Scientists from around the world have long believed thatthe story of how the tower of Babel was built - a legend of human arrogance, and only. So it was, until the archaeologists who came from Europe, did not find the exact location of the ancient ruins of Babylon. A hundred kilometers from Baghdad, hills with steep slopes and flat peaks have been hanging for centuries. The locals thought that these were natural details of the relief. Nobody guessed that under your feet - the greatest city and the great Tower of Babel. In 1899, Robert Koldeway, an archaeologist from Germany, who went down in history as a man who excavated Babylon, came here.

The Tower of Babel - history

The descendants of Noah were one people and they all spoke the same language. They lived in the valley of Shinar between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris.

They decided to build a city and a high tower -to the heavens. We prepared a large number of bricks - self-made, from burned clay, and actively began to build. But the Lord considered their intention to be proud and angry - he made people start talking in completely different languages, they stopped understanding each other at all. So the tower and the city remained unfinished, and the punished descendants of Noah began to settle in different lands, thus forming different peoples.

The unfinished city was called Babylon, which, according to the Bible, means "confusion": in that place the Lord mixed the languages ​​of the whole world, and from that place he scattered people throughout the earth.

Along the rivers Tigris and Euphrates were built hugemajestic towers that had a cult significance. They consisted of several stepped tiers, tapering upward. On the flat top was a sanctuary dedicated to the deity. Upstairs was a massive stone staircase, along which a long procession of priests ascended to music and hymns during the service. It was the tower of Babel, judging by the excavations, consisted of 7 tiers, and its height was ninety meters.

Let's return to the excavations under the leadership of RobertKoldiveya. He got a full picture of the scale of Babylon after a few months of his work. First, a brick wall (7 meters wide, 12 meters high) was excavated. At a distance of 11 meters from her, heavy ground hid a second wall of burned brick stones almost 8 m wide, and behind it was a third wall - 3 m wide.

Between the first two walls the space in itstime was filled to the top with earth, which turned them into one big, impenetrable and impregnable, rampart rampart. The inner wall every 50 m. Had a watchtower. Subsequently, the archaeologist Koldewei counted an amazing number of fortress towers - 360! Thus, the entire inner wall of Babylon was more than 18 kilometers away! It is by these parameters that Babylon remained the most immense city that was built by man on our planet.

Findings in these places were an immeasurable amount- it was a city gate covered with copper, fragments of bas-reliefs from smooth glazed brick, winged majestic lions made artfully by ancient sculptors. Also, a three-shaft well was excavated, which served once for water intake and was equipped with a belt lift, which was intended for continuous water supply. The assembly of the entire underground structure, where the well was located, was laid out with a stone. All these artifacts, hidden beneath the earth, eclipsed the grandeur and brilliance of the masterpieces of Egyptian culture.

The Tower of Babel, resembling a pillar, is considereda true embodiment of human pride, and its long construction (mass pandemonium) - a symbol of chaos and multitudes. It turns out that the legend is not a legend at all, and the Tower of Babel did exist in the Ancient World.