the ruins of the Tower of Babel, which Alexander the Great saw on his way to India. He intended to build it again. “But,” as Strabo writes, “this work required a lot of time and effort, because the ruins would have had to be removed by ten thousand people for two months, and he did not realize his plan, since he soon fell ill and died.”

The Tower of Babel, which at that time was simply a miracle of technology, brought glory to its city. This ziggurat was the tallest and latest structure of its type, but by no means the only high-rise temple in Mesopotamia. Along two mighty rivers - the Tigris and the Euphrates - there were colossal shrines in a long line.

The tradition of building towers originated among the Sumerians in the south of Mesopotamia. Already seven thousand years ago, the first stepped temple with a terrace only one meter high was built in Eridu. Over time, architects learned to design taller buildings and developed construction technology to achieve stability and strength of walls.