Original subtitles

(dramatic music)

Mastrelli: The tower of babel is one

Of the most dramatic stories in the bible.

It tells of the construction of a vertigo inducing tower

That reaches to heaven.

But angered by his people's betrayal,

God takes action to stop progress in its tracks.

(thunder rumbles)

It's a fantastical tale

But an incredible new discovery suggests

That the tower of babel was not simply a work of fiction.

(mysterious music)

For centuries, the mysteries of the past

Have kept their secrets.

But there are clues cast in gold,

(hammer clangs) etched in stone,

(warriors shout) written in blood.

We can unlock them.

(lock rattles)

(bow creaks)

(lock clangs)

These cuneiform tablets

Are the first known form of writing,

But today this tablet can teach me any language I want.

However according to the bible,

There existed a time I wouldn't have had

Any problem reading a menu anywhere in the world.

The tower of babel is a fable condemning ambition

And arrogance, and allegedly the reason

Why we all speak different languages.

The whole story may seem far-fetched at first reading,

But these ancient tablets appear to disagree.

Modern day iraq.

2,500 years ago this was the center

Of a vast region called mesopotamia,

The cradle of civilization.

(dramatic music)

And these are the remains of its capital,

A city that has become fabled in folklore

But that actually existed, babylon.

It was german archeologist, robert koldewey,

Who first identified the buried ruins of babylon in 1899.

For 18 years his team worked relentlessly

To expose the lost metropolis.

Koldewey was convinced that within the rubble

He'd find the remains of a building

That had become a legend,

The tower of babel.

The subject of one of the strangest stories in the bible.

(mysterious music)

Finkel: According to the bible,

God punished mankind for their arrogance

In trying to reach heaven.

Mastrelli: The tale is set

When the whole of earth spoke one language.

It tells of the construction of a building like no other.

Mastrelli: The bible tells us

That when god sees the tower of babel, he is enraged.

Mastrelli: God's anger stops construction in its tracks.

(thunder booms) (people shout)

He scatters the population across the earth

And multiple languages are spawned.

Finkel: God got cross,

Decided this was arrogant behavior,

Had to be punished, had to be stopped.

Mastrelli: It's an incredible story

But could it be based on truth?

Robert koldewey, the man who uncovered the ruins of babylon,

Believed it was.

More than a century later another archeologist

Is determined to prove koldewey was right.

Jeff allen is a program director

For the world monuments fund.

He's been working in iraq

To preserve the archeological remains

Of the once lost city.

A city that astonishingly was made almost entirely of mud.

Allen: What we're looking at here are the inner-city walls

Of babylon, they were made out of mud brick.

In the ancient babylonian times,

Mud brick was the foundation for most structures,

That is it's the building block

Upon which most of their architecture was built.

Mastrelli: Incredibly, over 2,000 years

After babylon was built,

Many of the city's mud brick structures have been unearthed.

They give archeologists a clue as to the sheer scale

And grandeur of the ancient city

And reveal that a massive building project

Was underway here

In the 6th century bce.

But who was behind it?

(dramatic music)

A name stamped into hundreds

Of the unearthed mud bricks provides the answer,

King nebuchadnezzar ii,

A ruler whose ambitions for babylon were on a scale

That dwarfed any other city of its time.

By 590 bce, babylon had established itself

As the epicenter of nebuchadnezzar's vast empire.

Ruling with an iron fist,

He was determined to leave his mark on the city

And evidence suggests he did.

(mysterious music)

But could nebuchadnezzar's vision really have stretched

As far as the towering structure detailed in the bible?

A real tower of babel?

Back in 1913, after 15 years of excavations,

The german archeologists

Made an earth -shattering discovery,

But flooding and war

Would make further exploration impossible

Until now. (mysterious music)

Thanks to satellite technology,

The true scale of their discovery can be revealed.

Could these be the foundations of the fabled tower?

For decades, constant flooding

From the nearby euphrates river has made access impossible,

But now after the driest summer in over 50 years,

The foundations have finally emerged.

Allen: I'm really at the place where the tower stood.

As you can see it doesn't resemble much

Of what it looked like in the past,

But you would be a day or two ride away

And you'd see this large mountain-like shape coming up

Out of the horizon.

Mastrelli: Since 2009,

Archeologist jeff allen has been forced

To study the flooded excavations from the banks.

But today he gets his first look

At the foundations of the structure that once stood here.

Allen: Normally where I'm standing

I'd be waist deep in water,

Actually about this high, judging by the water lines.

But because we're here during a very dry summer,

The base surrounding the core is actually dry

So we're able to get a better concept of the size

Of what this tower was thousands of years ago.

(dramatic music)

Mastrelli: During the original excavations back in 1913,

Archeologists recorded each of the four sides

To be just over 90 meters long, that's nearly 300 feet.

Allen: So I've now walked about 90 paces

And given my tall height that's about a meter pace,

Along the east side of the tower of babylon.

And it's another 90 meters that way

'til we reach the northeast corner.

(dramatic music)

Mastrelli: The foundations only prove

Construction was started.

