Tower of Babel
The Tower of Babel is a story in the Bible.
Biblical narrative
1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar [Babylonia]; and they dwelt there.
3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
6 And the LORD said, 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.
7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because 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.
-Genesis 11:1โ9, King James Version.
Non-religious interpretations
The story may have been inspired by similar older stories that also provide an explanation for the existence of different languages and warn against trying to upset the natural order, a temple tower in Babylon that was destroyed by Alexander the Great, and jewish dislike of Babylon due to the jewish Babylonian captivity.