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HERODOTUS.
as the sister town of Babylon. In the vocabulary K. 4309, obv. 24, Borsippa is designated Tin-tir II. kan-ki—i. e., second Babylon.[1] In the Talmud Borsippa is frequently identified with Babel. [2]
- ↑ Cf. Delitzsch "Wo lag das Paradies?" p. 216.
- ↑ Note.The ziḳûrat (ziḳḳurratu) or terrace tower is one of the most interesting features in connection with the temples of Babylonia. Every student of the Bible knows how prominently "high places" figured in the worship of the various religious cults of Palestine. The prophet Hosea complains that the Israelites "sacrifice on the top of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills." Inasmuch as Babylonia was devoid of these natural elevations, so common in Palestine, its inhabitants were obliged to imitate them by artificial mounds. Jastrow (" Religion of Babylonia," etc.) is no doubt correct in connecting these earth structures with the primitive superstition which regarded a mountain as the home of the gods. The zikurat was built in imitation of a mountain, and the small room at the top was regarded as the dwelling place of the deity. It is instructive to note in this connection that the temple of Bel at Nippur was called E-Kur —i. e. "mountain house." These solid quadrangular structures were generally three or four stories high, though in more ambitious times there were seven stories, dedicated, so the Babylonians said, to the sun, moon, Ishtar, Marduk, Ninib, Nergal, and Nabu, respectively. As the term ziḳûrat indicates, the purpose was to make the temple conspicuous, and one cannot help recalling here the Biblical account of the building of the tower of Babel. "And they said, Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven." (Gen. xi. 4.)
