Babel

In 1915, archaeologist Robert Koldewey conducted the most extensive survey of the ziggurat yet undertaken.  Koldewey found that Nebuchadnezzar II’s square boundary measured 91.43 x 91.43m. However, beneath this larger foundation Koldewey found an earlier square measuring 61.15 x 61.15m, thought to be the original Tower of Babel in the time of Hammurabi, c. 1800 B.C.

In order to understand the Tower of Babel dimensions, one must first know something about Babylonian measurement. Scholars agree that the Babylonian cubit was approximately 50.62 cm. No matter how one defines the length of the foot, one cubit equals 1.5 feet. 

Several clay tablets have been recovered listing the tower's measurements. By far, the most important of these is the Smith Tablet, named after its translator Assyriologist George Smith. Containing a variety of information, the tablet gives the name of the writer (a scribe), the date (229 B.C.), the dimensions of the Tower of Babel, and it describes a cube structure called kigal. 

The Smith Tablet mentions the regular Babylonian cubit but also specifies a second called the "great" cubit.  We are told that this cubit is longer and equals 1.5 regular cubits (75.93 cm).  The same 1:1.5 ratio occurs here but in a different context: not feet to cubit but cubit to great cubit.

As for surface area, this was measured in squares, much like our "square meter".  The gar was a square garden-sized plot of land measuring 12 x 12 cubits.  An iku, on the other hand, expanded the gar ten times, i.e. 120 x 120 Babylonian cubits (compare the 120 x 120 square base of the first Egyptian step-pyramid). Calculating by regular cubits, one iku equals 60.74 x 60.74m.  Reckoning by the "great" cubit, in contrast, increases this to 91.12 x 91.12m. 

The attentive reader will notice that these are very nearly the same figures archaeologists found for the Tower of Babel foundation: both the older inner square (61.15 meters square, compared to a theoretical 60.74) and the more recent outer one (91.43 meters square, compared to a theoretical 91.12). 

Now here's a Citadel of the Gods pop-quiz: if the base of the Tower of Babel was square, what form would it take if its height were the same? Read on to find out.