a city and tower attempted to be built by the human race soon after the Flood, and remarkable for the miraculous frustration of the attempt by the confusion of languages (Gen. xi. 1-9). Most authors are of opinion that the ancient Babel occupied the exact site of the future Babylon. The expression "reach unto heaven," as our translation of the Hebrew text has rendered it, may be well translated represent the heavens; hence some suppose that the top of this tower was not meant 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. Less speculative persons think that the tower was erected as a fortress for the establishment of tyrannical power. It is generally supposed to be the same with the tower of Belus, described in the article BABYLON.