The mystery of Babel Tower
In western history books often mentioned in the ancient world one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the Tower of Babel, its mysterious color is very strong, in the past thousand years, human beings have not found the ruins of the Tower of Babel, and some people believe that the Tower of Babel only exists in mythological stories. However, archaeologists have long ago discovered the ruins of an arched building made of stone and mud bricks on the ancient Babylonian site, with a large square well in the middle. At first, archaeologists thought that this was the site of the Hanging Garden, but it was not until a stone stele that recorded the location and style of the Babel Tower was excavated nearby, and it was not known that this was the base of the Babel Tower.
The Babylonian Tower of Babel, also known as the Tower of Babel, does not know where the Tower of Babel first came from, only that as early as ancient times, it entered the Jewish Bible and the Old Testament. According to the actual measurements and calculations of archaeologists, the base of the tower is about 96 meters long, and the total height of the tower and the temple is about 96 meters, which is almost the same, and the "Babel" Tower is the tallest building in Babylon at that time. Built in the 17th century BC, the Tower of Babel is nearly 90 meters high and divided into 7 floors, with nearly 90 meters on the ground floor, and the top floor is a temple dedicated to the god Marduk. The tower, made of dark blue glazed bricks, spirals up a spiral staircase that leads up to the golden temple. In 1234 BC, the Tower of Babel was destroyed by the Assyrians who captured Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar II of Neo-Babylon later rebuilt the tower, but after his death, Babylon gradually declined. In 484 BC, the Tower of Babel was again destroyed in battle. Although the appearance of it has been largely restored today, the overall design and structure remain a mystery.
The Tower of Babel was first recorded in the Bible
The earliest record of the word "Babel" appears in the Bible, which originally meant "chaos." Obviously, then, the Babylonians built this giant tower not only for the purpose of "making a name". Therefore, there are various interpretations of the role of the tower. Some believe that the "Tower of Babel" was an astronomical observatory of the ancient Babylonians. According to Streppo, some believe that the tower is the symbolic tomb of Maduk, the god of the ancient babylonian city, and many more believe that it is not a tomb of gods, but a place for the gods to stay. It is also believed that, like the pyramids of Egypt, it was the mausoleum of an ancient emperor, in which there may be hidden tombs and chambers.
This faction was represented by the French archaeologist Fres Nell. In the middle of the 19th century, the French government sent him to investigate Babylon, and in a letter to the French foreign minister, he said: "... The easiest way to enter the tower is to use a mine to blow it in half, which is the only way to reach the center of the tower. If, in the future, if I can establish friendly relations with the Arabs who rule the desert area around Nimlad Springs and persuade them to allow me to try this method, will the Minister allow me to do so?" The French government at the time agreed to his request. However, Frese was not accustomed to the hot climate of the region, fell ill shortly after arriving in Babylon, and died in time to carry out the above plan.
In the 20th century, the protection of monuments has become common knowledge of people in various countries. There are frequent wars in Iraq, and the Iraqi government can no longer allow the "Tower of Babel" to be studied as its national treasure by blowing up. To this day, people still have not been able to enter the ruins of the "Tower of Babel". Therefore, there is still no accurate answer to whether the "Tower of Babel" contains mausoleums and chambers, and the purpose for which the "Tower of Babel" was built.
Different scholars have different views on babel Tower
Archaeologists and historians believe that the Tower of Babel had two other uses in addition to worshipping the Holy Spirit. One is that Nebuganese II used the image of God to show personal glory and majesty in order to immortalize. The second was to curry favor with the monastic clique in exchange for their support in order to stabilize the country. Mesopotamia is a place where religion flourishes, with many temples and many monks. The monks not only influenced the people ideologically, but also held a great deal of land and wealth, and if they did not have their political support, I am afraid that the throne would also be in turmoil. This apprehension is not superfluous, and according to historians, the neo-Babylonian kingdom declined so rapidly after Nebuchadnezzar that the Persians occupied the city of Babylon without a single soldier, which had a lot to do with the loss of the support of the monastic clique.
Greek historians in the 1st century BC believed that the Tower of Babel was an astronomical observatory. The Neo-Babylonians believed in star worship, and the astral body was The God, and in their mythology, Marduk was Jupiter. Did the monks of the Neo-Babylonian kingdom mysteriously ascend to the top of the tower really serve the god Marduk, who was half-lying on the bed? Herodotus was quite dissatisfied with this, and modern scholars do not believe it, perhaps they are lying in bed halfway observing the heavens! Moreover, the early astronomical knowledge of mankind was directly derived from religion and witchcraft, and most of the monks mastered this knowledge. The Neo-Babylonians achieved the most outstanding astronomical achievements in the world at that time, and the credit of this tower may not be denied.
It is also believed that the Tower of Babel is multifunctional. The ground floor of the tower is a temple for sacrifice, and the top of the tower is a outpost for military observation.
Scientific Archaeology Babel Tower
In March 1899, a group of German archaeologists carried out large-scale archaeological excavations on the banks of the Euphrates River, more than 50 kilometers south of present-day Baghdad, and finally found the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon, which had been missing for more than 2,000 years and had been reconstructed by Nebuchadnezzar II in 605 BC.
Archaeologists are still carrying out excavations on the site of the ancient city of Babylon. Many palaces, temples, streets and houses have gradually emerged from the ground. Archaeologists are working with historians and artists to reproduce prototypes of most of the ancient city of Babylon based on excavated artifacts, so that one day this magnificent ancient city of mankind can be restored to its old view.
