All language subtitles for Secrets.Unlocked.Series1.Part.30.Tower.of.Babel.1080p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org.eng

(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.