# Tower Of Babel origins

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tower-of-babel-origins/133528>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 23, 2002, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tower-of-babel-origins/133528 "2002-10-23T15:36:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2002, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tower-of-babel-origins/133528/1 "2002-10-23T15:36:57Z")

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Do other cultures and myths contain a story similar to the tower of Babel? Many cultures have an Ark myth and I’m wondering if the tower myth is wide-spread.

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**Author:** ![scotth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9e5f3/32.png) [@scotth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotth)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2002, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tower-of-babel-origins/133528/2 "2002-10-23T17:01:03Z")

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This doesn’t answer you question precisely, but may be of interest.

The Tower of Babel is considered to have really existed and is most likely a ziggurat. I think the most often claimed candidate is the Marduk precint ziggurat.

The story of its downfall has little credibility, but that it existed appears probable.

By this, it would not surprise me to find other cultures with stories of these structures. In their time, Mesopotamian cities with ziggurats at their core would have been very impressive/scarey to most visiting people.