The Building of the Tower of Babel

This miniature shows how those living around 1400 might have constructed the Tower of Babel using pulleys, winches, and manual labor. As recounted in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, the Babylonians wished to build a tower "with its top in the heavens." Displeased with the arrogant project, God prevented its completion by giving the builders a multitude of languages so that they could not communicate with each other. A prophet wrapped in billowing drapery at the left directs the viewer's gaze and mind to the moral of the story. The two figures operating the pulley on top of the tower look fearfully to the left where the judgment of God descends in punishment in the form of a sword.