Popular Science Monthly/Volume 88/January 1916/Was This the Tower of Babel?

A lonely pile, worn by ages of weather is the world's only claimant to the honor of being the Tower of Babel

Was This the Tower of Babel?

IT is doubtful if there is any place in the world so rich in ancient remains as the valley of the Euphrates, in Mesopotamia. The result is that to archaeologists and scholars the place is a veritable "Tom Tiddler's ground," and new "finds" are constantly being reported. When it is remembered that tradition places the site of the Garden of Eden here, while amongst its many ruins are those of ancient Babylon, the promising nature of the valley to the scientific excavator becomes apparent.

It is near the ruins of Babylon that we find what many scholars believe to be the remains of the Tower of Babel—an immense cube of brickwork, called by the natives Birs Mimrud. Recent exhaustive examination of the strange pile and its site has revealed the fact that the tower which once stood here consisted of seven stages of brick work on an earthen platform, each stage being of a different color. The tower boasted of a base measurement of nearly six hundred square feet, and rose to an unknown height. Even to-day the ruins rise some hundred and sixty feet above the level of the surrounding plain.

{{Mark Twain in his 'The Innocents Abroad' of 1869 states his party were shown the huge ruins and described the brickwork as being split, seared and vitrified by lightning from GOD'. The Bible account merely states the builders ceased their task after GOD had confused their language so that unable to cooperate they all drifted away across the single landmass only to discover that as soon as they reached all four corners of the Earth GOD causd the crust to sink and make the contients and islands as we now have.}}