THE TOWER of Babel was not at Babylon. It was at a place that was at least as important in the spiritual sense: Eridu.

The Sumerians remember Eridu as the first city, where “kingship” was lowered from heaven, and, most important, it’s where the oldest and largest ziggurat in Mesopotamia was located. That was the temple of the god Enki, the E-abzu—the “House of the Abyss.”

It was believed that Enki sent the gifts of civilization to humanity with the apkallu, the Mesopotamian Watchers, angelic beings who were later banished to the abzu by the chief god Marduk. Of course, that’s a twisted version of the biblical account in which the rebellious Watchers were imprisoned by God in Tartarus (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6).

We explain why Babel should not be confused with Babylon, discuss the identity of the historical character the Hebrews called Nimrod, and speculate on why God found the Tower of Babel so offensive that He personally intervened to stop it.