What Did the Tower of Babel Look Like? Researchers Think They've Discovered the Answer
Experts are now confirming the existence of the Tower of Babel as written in the Bible.
Ancient text expert Dr. Andrew George of the University of London is set to make this announcement in the premiere episode of season 4 of the Smithsonian Channel's "Secrets" series scheduled on Sunday, May 21, 2017.
The episode puts the spotlight on a stone tablet dated to approximately 600 B.C., which was discovered in Babylon more than 100 years ago. That tablet is believed to confirm the existence of the biblical Tower of Babel and how it looked as described in the Book of Genesis, Christian News Service reported.
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This is the first time that the tablet has been studied by ancient text experts even though it was unearthed more than a century ago.
"Inside the legendary city of Babylon in modern-day Iraq lie the remains of a vast structure, which ancient records suggest was the Tower of Babel," a promotional material on the Smithsonian Channel says.
With the aid of satellite technology and new discoveries, experts have confirmed that the "biblical stairway to heaven" actually existed, it says.
The experts have also "pinpointed exactly where the legendary tower once stood, and what it looked like," it adds.
The promotional video by the cable TV network also points to "astounding new evidence" that "sensationally reveals what the Tower of Babel looked like."
George notes that the stone tablet they examined bears an image of a human figure carrying a staff and depicts the biblical tower.
The stone also bears ancient writing, which when translated, reads, "The ziggurat temple tower of the City of Babylon," he says.
"This tablet provides the first-ever image of the real Tower of Babel. It confirms the building was a Mesopotamian stepped tower and illustrates the seven tiers of the ancient megastructure," George states. "Significantly, it also clearly identifies the man behind it: Mesopotamia's most famous ruler, King Nebuchadnezzar II."
The Smithsonian Channel underscores that the ancient account of the Tower of Babel is identical to the biblical story of how the tower was constructed. "For scholars, the tablet offers further proof that the Tower of Babel wasn't just a work of fiction. It was an actual building from antiquity," it states.
Genesis 11 states that the men who had settled in Shinar conspired to build a great brick and mortar tower to "build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
However, when the Lord saw the city and the tower the people were building, He said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them."
"So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth," Genesis states.
