BAB 



167 



BAB 



Babel, dit. If the opinion of the learned Bochart be cor- 

 v ' rect, that the tower in the temple of Belus in Baby- 

 lon is the same with the tower of Babel, the descrip- 

 tion which Herodotus has eiven of the former, is ap- 

 plicable to the latter. He tells us, that it was a 

 square tower, built in the form of a pyramid ; each 

 side of which, at its base, measured a furlong : and 

 its height, according to Strabo, was also a furlong, 

 or 660 feet ; exceeding, by 60 feet, the highest of 

 the pyramids of Egypt, according to the late mea- 

 surement of these stupenduous monuments of anti- 

 quity by the French. Around the outside of the 

 building, there was a winding passage from the bot- 

 tom to the top, and so very broad as to permit car- 

 riages to pass each other ; which gave it the ap- 

 pearance of eight square towers, built one above an- 

 other, and gradually decreasing in size to the top of 

 the building. It contained many large rooms, with 

 arched roofs supported by pillars ; these became 

 parts of the temple of Belus, after it was convert- 

 ed into a place of idolatrous worship ; and, in the 

 highest tower, there was an observatory for astrono- 

 mical purposes, a science in which the Babylonians 

 eminently excelled. 



Several descriptions of the state of this famous 

 tower in later times, may be found in the Anc. Un. 

 Hist. vol. i. p. 334-. A traveller, who saw it not 

 many years ago, describes it in these words: " Four 

 gentlemen of our party and myself went to view the 

 tower of Nimrod. After travelling through exceeding- 

 ly high reeds and rushes, and a very dangerous road, 

 in about two hours we came to the tower, which is 

 built on an eminence, and a base of about 100 cubits 

 diameter. It appears almost like a mass of earth, 

 being erected of bricks dried by the sun, amazingly 

 thick, and betwixt every three or four feet there is 

 a layer of reeds ; its height is at least 160 feet, but 

 we found no remains either of a door or stairs. The 

 only curiosity, which struck us, was the astonishing 

 freshness of the reeds, which seemed as if put in but a 

 very few years ago, though, by the best accounts we 

 could find, it has been built upwards of 4-000 years." 

 Journey from Bassora to Bagdad by a Gentleman in 

 1779, p. 59. 



Various havebeen the conjectures respectingthe rea- 

 son which induced the whole human race to unite, as one 

 man, in this great enterprise. Some have supposed, 

 that their design was to raise a tower so high as to 

 enable them to climb up into heaven ; a strange opi- 

 nion, founded upon a literal interpretation of these 

 words in Scripture, " Let us build a city, and a 

 tower whose top may reach unto heaven ;" an ex- 

 pression evidently intended to signify no more than 

 that its height was to be uncommonly great. Simi- 

 lar expressions are to be found in Deut. i. 28. and 

 ix. 1 . where the cities of the heathen nations, who 

 inhabited the land of Canaan, are described as "great, 

 and walled or fenced up to heaven." Nor was it un- 

 common for the Greek poets to use the expressions, 

 " high as heaven," or " reaching to the sun," when 

 they wished to describe things of an extraordinary 

 height. Josephus, and some others, have thought 

 that it must have been designed to preserve them 

 from a second deluge, which they greatly dreaded : 

 but, had that been the case, they would have be- 

 taken themselves to the mountains, and not made 



choice of the low country, for building a place of 

 security. A third opinion is, that, as the tower was 

 in the form of a pyramid, to the figure of which the 

 flame of fire bears a resemblance, it was a monument 

 designed in honour of the sun, to whose influence 

 they ascribed the drying up of the flood. But there 

 is no foundation in Scripture for that conjecture, and 

 the date of that species of idolatry was probably not 

 so early as it supposes. The reason assigned in 

 Scripture is, " Let us make us a name, lest we be 

 scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." 

 The most probable conjecture, therefore, seems to 

 be, that, as they were now in a vast plain, undefined 

 by buildings, or roads, or any distinct boundaries ; 

 and as they must soon separate to attend to their flocks, 

 or go in quest of provisions ; or, perhaps, dreading a 

 dispersion, in consequence of Noah's projected divi- 

 sion of the earth among his posterity ; they built 

 this tower, as a pharos, or landmark, to enable them 

 to find their way back to the surrounding city ; 

 which, with its immense tower, they believed would 

 be a lasting monument of their fame, and transmit 

 their name with honour to posterity. In that view, 

 their design had been to make the whole world one 

 kingdom, and Babel its metropolis. 



This interpretation seems also to account for the 

 reason of the divine frustration of their great design, 

 and of their consequent dispersion. It is given in 

 these words, " Behold the people is one, and they 

 have all one language, and this they begin to do, and 

 now nothing will be restrained from them which they 

 have imagined to do," that is, not as some have ex- 

 plained the words, if this scheme shall succeed, the 

 divine plan for the government of the world will be 

 frustrated ; but, as the words more naturally signify, 

 this their first attempt, and if they succeed in it, 

 they will think themselves able for any undertaking, 

 no enterprise will appear too great for them. Ac- 

 cordingly, the very dispersion which they dreaded, 

 they brought upon themselves, by their vain attempt 

 to avoid it. " The name of it was called Babel, be- 

 cause the Lord did there confound the language of 

 all the earth, and from thence did the Lord scatter 

 them abroad upon the face of all the earth." See Anc. 

 Un. History, vol. 1. Stackhouse's Hist, of Bible, 

 vol. 1. Shuckford's Connection, vol. 1. (a. f.) 



BAB-EL-MANDEB, or Bab-el-mandel, the 

 name of a cape and straits at the entrance into the 

 Red Sea. The straits are divided by the island 

 of Perim, which is perfectly flat, and about three 

 miles from the cape. A bay to the eastward of the 

 cape extends inwards a considerable way, and the 

 land between it and the bay on the west is a dry salt 

 sand, and so perfectly flat, that if the sea were to rise 

 only a few feet it would cover it. Part of it is al- 

 ready a lake of salt water. Accidents have some- 

 times arisen, from mistaking this eastern bay for the 

 strait. These might be avoided, by keeping Perim 

 close on the larboard side, and by observing that 

 Bab-el-mandeb hill is the highest land in the neigh- 

 bourhood. In Lord Valentia's chart of the Red 

 Sea, the breadth of the straits of Bab-el-mandeb is 

 only 1.5 British miles. East longitude of the cape 

 43 33', North latitude 12 40'. See Niebuhr's 

 Travels, Bruce's Travels, Vincent's Periplus, and 

 Lord Valentia's Travels, vol. ii. p. 13, 14. (o) 



Bab-el- 

 mandeb. 



