# Babel/Babylon = Baghdad? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 27, 2003, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babel-babylon-baghdad/164454 "2003-03-27T04:15:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babel-babylon-baghdad/164454/1 "2003-03-27T04:15:01Z")
I was looking at a [map](http://scriptures.lds.org/biblemaps/6) in my Bible and it struck me that the city of Babylon (formerly known as Babel, where the tower was built) is very close in location to the current location of [Baghdad](http://home.achilles.net/~sal/icons/iraq_det_map.gif). Does anyone know if there is any archeological evidence that modern Baghdad is on the same site, or nearby, to Babylon? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babel-babylon-baghdad/164454/2 "2003-03-27T04:27:38Z")
Nearby. They’re about 50 miles apart according to [this page](http://www.brow.on.ca/Books/Thoughts/WordsB.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babel-babylon-baghdad/164454/3 "2003-03-27T04:33:50Z")
Iraq formerly known as Mesopotamia, has been around for a long, long time. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babel-babylon-baghdad/164454/4 "2003-03-27T05:34:22Z")
Babylon was about four miles north of the current city of al-Hillah, on the East bank of the Euphrates. (Nineveh was further north on both sides of the Khosr River where it flows into the Tigris, opposite the current city of Mosul.) ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babel-babylon-baghdad/164454/5 "2003-03-27T06:52:03Z")
Baghdad was built during the VIII° century as a new exemplary (and magnificent) capital in the middle of nowhere (like Brazilia in modern times). It has a lot of historical signifiance since it was the head of the califate (at a time when the arab empire was unified). But it has nothing to do with Babylon. ---
**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babel-babylon-baghdad/164454/6 "2003-03-27T07:26:52Z")
My encyclopedia puts Babylon at 32[sup]0[/sup]33N 44[sup]0[/sup]25E and Baghdad at 33[sup]0[/sup]20N 44[sup]0[/sup]26E. When plotted on a map this concurs very nicely with what \*\* tomndebb\*\* said. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babel-babylon-baghdad/164454/7 "2003-03-27T13:38:50Z")
Isn’t Bagdad very close to the ancient city of Ur? ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babel-babylon-baghdad/164454/8 "2003-03-27T13:53:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by smiling bandit \* > \*\*Isn’t Bagdad very close to the ancient city of Ur? \*\* According to [this map](http://scriptures.lds.org/biblemaps/5) Ur looks like it would be in Kuwait. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babel-babylon-baghdad/164454/9 "2003-03-27T13:54:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Reeder \* > \*\*Iraq formerly known as Mesopotamia, has been around for a long, long time. \*\* > [@](#): > > A few miles from the bridge to the south lie the ruins of the ancient city of Ur, founded 8,000 years ago, the birth place of Abraham and a flourishing metropolis at a time when the inhabitants of north-west Europe were still walking round in animal skins. > > Sgt Sprague, from White Sulphur Springs in West Virginia, passed it on his way north, but he never knew it was there. > > “I’ve been all the way through this desert from Basra to here and I ain’t seen one shopping mall or fast food restaurant,” he said. “These people got nothing. Even in a little town like ours of twenty five hundred people you got a McDonald’s at one end and a Hardee’s at the other.” > [here](http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,921393,00.html) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babel-babylon-baghdad/164454/10 "2003-03-27T15:57:43Z")
What that smug reporter neglects to mention is that the inhabitants of Ur were also “still walking around in animal skins”.