Was the Tower of Babel Left Under Construction?

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When the German archaeologists Robert Koldewey investigated the remains of the ziggurat of Babylon during his excavations there (1899–1917), his findings were both exciting and disappointing. They were exciting because he claimed to have discovered the biblical Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1–9), for which scholars had previously searched in vain at other Mesopotamian sites. But they were also disappointing, because all that remained of the massive tower were ruins: it had been dismantled in antiquity; basically, only the foundations remained to be seen and excavated. In fact, the tower had fallen into disrepair at several points in its long history. […]

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Endnotes

1. See David S. Vanderhooft, “Babylon as Cosmopolis in Israelite Texts and Achaemenid Architecture,” Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 9 (2020), pp. 41–61; and Matthieu Richelle, “Was the Tower of Babel Really Left Unfinished? Genesis 11:6 in Light of Hebrew Syntax, the Septuagint, and Jewish Reception,” Semitica 63 (2021), pp. 125–139.

2. At least, this is the case in the surviving Latin version of this book, although it was originally written in Hebrew.