There are no clues here

To confirm the structure was actually completed.

But an ancient tablet from 6th century babylon,

Now in the louvre museum in paris,

Provides tantalizing evidence

Of a finished structure like no other.

The esagila tablet describes the dimensions

Of a sky-scraping tower

With foundations of the exact same measurements

As those found in babylon.

Crucially, the ancient tablet

Also reveals the height of the building.

Finkel: There's actually a lot of information

In this louvre tablet,

So if you're a good mathematician

And a very careful draftsman

You can make a good reconstruction in your mind

On the basis of this inscription in paris.

Mastrelli: Incredibly the tablet describes a structure

That reached an astonishing 300 feet into the sky.

It was called the etemenanki.

Translated it means house of the foundation

Of heaven and earth.

The name eerily echoes the bible's description

Of a tower whose top reaches to heaven.

Finkel: When one's visualizing this building

With the assistance of this ancient inscription

It is remarkable that the ground plan is 90 by 90,

But also the height of the building is also 90 meters.

So the thing was conceived as a huge block.

Mastrelli: The foundations provide evidence

That the project began

And the esagila tablet reveals the dimensions

For an entire structure.

(suspenseful music)

Could this mythical tower have really existed?

Now an incredible discovery will reveal

Just what this ambitious ancient wonder actually looked like

To the people of babylon over 2,500 years ago.

Finkel: There's no doubt about it

That this jolly well existed and this is a picture of it.

(mysterious music)

Mastrelli: For generations,

Artists have depicted the bible's tower of babel

In all shapes and sizes.

But now, scholars are convinced

That the story was inspired by a real building.

But what did it really look like?

Examining the building styles of ancient mesopotamia,

It was most likely a multi-tiered platform structure.

This is iraq's great ziggurat of ur.

Located less than 200 miles from babylon

It's the first stage of a mesopotamian stepped tower.

It was built 1,500 years before the fabled tower of babel.

Ancient records have revealed that originally

It would have been the largest of four platforms,

Towering over 130 feet into the sky.

Ancient texts have allowed experts

To imagine what the tower of babel might have looked like,

But now astounding new evidence has emerged.

Inscribed on the surface of a privately-owned tablet

Is an image that sensationally reveals

Exactly what the tower of babel looked like.

George: This is a very strong piece of evidence,

That the tower of babel story in the bible was inspired

By this real building.

Mastrelli: This remarkable tablet,

Which has never been filmed before,

Dates to the 6th century bce.

It was discovered in babylon over a hundred years ago.

Unbelievably, no one had realized how important it was

Until professor andrew george, an expert in ancient texts,

Brought its faint carvings back to life.

George: At the top here, this part,

There is a relief depicting a stepped tower

And here, a great figure of a human being carrying a staff

With a conical hat on.

Below that relief is text

Which has been chiseled into the monument

And the label is easily read, it reads,

"etemenanki ziggurat babeli."

And that means the ziggurat or temple tower

Of the city of babylon.

Mastrelli: This tablet provides the first ever image

Of the real tower of babel.

It confirms the building was a mesopotamian stepped tower

And illustrates the seven tiers

Of the ancient mega structure.

Significantly, it also clearly identifies the man behind it,

Mesopotamia's most famous ruler, king nebuchadnezzar ii.

(dramatic music)

George: The building and its builder on the same relief.

Mastrelli: For scholars, the tablet offers further proof

That the tower of babel wasn't just a work of fiction,

It was an actual building from antiquity.

Finkel: When you look at this object

The whole thing is like encapsulated

Into one convincing bar of gold,

That there's no doubt about it that this monument,

As we understand it from the bible,

Jolly well existed and this is a picture of it.

Mastrelli: But what did it actually look like,

Looming over babylon?

Now, for the first time, the latest evidence

Will meet cutting edge 21st century technology.

Dr. Matthew nicholls, an archeologist

And computer modeler,

Will attempt to recreate the ancient world's

Most spectacular building in all its glory.

Nicholls: When I'm making 3-d digital models of the past,

What we start with is the evidence

Like any ancient historian or archeologist would.

So we survey what evidence is available for this building

And there's actually quite a lot.

So we put all of this together and it gives us a good basis

For starting to reconstruct it.

Mastrelli: After months of research

And weeks of computer modeling,

Dr. Matthew nicholls can finally bring the tower of babel

Back to life. (wondrous music)

Nicholls: We're looking here

At the site of the temple in ancient babylon,

This big blank space,

More or less in the center of the city,

Is where it stood.

The ziggurat itself we can build up in layers,

Sort of like a wedding cake and immediately I do that,

You can see this is gonna be a really substantial building.

To get up to that base you need a staircase to climb up,

So the next thing to go in has to be some sort of staircase

And we know, again from pictures and from excavation,

That there was a system of staircases running

Up the south face to get people up to that first level.

So I've put them in here.

The next layers in this ziggurat wedding cake

Are these intermediate levels,

Each one set in from the predecessor

And climbing up above it.

