A The basement stage— black. B The second stage— orange. C The third stage— red. D The fourth stage— golden (?). E The fifth stage— yellow. F The sixth stage— blue. G The seventh stage— silver (?). H The shrine or chapeL
1 (Elevation restored).
BABEL
593
BABI
that of Babil 140 (?), that of the Warka temple 100, that of the temple at Mugheir 50 feet. Strabo's state- ment that the tomb of Belus was a stade (GOG feet in height) would thus seem to be a gross exaggeration. Probably no Babylonian tower ever equalled the Great Fyramid, the original height of which was 180 feet. See Pyramids.
9. Its Materials and Manner of Construction. — On these points more light is to be obtained from the Warka and Mugheir buildings than from the Birs. The Birs was rebuilt from top to bottom by Nebu- chadnezzar, and shows the mode of construction prev- alent in Babylon at the best period ; the temples at Warka and Mugheir remain to a certain extent in their primitive condition, the upper stories alone hav- ing been renovated. The Warka temple is composed entirely of sun-dried bricks, which are of various shapes and sizes ; the cement used is mud ; and reeds are largely employed in the construction. It is a building of the most primitive type, and exhibits a ruder style of art than that which we perceive from Scripture to have obtained at the date of the tower. Burnt bricks were employed in the composition of the tower (Gen. xi, 3) ; and though perhaps it is somewhat doubtful what the chemar ("i^H, "slime") used for mortar may have been (see Fresnel in Journ. Asiat.'que for June, 1853, p. 9), yet, on the whole, it is most prob- able that bitumen (which abounds in Babylonia) is the substance intended. See Bitumen. Now the lower basement of the Mugheir temple exhibits this com- bination in a decidedly primitive form. The burnt bricks are of small size and of an inferior quality; they are laid in bitumen ; and they face a mass of sun-dried brick, forming a solid wall outside it ten feet in thickness. No reeds are used in the building. Writing appears on it, but of an antique cast. The supposed date is B.C. 2300, but little later than the era commonly assigned to the building of Babel. Prob- ably the erection of the two buildings was not sepa- rated by a very Ions interval, though it is reasonable to suppose that of the two the tower was the earlier. If we mark its date, as perhaps we are entitled to do, by the time of Teleg, the son of Eber, and father of Keu (see Gen. x, 25), we may perhaps place it about B.C. 2400. See Dispersion of Nations.
10. Advantages of this form.. — It is not necessary to suppose that any real idea of "scaling heaven" was present to the minds of those who raised either the Tower of Babel, or any other of the Babylonian tem- ple-towers. The expression used in Genesis (xi, 4) is a mere hyperbole for great height (comp. Deut. i, 28 ; Dan. iv, 11, etc.), and should not be taken literally. Military defence was probably the primary object of such edifices in early times; but with the wish for this may have been combined further secondary mo- tives, which remained when such defence was other- wise provided for. Diodorus states that the great tower of the temple of Belus was used by the Chal- dacans as an observatory (ii, 9), and the careful em- placement of the Babylonian temples with the angles facing the four cardinal points would be a natural consequence, and may be regarded as a strong con- firmation of the reality of this application. M. Fresnel has recently conjectured that they were also used as sleeping-places for the chief priests in the summer time (Journ. Asiatique, June, 1853, p. 529-31). The upper air is cooler, and is free from the insects, espe- cially mosquitoes, which abound below ; and the de- scription which Herodotus gives of the chamber at the top of the Belus tower (i, 181) goes far to confirm this ingenious view. — Smith, s. v.
11. Confirmation from other Pyramidal Temples. — Mr. Taylor (Fragments to Calmet's Diet.) has given views of several similar structures now extant, of which we copy two. The first, rising in several steps or stages, is at Tanjore, in the East Indies; and af-
P p
East Indian-ryramid.
fords, it is presumed, a just idea of the Tower of Babel. It is, indeed, wholly constructed of stone, in which it differs from that more ancient edifice, which, being situated in a country destitute of stone, was, of neces- sity, constructed of brick. On the top of this pyra- mid is a chapel or temple, affording a specimen of the general nature of this kind of sacred edifices in India. These amazing structures are commonly erected on or near the banks of great rivers, for the advantage of ablution. In the courts that surround them innumer- able multitudes assemble at the rising of the sun, after having bathed in the stream below. The gate of the pagoda uniformly fronts the east. The internal cham- ber commonly receives light only from the door. An external pathwajr, for the purpose of visiting the chap- el at the top, merits observation.