The Tower of Babel, comparable to the pyramids
Built more than 5,000 years ago, the Babel Tower is as magnificent as the pyramids. The base of this spectacular tower is about 91 meters long and 91 meters wide, and is built of boulders into seven steps, one layer on top of the other, one step higher than the other, and nearly 100 meters high. On top of it, there are also beautiful temples. It is said that it is the stepping place of the gods in the heavens on the way to the mortal dwellings, and it can be called the "post station" or "inn" of the heavenly road. Babel Tower, like other temple towers in Mesopotamia, is made of brick due to the lack of good wood and rocks. Although palms are abundant there, the wood is not good; The two river basins are alluvial plains, and the rocks are scarce, although there are some stones in the north but of poor quality.
In order to make the appearance of the huge wall of the temple tower not appear monotonous, the craftsmen cleverly built tall diagonal bridges and diagonal stairs, and then decorated them with brackets, and cleverly divided the huge flat wall into several sections with variations. From the perspective of modern architectural technology, this huge façade treatment method is very in line with the law of architectural art, and it is very clever. In Hebrew mythology, the Tower of Babel is closely connected to the God Jehovah. Fearing the great power of the mortals in building the city of Babel and the Tower of Babel, and jealous of their wisdom and success, Jehovah cast a spell to confuse their accents, causing them to be unable to speak to each other, creating a gap and making it impossible to complete the project. However, the construction of the Babel Tower did not fail because it was stopped by the "gods", on the contrary, it was built, but later destroyed.
After the sweeping of history and the baptism of time, to this day, only a pile of ruins remains of babel Tower. We can only speculate on its scale, style, structure, etc. from its vague sites. And the records of those surviving historical books do not give us a deeper understanding of this. In rare historical records, it is worthy of value in a precious domino found in the Temple of Maduk next to the Tower of Babel. Inscribed on the domino is the praise of the abandoned Tower of Babel in 460 BC by the ancient Greek historical geographer Herodotus during his tour of the city of Babylon: "It has a solid main tower, a furlong (210 meters) square, with eight floors. There is a spiral-shaped passage on the outer rim, which goes up the tower to the top of the tower. Seats are available about halfway through for a stop. The towers he wrote down were about 90 meters long on each side and about 90 meters high.
Herodotus also wrote that on top of Babel's Tower "there was a great temple with an elaborate large sleeping chair, ornately laid out, and a golden table next to it." There are no idols in the temple... God Himself entered the temple and rested on a sleeping chair." The Tower of Babel was destroyed in 689 BC when the Assyrian king Senakiri captured the city of Babylon. Later, when the Neo-Babylonian kingdom was established and the ruler Nebuchadnezzar (605-562 BC) ordered the reconstruction of the Tower of Babel, because of the sheer volume of the project, he had to call on "all the people of the whole country, north and south, inland or coastal areas, to come and work."
The same happened in 331 BC, when Alexander the Great arrived in babylon, the Tower of Babel had been destroyed, and he intended to rebuild the abandoned tower, but this ambition was later frightened by the sheer scale of the project. It is estimated that the initial clean-up of the ground at the original site alone will require 10,000 people to work for two months.
Babel Tower is the product of the highly developed Babylonian civilization
Sumerian cities are one of the earliest birthplaces of human civilization, that is, since the formation of the southern part of the Two Rivers Valley, peoples began to flourish here, small slave city-states arose, slave temple economy and royal economy have been vigorously developed. At the same time as civilization and economy developed together, the ancient Babylonian Kingdom came into being. At the beginning of the 19th century BC, the Amorites established the Kingdom of Babylon with Babylon as their capital.
Since then, babylon's position has increased with socio-economic development. Between about 1728 BC and 1686 BC, the sixth king, Hammurabi, established Babylon into a centralized slave kingdom. During this period, the construction of babylon, which was prosperous, was greatly built, and the temple tower began to be vigorously built at this time. After The Death of Hammurabi, Babylon underwent the baptism of war, and after about 400 years of war, it was conquered by assyria, a new power in the north. It was not until the end of the 7th century BC that it once again won independence and established the Neo-Babylonian kingdom. Under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II, it lasted 88 years and returned to its former prosperity.
Under Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon built a series of buildings. These include the 16-kilometer-long outer city wall and the 37-meter-high inner city wall, which is built with ornate towers. Inside the city is the Nebuchadnezzar Palace, which is about 46 meters long and 14 meters wide, and the Euphrates River flows from one side outside the city. The famous Hanging Gardens are right next to it. In front of it is a palace dedicated to the God of Babylon, Maduk. The most striking thing is the Tower of Babel towering in the city.
The great civilization of Mesopotamia was left with the fall of Babylon, and the original use of those temples and pagodas disappeared with the departure of the revered god Maduk. To this day, is the Tower of Babel a mausoleum for the monarchs of the slave kingdoms, an ancient astronomical observatory, or a stepping place for the gods? People have painstakingly studied and tried to get the mystery of these buildings of the Tower of Babel, but the results are still slim and cannot be traced.
Conclusion: The Babel Tower of the Babylonian Kingdom has undergone historical changes and the baptism of the years, many years ago, how the magnificent architectural project of babel Tower was built, and what the overall style design is, it is still a permanent mystery for us!