Hebrew name for the city of Babylon,
chiefly associated with the Tower of Babel
which, in the Genesis story in the Old
Testament, was erected in the plain of Shinar
by the descendants of Noah. It was a ziggurat
or staged temple, seven storeys high (100
m/300 ft) with a shrine of Marduk on the
summit. It was built by Nabopolassar, father
of Nebuchadnezzar, and was destroyed when
Sennacherib sacked the city 689 BC.