The tower of Babel, Babylon

[Talal]

I must say this structure has always fascinated me; I haven't gotten a round to do much digging on it..A simple google search leads to a Paper which makes some fairly good points about its existence but they are all based on interpretations of bible..To any historian here; is there any mention of this tower in the Quran or even other islamic research texts ?

[Karachi]

true. for some reason I have had dreams about this structure, I am not sure if it existed or not

this is a similar tower built by the muslims in the 8th century, perhaps to resemble the original tower:

[Manzareh]

looks amazing. nice one

[Karachi]

^ fine it's a mosque, but you have to admit where they probably got the inspiration from

[al-arab]

That's the Great Masjid of Samarra (a well-known and ancient city in Iraq).

The masjid is also one of the oldest in the world and built during the Abbasid Caliphate by the khalifah Al-Mutawakkil. Very beautiful.

Here is some much better pictures of it;












Talal:

Brother I found this in English (I have more information in Arabic if you are interested and if you speak Arabic)

"Though not mentioned by name, the Qur'an has a story with similarities to the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel, though set in the Egypt of Moses. In Suras 28:38 and 40:36-37, Pharaoh asks Haman to build him a stone, or clay tower so that he can mount up to heaven and confront the God of Moses.

Turris Babel from Athanasius KircherAnother story in Sura 2:102 mentions the name of Babil, but tells of when the two angels Haroot and Maroot taught the people of Babylon the tricks of magic and warned them that magic is a sin and that their teaching them magic is a test of faith.

A tale about Babil appears more fully in the writings of Yaqut (i, 448 f.) and the Lisan el-'Arab (xiii. 72), but without the tower: mankind were swept together by winds into the plain that was afterward called "Babil", where they were assigned their separate languages by God, and were then scattered again in the same way. In the History of the Prophets and Kings by the 9th century Muslim theologian al-Tabari, a fuller version is given: Nimrod has the tower built in Babil, God destroys it, and the language of mankind, formerly Syriac, is then confused into 72 languages. Another Muslim historian of the 13th century, Abu al-Fida relates the same story, adding that the patriarch Eber (an ancestor of Abraham) was allowed to keep the original tongue, Hebrew in this case, because he would not partake in the building.

Though variations of the stories similar to the Judeo-Christian narrative of the tower of babel exist within Islamic traditions, the central theme of God separating humankind on the basis of language is alien to Islam according to author Yahya Emmerick. In Islamic belief God created nations to know each other and not to be separated.[14]"

The Ziggurat (comes from the Akkadian - a Semetic langauge spoken in ancient Assyria and Babylon (Ancient Iraq) word ziqqurat and is the same as pyramides just much older.

Iraq, cradle of civilization, has a lot of ancient treasures discovered and not discovered yet.

Unfortunately due to many wars and the current situation there cannot be big discoveries.

Every year there are more ancient founds.

Treasures from Ancient Iraq - YouTube

Also in Samarra there is the old Al-Askari masjid which is also beautiful:




Also when you mention Burj Babil I always think about the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and how it maybe looked.





Also the Tower of Babylon and Hanging Gardens of Babylon was 2 of the 7 wonders of the ancient world.

[Catya Sher]

I think it is that evocative NAME : Hanging Gardens
which caught the imaginations of all later peoples up to the present.
No one really knows how they were constructed, though.

But archeological evidence found in the 1950s seemed ot indicate
that the plants were hung from the ceiling of the next upper level -
hence the name.

It's a mystery, though, fun to contemplate.

That Askari Mosque was the one destroyed earlier in a big bombing attack.
Is there any news about its restoration ?

I have photos of it and the Samarra Minaret from the pre-destruction era
The minaret is so graceful and seems to me to evoke the journey up to Heaven...

Some of Talal's paintings of the Tower of Babel were amazing. Mystical.

[Levanaye Zalmaye]

The "tower of Babel" probably never existed. It's most likely a reference to a tall structure/temple in Babylonia. The story about how languages were created there and what the purpose of the tower was are also untrue..

The ancient Israelites viewed Babylonia very negatively, mostly because of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Jewish temple there. That's why Babylonia is portrayed as a place of vice in the Bible.

[Karachi]

I heard dubai had a plan to create hanging gardens of Babylon resort, but they probably canceled it by now