QUESTION OF THE WEEK! - What Did the Tower of Babel Look Like?

The simple answer is that the Bible does not tell us. All we know is that God intervened before the construction project was completed. Studying the oldest buildings from the area, archaeologists assume the Tower at Babel looked like a ziggurat.

But we can’t just study later buildings and calculate backward. The people at Babel had a unique opportunity. The incredible engineering skills of all mankind were together in one place. But when God split them up, each family took their talents with them. So the later founders of Babylon and Egypt lacked the expertise of their forefathers.

We can only imagine what their original plans looked like. Perhaps they designed an enormous city that would require a thousand years to complete. After all, they probably expected to live a thousand years, as people did before the Flood.

It is possible that they had unique construction materials available after the Flood. Thick layers of lime and other sediments may not have hardened. Perhaps these materials could be formed into bricks as strong as concrete blocks we make today.

To read the rest of this article and to see Tower of Babel reconstructions over the years, see What Did the Tower Look Like? from the new issue of Answers magazine.

News to Note Quick Look

Uncultured: It wasn’t skull differences—or any other biological difference—that ultimately separated “modern” humans and their supposedly different kin the Neanderthals, according to a recent anthropology study. Instead, the study team claims that it must have been culture that caused Neanderthals to die out while other humans lived on. Read more.

Thick skinned: A “mummified” dinosaur found in North Dakota in 1999 is finally escaping its sandstone tomb, thanks to tiny brushes and chisels (and their handlers) at the North Dakota Heritage Center. Read more.

Also: the super gecko, touring with the Word, and the last odyssey. Read more.

After Eden

This information was provided by Answers In Genesis, an excellent source of material relating to Creation and evolution. Please visit their website using the link in the upper left.