The Tower of Babel is one of the most famous stories in the Bible (Genesis 11:1–9), meant to explain why humanity speaks different languages and is scattered across the globe.
Following the Great Flood, a unified humanity speaking a single language migrated to the land of Shinar (Babylonia). There, they decided to build a magnificent city and a tower with its top in the heavens. Their goals were to make a grand name for themselves, and to prevent being scattered across the earth.
However, God saw their project as an act of hubris and arrogance, believing that if humans succeeded, nothing would be impossible for them. To stop them, God confounded their speech so they could no longer understand one another. The project collapsed, the construction stopped, and humanity scattered across the earth.
The city was named Babel (derived from the Hebrew word balal, meaning “to jumble” or “confound”).
Historians and archaeologists generally agree that the Tower of Babel narrative was inspired by the Etemenanki (“Temple of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth”): a massive ziggurat dedicated to Marduk, patron god of Babylon.
It was a towering structure, reaching an estimated height of about 91 meters (300 feet), making it a true skyscraper of the ancient world.
King Nebuchadnezzar II (Nebuchadnezzar (2021)) rebuilt and enlarged this ziggurat during the Neo-Babylonian Empire. During the Babylonian Captivity (6th century BC), thousands of Jewish people were exiled to Babylon. There, they witnessed the construction of this colossal tower and the diverse, multilingual crowds of the empire, which likely inspired the biblical story.