Babel, Tower of

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The Tower of Babel, oil painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1563; in …—Courtesy of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

In the Hebrew scriptures, a high tower built in Shinar (Babylonia). According to Genesis 11:1–9, the Babylonians wanted to build a tower “with its top in the heavens.” Angry at their presumption, God disrupted the enterprise by confusing the languages of the workers so that they could no longer understand each other. The tower was left unfinished and the people dispersed over the face of the earth. The myth may have been inspired by a tower temple located north of the Marduk temple and known as Bab-ilu (“Gate of God”).

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