So you go up and up each intermediate layer all the way,

All six of them, and you find yourself on this top platform.

Mastrelli: The animation reveals the true scale

Of the tower depicted on the ancient tablet.

But while the images are extraordinary,

The tablet's ancient text also reveals a detailed account

Of the tower's construction and more importantly,

How nebuchadnezzar went about building it.

(dramatic music)

George: It reads from the upper sea which is the mediterranean

To the lower sea and that's the persian gulf.

The far-flung lands

And teaming people of the habitations are immobilized

In order to construct this building

Of the ziggurat of babylon.

Mastrelli: Incredibly, this ancient account is identical

To the biblical story

Of how the tower of babel was constructed.

King nebuchadnezzar brought in people

From all over the empire

To work on his vast building projects.

This could be a vital clue in determining the origins

Of the incredible tale of the tower of babel.

(suspenseful music)

(mysterious music)

In 586 bce, in a bid for world supremacy,

King nebuchadnezzar laid siege to jerusalem,

500 miles to the west.

His army sacked the city

And captured the most highly skilled

And highly educated citizens.

Brought to babylon as prisoners of war,

They were forced to work for nebuchadnezzar.

It was the start of what's now known

As the babylonian captivity.

But crucially, while in babylon the captives became known

As the jewish people, the very authors of the bible.

Finkel: That experience

Converted them into the jewish people

And those of course are the people

Who wrote the old testament,

Who produced the hebrew texts of the old testament

Which we all know about.

Nebuchadnezzar's ziggurat was the biggest one ever made,

It was the most impressive

And it must have had a very powerful effect

On people who saw it for the first time

And who lived under it,

Because wherever you were in the city

You would see this thing.

Mastrelli: Experts believe that the jews held captive

In babylon after the siege of jerusalem

Saw the huge tower being built.

(somber music)

At first, they were mesmerized

By the awe-inspiring structure,

But over time it became a symbol of their oppression,

Of human aspiration and of over-reaching ambition.

Finkel: When you look at the early chapters of the bible

It is clear that some of it is drawn

From the judeans' own records

And some of it incorporates narratives

Which they must have encountered

For the first time in babylon

Which were so powerful and striking that the authors,

The philosophers who worked on the hebrew text,

Incorporated them to tell their own story.

Mastrelli: And there's a compelling clue in the story

That backs up a theory

That jewish slaves witnessed the tower being built

During their time in captivity.

This is an original brick from babylon,

It carries traces

Of an unusual construction material from the time, bitumen,

An ancient tar and mortar

That's specifically mentioned in the biblical tale.

Finkel: Tucked in the corner of this case

Is something very interesting

For people who are interested in the tower of babel

Because this is one of the actual bricks

Which nebuchadnezzar commissioned.

We know it's nebuchadnezzar

Because there's a stamped inscription on the front

And around the edge you can see this murky black stuff,

This is bitumen.

In the book of genesis,

It literally says that they use brick for stone

And bitumen for mortar, it's expressly said there.

What we have here is one brick and its bitumen

Which fits exactly into that special context.

There can be no doubt

That the stimulus for the story and the narrative

Must have taken shape during the babylonian exile.

Mastrelli: All the evidence says the tower of babel

Was a real building.

The story of a mighty tower in a far-off land,

Written by a desperate population in exile,

Held captive by a ruthless king.

And the destruction of the tower was their way

To rewrite history.

It's a fiction rooted in truth.

Finkel: The fact is this,

That the tower of babel cannot be dismissed

As a fable or an invention,

It is in fact literally based

On the existence of a building.

We know where that building was, we know how big it was,

We know what it looked like, we know who built it

And we even know the circumstances

Under which knowledge of this building intruded

Into the psychology of the people, the judeans,

Who wrote that text in the book of genesis.

So there's no doubt about it,

That the one and the other are the same thing

And as it were the tower of babel existed.

(dramatic music)

Mastrelli: But what became of the mesmerizing tower?

How could millions of mud bricks have simply disappeared?

The fact that most of the tower of babel is gone

Is no surprise to experts.

It's supported by evidence

Of an ancient babylonian tradition of recycling

And rebuilding that continued for hundreds of years.

Incredibly, two and a half thousand years later,

Some of those original bricks still survive.

And sometimes, if you look hard enough,

You just might find a piece of history.

Allen: We're at the base of the core of the tower

And here's a rare opportunity

Where you can see some of the original baked fire bricks

That encased the central core still remaining.

That's a real brick from the tower of babel,

It's the original real mccoy.

Mastrelli: The writers of the bible were inspired

By real events and real places,

But that didn't prevent them

From taking creative license here and there.

Intriguingly, recently discovered cuneiform tablets

Like these, no bigger than the size of my hand,

Provide historical accounts

Of jewish life in nebuchadnezzar babylon.

These are the oldest known jewish texts.

They detail their daily life in exile,

Conducting business, paying taxes

And starting families that would stay for generations.

Iraq remained a home to almost 150,000 jews until 1948,

When most would flee

To the now newly created state of israel.