a city and tower undertaken to be built by the whole human race soon after the Flood, and remarkable for the miraculous frustration of the attempt by the confusion of languages. As to the situation of ancient Babel, most authors are of opinion that it was exactly in the place where the celebrated city of Babylon afterwards stood. That it was in the same country, appears indisputably certain from Scripture; but that it was exactly in the same place, cannot be proved. Authors have been much divided about the motive by which the whole race of mankind were induced to join as one man in such an undertaking. Some have imagined that it was from the fear of a second deluge; others, that they knew beforehand that they were to be dispersed through all the different countries of the world, and built this tower in order to defeat the design of the Deity, because, having a tower of such vast height as they proposed, those who were at a distance could easily find their way back again. Others again suppose that the top of this tower was not to reach up to heaven, but to be consecrated to the heavens, that is, to the worship of the sun, moon, and stars, of the fire, air, &c., and other natural powers, as deities; and therefore that the true Deity interposed in order to prevent a total and irrecoverable defection. Less speculative persons think that the tower was erected as a fortress for the establishment of tyrannical power. As to the materials made use of in the building of this tower, the Scripture informs us that they were bricks, and slime or bitumen. According to an eastern tradition, three years were occupied in making the bricks, each of which was thirteen cubits long, ten broad, and five thick. Oriental writers say that the city was 313 fathoms in length and 151 in breadth; that the walls were 553 fathoms high, and 33 in breadth; and that the tower itself was no less than 10,000 fathoms, or 12 miles high. Even St Jerome affirms, from the testimony of eye-witnesses, who, as he says, had examined the remains of the tower, that it was four miles high; and there are other statements still more extravagant. The only account of its dimensions which can be at all depended upon (supposing it to have been the same which afterwards stood in the midst of the city of Babylon, and round which Nebuchadnezzar built the temple of Belus) is that given under the article BABYLON.