Babel, the Hebrew name for Babylon and the Babylonian empire. In the language of the Chaldeans it was probably Bab-Il, the "gate of (the highest) God;" but the Hebrew form is explained by halal (or billel), to confound, in allusion to the confounding of tongues consequent on the building of the tower of Babel. This tower was probably never carried to any great elevation, but a sacredness may have been attached to the spot on which it was to be built; and there, long after, was erected the pyramidal temple of Bel-Merodach, finally repaired by Nebuchadnezzar, the ruins of which, at Borsippa, are now known as Birs Nimrud (citadel of Nim-rod). Except in one passage (Gen. xi. 9), there is no reference in Scripture to the tower of Babel; but we are told of a temple of Bel in which Nebuchadnezzar placed the spoils of Jerusalem, and probably those of his other conquests. Herodotus describes a temple of Belus, which according to him consisted of a "solid tower of a stadium in depth and width; upon this tower another is raised, and another upon that, to the number of eight towers." This general description tallies so closely with the mound of Birs Nimrud as to render it probable that this is the remains of the temple of Belus. The ruin presents the aspect of a huge irregular mound, rising abruptly from a wide desert plain, with masses of vitrified matter lying around its base.

Its interior is found upon excavation to be composed of a mass of brick partially vitrified by fire, showing that it is the ruin of a structure into which combustible material largely entered. The bricks disinterred from the mound bear inscriptions in the cuneiform character, in most of which the name of Nebuchadnezzar appears. One of the inscriptions of this monarch reads: "A former king had built it (they reckon 42 ages); but he did not complete its head. Since a remote time the people had abandoned it, without order expressing their words. Since that time the earthquake and the thunder had dispersed its sun-dried clay. The bricks of the casing had been split, and the earth of the interior had been scattered in heaps." Attempts have been made to represent this temple of Belus, as restored and rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar. That which appears most probable is by Sir Henry Rawlinson. He says: "Upon a platform of crude brick, raised a few feet above the alluvial plain, was built of burnt brick the first or basement stage, an exact square, 272 ft. each way, and 26 ft. in perpendicular height.

Upon this stage was erected a second, 230 ft. each way, and likewise 26 ft. in perpendicular height, which, however, was not placed exactly in the middle of the first, but considerably nearer to the southwestern end, which constituted the back of the building. The other stages were arranged similarly, the third being 188 ft. square and 26 ft. high; the fourth, 146 ft. square and 15 ft. high; the fifth, 104 ft. square, of the same height as the fourth; the sixth, 62 ft. square, and again the same height; the seventh, 20 ft. square, and once more the same height. On the seventh stage was probably placed the ark or tabernacle, which seems to have been again 15 ft. high, and must have nearly, if not entirely, covered the top of the seventh story. The entire original height, allowing three feet for the platform, would thus have been 156 ft., or without the platform 153 ft. The whole formed a sort of oblique pyramid, the gentler slope facing the N. E., and the steeper inclining to the S. W. On the N. E. side was the grand entrance, and here stood the vestibule, a separate building, the debris from which, having joined those from the temple itself, fill up the intermediate space, and remarkably prolong the mound in this direction." The several stories of this temple appear to have been painted in several colors: the lowest black, representing Saturn; then, in order, Jupiter, orange; Mars, red; the Sun, golden; Venus, yellow; Mercury, blue; the moon, silver.

Above these was the shrine, in which, according to Herodotus, was a golden table, and a bed well furnished, but no image. "Within the shrine, he adds, "no one remains over night, except a native female, one whom the god has chosen in preference to all others, as say the Chaldeans, who are priests of that god. These persons also say, asserting what I do not believe, that the god himself frequents the temple, and reposes on the couch." The purposes to which this temple became devoted from age to age may be gathered from the foregoing. Consecrated, perhaps, at first to the ambition of a monotheistic faith, it passed through several stages of Sabianism or worship of the host of heaven, until the rites performed in it sank into the gross idolatry of later times, and it was polluted by the vices which grow out of heathen superstition, as intimated by Herodotus. In one respect this temple, or rather series of temples built on the same spot, subserved a valuable purpose. The Babylonians were given to the study of astronomy; the temple served also as an observatory, from which the movements of the heavenly bodies could be watched.

Assuming, which is probable, that the mound of Birs Nimrud represents the most important structure in ancient Babylon, it enables us to correct, at least approximately, the statements of the later historians as to the height of the walls which surrounded the city. This temple was at most only 156 ft. high, while we are told that the city walls were 300 or 350 ft., with towers having a height of 420 ft. These walls would therefore be nearly as high as the dome of St. Paul's, London (365 ft.), and the towers almost as high as the cross which surmounts the dome of St. Peter's at Rome (430 ft.). Of all human structures the apex of the greatest Egyptian pyramid (480 ft.) is the only one which greatly exceeds that ascribed to the brick towers of Babylon. The only other ruins which have in any way been proposed to be identified with the ancient Babel, are those now denominated El-Kasr and Babil, on the opposite side of the Euphrates, at a distance of about 12 m. from Birs Nimrud. (See Babylon).