Page 12 - Bible Geography and Near East Studies

For nearly 100 years, Noah’s sons, Ham, Shem, and Japheth, increased in number and prospered. They
reproduced according to God’s command to fill the earth, but they stayed together. Eventually, all of
mankind at that time gathered in the Persian Gulf region at a place called Babel, and it was here that
they followed their leader named Nimrod, and built a tower to reach heaven. It was here that they
rebelled against God, seeking their own greatness, and the Lord miraculously scattered them by
changing their languages to forcibly distribute them over the face of the earth (Genesis 11:1-9).

The Tower of Babel

The tower was a post-flood form of rebellion against God.
God told them to disperse over the earth, but the
descendants of Noah collected together and became
powerful as a people. They attempted to build a tower that
reached into the heavens.

It is widely considered that Shinar, where the Bible says the
Babel event took place, was a territory in south
Mesopotamia, and that Babel was located at Babylon.
However, an analysis of history, geography, and geology
shows that Shinar cannot have been in the south, but rather was a territory in what is northeastern Syria
today; and that the remnants of the Tower must be in the Upper Khabur River triangle, not far from Tell
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Brak, which is the missing city of Akkad.

It is widely believed that the Tower of Babel was a ziggurat. A ziggurat was a series of levels built on top
of one another, each level smaller than the previous. It provided steps and could be several levels high
(most were seven). The Mesopotamians believed that these pyramid temples connected heaven to
earth.

Ancient Babylonian stories describe the god Marduk
(also known as Murdock) (chief god of the city of
Babylon and national god of Babylonia) defending
the other gods against diabolical monsters from a
ziggurat. Eventually, in Babylon, his name was
changed to Bel, which means Lord. Originally, Bel or
Marduk was the god of thunderstorms. He could be
good and evil at the same time. He could help
humanity, and he can also destroy people. Of
course, he was a false god with absolutely no power
to do anything!

The Sumerians' ziggurats were constructed 400 years
before the step pyramids in Egypt.

1 https://answersingenesis.org/tower-of-babel/where-in-the-world-is-the-tower-of-babel/
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