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The Tower of Babel

The Tower of Babel is one of the most famous stories in the Book of Genesis (Genesis 11:1-9). In Zecharia Sitchin's interpretation, this was not a story about divine punishment for human pride but a historical account of Marduk's attempt to build a rocket launch tower — a SHEM facility — in Babylon.

The Biblical Account

"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." (Genesis 11:4)

"And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built. 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.'" (Genesis 11:5-6)

Sitchin's Interpretation

The "Name" — SHEM

Sitchin translated the key verse differently:

"Let us make us a SHEM" — not "a name," but a rocketship

The Tower of Babel was a launch tower for a spacecraft:

"The Tower of Babel was not a ziggurat. It was a launch structure for a rocketship — a SHEM — built on the plain of Babylon under the direction of Marduk."

The Confusion of Languages

The "confusion of languages" was not divine intervention but: 1. A military action by Enlil's forces to stop Marduk's project 2. The destruction of the launch facility by the gods 3. The scattering of Marduk's followers (engineers, workers, priests) across the land

The Gods' Concern

"Nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do"

Sitchin read this as the Anunnaki council's concern that if humans gained spaceflight technology, they would become independent of the gods. The tower had to be destroyed.

Historical Context

In Sitchin's chronology: - The Tower of Babel was built around 3450 BCE (after the flood, before the Pyramid Wars) - It was part of Marduk's plan to establish Babylon as the supreme city - The destruction of the tower was one of the opening acts of the Pyramid Wars - The "scattering" of people explains the dispersion of languages and cultures

The Etemenanki

The historical ziggurat of Babylon — the Etemenanki ("House of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth") — was the physical structure that preserved the memory of the Tower of Babel. Sitchin saw it as a later replica or memorial of the original launch tower.

Cuneiform Evidence

The Tower of Babel narrative is preserved in the biblical Book of Genesis (Genesis 11:1-9), but the theme of a sacred tower reaching heaven appears in Mesopotamian texts describing the construction of ziggurats, the great stepped temple-towers of Babylon.

  • CDLI Corpus: Babylon ziggurat — Browse tablets mentioning Babylon's ziggurat
  • Key tablet: The Etemenanki ziggurat in Babylon — the "House of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth" — is described in cuneiform building inscriptions from the Neo-Babylonian period (CDLI P451234). The Esagila tablet describes the dimensions of the Etemenanki, which many scholars identify as the historical inspiration for the Tower of Babel narrative.

See Also

Sources

  • Sitchin, Z. (1976). The 12th Planet. Chapter 10.
  • Sitchin, Z. (1985). The Wars of Gods and Men. Chapter 3.
  • Sitchin, Z. (2007). The End of Days.