The Tower Of Babel in Google Maps - what is it?

[Revtim]

If you search Googe Maps for “Tower Of Babel”, you actually get something in/near the ruins of Babylon, that looks like the base of an ancient building. Assuming it’s not the actual base of a tower that is the basis of the myth, does anybody know what it is/was?

It’s not that big a base, I think less than 200 feet by 200 feet, I can’t imagine it could have been a very tall tower if it was a tower.

Some of the reviews are funny - “the staff was a bit hard to understand”…

[Ravenman]

Weird that an ancient archaeological site would have a phone number in London. And that when it rings, Mormons pick it up.

[Chronos]

Why wouldn’t it be the actual ruins of the tower that’s the basis of the myth (or at least, modern archaeologists’ best guess as to it)? And yeah, it wouldn’t have been a very tall tower by modern standards, but a step ziggarut with that base would be about a hundred feet tall (or more, depending on what slope they could get), which isn’t that shabby.

[ftg]

The tower that was at that site is called Etemenanki. Speculated by some (based on very loose reasoning) to be the Tower of Babel in the Bible.

Note that the co-ordinates given in the Wikipedia article takes you to the same site.

The article says the tile was stripped by Alexander the Great. Unprotected, unmaintained mud bricks and earth fill don’t last a long time, even in a desert environment.

(It’s always a good idea to be wary of “proof” provided by certain people about the historicity of the Bible.)

[Darren_Garrison]

Interesting size comparison midway down this page. It wasn’t Great Pyramid sized but it was no slouch for its time, either.

[Jonathan_Chance]

@Darren_Garrison

Interesting size comparison midway down this page. It wasn’t Great Pyramid sized but it was no slouch for its time, either.

Huh. I’ve been at the top of three of those. All impressive. I’d have liked to see the Babylonian one when it was standing.

[Panther_Modern]

@Ravenman

Weird that an ancient archaeological site would have a phone number in London. And that when it rings, Mormons pick it up.

It’s a ~mystery~

[Revtim]

@ftg

The tower that was at that site is called Etemenanki. Speculated by some (based on very loose reasoning) to be the Tower of Babel in the Bible.

Note that the co-ordinates given in the Wikipedia article takes you to the same site.

The article says the tile was stripped by Alexander the Great. Unprotected, unmaintained mud bricks and earth fill don’t last a long time, even in a desert environment.

(It’s always a good idea to be wary of “proof” provided by certain people about the historicity of the Bible.)

Thanks!

[md2000]

@Jonathan_Chance

Huh. I’ve been at the top of three of those. All impressive. I’d have liked to see the Babylonian one when it was standing.

All three? Did you get arrested for climbing the Great Pyramid?

[Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus]

Who would have thought it?

[Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus]

@Ravenman

Weird that an ancient archaeological site would have a phone number in London. And that when it rings, Mormons pick it up.

Well, you know how it is. You move from the UK to Iraq, but you keep your old mobile number because if you don’t you will lose your ability to recover your password for half a dozen different websites.

This must be the same for Mormons as for the rest of us.

[Son_of_a_Rich]

@Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus

Who would have thought it?

How long does it take to get through the language options?

[CookingWithGas]

@md2000

All three? Did you get arrested for climbing the Great Pyramid?

It is illegal now but it wasn’t always so, although I doubt Jonathan Chance climbed it before 1951.