History Main / TowerOfBabel

* In ''Literature/{{Chindi}}'' by JackMcDevitt a virtual reality recording of ancient Babylon taken by AncientAstronauts is discovered. On watching it, the protagonists are amused to see the real Tower is only a dozen stories high.

* ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' has Babel Tower. In order to contact Shevat, the party must climb to the top of it, [[GameplayandStorySegregation never mind the fact that Gears can fly.]] [[PlatformHell There aren't really any stairs, so you progress by jumping across platforms.]] ''Xenogears'' has a jump button, but it is by no means a platformer. If a random encounter is loading, you lose the ability to jump, and if you're doing this while approaching the edge of a platform and the button doesn't respond, you fall. When you fall, you go ''all the way down to the bottom of the tower and have to do the whole godforsaken thing over again.'' ScrappyLevel doesn't even ''begin'' to describe it. [[spoiler: The truth about the tower is it's actually a remnant of a giant spaceship that crashed into the planet thousands of years ago.]]

* ''VideoGame/CrusaderOfCenty'' has the Tower of Babel somewhere in the middle. At the top, there's a rope ascending further into heaven. You have to climb the rope, at which point it collapses and turns into a boss monster, and the tower collapses after the battle. ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext.

The Tower of Babel has often been associated with known structures, notably the Etemenanki, a ziggurat dedicated to Marduk by Nabopolassar (c. 610 BC). The Great Ziggurat of Babylon base was square (not round), 91 metres (300 ft) in height, but demolished by Alexander the Great before his death in an attempt to rebuild it. A Sumerian story with some similar elements is preserved in Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta.

* ''Anime/{{Metropolis}}'' starts with the Government building a massive ziggurat in the center of the emponymous city, and explicitly compares it to the Tower of Babel. They also note that while the original was built to defy God, their structure is instead dedicated to Him. [[spoiler: It's actually a SuperWeapon intended to win the upcoming World War, and requires the android Tima to control it.]]

%%* Literature/TheBible, obviously.

->''A brobdingnagian ziggurat challenged the gods to ban the UniversalTranslator.''

* ''Anime/{{Metropolis}} starts with the Government building a massive ziggurat in the center of the emponymous city, and explicitly compares it to the Tower of Babel. They also note that while the original was built to defy God, their structure is instead dedicated to Him. [[spoiler: It's actually a SuperWeapon intended to win the upcoming World War, and requires the android Tima to control it.]]

* In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiImagine'', mankind erected a 666-floor tower in the ruins of Shinjuku to celebrate mankind's retaking the world from the demons that threatened to destroy them. The tower's creation, however, caused three obilisks to emerge, as well as a resurgence in demon activity. Thus, the tower came to be known as "Shinjuku Babel". The Babel mythology is also recounted in the game's intro.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'':
** Golbez and the Four Fiends erect the Tower of Bab-il. Based in the underworld, it rises through the Earth's surface into the sky. It's powered by the stolen [[PowerCrystal Crystals]].
** The Giant of Bab-il, a HumongousMecha built by the Lunarians in order to wipe out humanity, looks like a fortress with legs in Amano's concept artwork and it's huge enough to be a dungeon. [[spoiler:In the DS/cell phone version, a prototype of it can be fought as a BonusBoss in NewGamePlus, and it's considered the most difficult battle in the game.]]

* ''VideoGame/PopNMusic 19 TUNE STREET'' pays homage to the Tower with its final 3 unlockable songs of Town Mode, all of which have a 2-parter title starting with Babel with a capital L at the end (～Grand Story～, ～Next Story～ and ～roof garden～). Incidentially, the rival character being displayed while playing the three songs is the tall tower being built and upgraded with the aforementioned Town Mode.

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* The fanfic ''Literature/StarWarsGalacticFolkloreAndMythology'' features a Gran legend similar to the Tower of Babel. An ancient race attempted to construct a building so tall it would reach Vraxang (their homeworld's twin planet, where the Gran believed the gods to reside), which was turned to dust by the gods, and used to make the Milky Way as a permanent warning to mortals.

* According to the ''TabletopGame/DemonTheFallen'' lore, there was never a literal "tower", but the "Time of Babel", when [[{{Satan}} Lucifer]] executed the last-ditch scheme to elevate humanity to godhood. Just when it was so close to success, his own lieutenants ruined it all, and the Rebellion was pretty much done for.

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* Literature/TheBible, obviously.

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* "A Wild, Wild Party", a number in Andrew Lippa musical of ''Literature/TheWildParty'' likens the setting of a prohibition-era party to the Tower of Babel and other Biblical instances of decadence.

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* Golbez and the Four Fiends of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' erect the Tower of Bab-il. Based in the underworld, it rises through the Earth's surface into the sky. It's powered by the stolen [[PowerCrystal Crystals]].
** The Giant of Bab-il, a HumongousMecha built by the Lunarians in order to wipe out humanity, may also qualify considering it looks like a fortress with legs in Amano's concept artwork and it's huge enough to be a dungeon. [[spoiler:In the DS/cell phone version, a prototype of it can be fought as a BonusBoss in NewGamePlus, and it's considered the most difficult battle in the game.]]

* In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'', Mario and Luigi must ascend a spiral-shaped tower to reach the clouds of Sky Land. There is speculative debate as to whether the familiar looking Tower was inspired by the Tower of Babel or Mount Purgatorio.

This page is for allusions and references to the legend; for the trope about ominously imposing skyscrapers in general, see TheTower. See also CurseOfBabel for the language mix-up, LanguageBarrier for the RealLife version, and SpaceElevator for the SciFi version. As to whether the successful completion of one will lead to God confounding our tongues ''[[StarfishLanguage even more]]'', stay tuned! Compare with {{Yggdrasil}}, The WorldTree of Norse Mythology that has a similar height.

* ''Anime/{{Metropolis}} starts with the Government building a massive ziggurat in the center of the emponymous city, and explicitly compares it to the Tower of Babel. They also note that while the original was built to defy God, their structure is instead dedicated to Him. [[spoiler: It's actually a SuperWeapon intended to win the upcoming World War, and requires the android Maria to control it.]]

* In the ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' movie ''Miracle of Endymion'', Academy City debuts a SpaceElevator called Endymion. Index compares it to the Tower of Babel. [[spoiler: It turns out the elevator's creators deliberately modeled Endymion to be like the Tower of Babel in an attempt to ruin the world by recreating the original Biblical disaster.]]

This page is for allusions and references to the legend; for the trope about ominously imposing skyscrapers in general, see TheTower. See also CurseOfBabel for the language mix-up and SpaceElevator for the SciFi version. As to whether the successful completion of one will lead to God confounding our tongues ''[[StarfishLanguage even more]]'', stay tuned! Compare with {{Yggdrasil}}, The WorldTree of Norse Mythology that has a similar height.

* The ''Literature/GoodOmens'' fic by Creator/AAPessimal, ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5304252/6/I-shall-endure-to-the-end I Shall Endure to The End]]'', has the demon Crowley and the angel Azaraphile present at the fall of a large sky-pointing structure. As Genesis is still being edited and written at the time, their account becomes the basis for the Biblical Babel. [[note]]what they have actually witnessed is the collapse of one of the first pyramids, at Maidun in Egypt. The Egyptians didn't quite have the hang of it, tried to build this pyramid too high and steep, and the unstable structure collapsed. As it was meant to "reach the stars" in the metaphorical sesne of astronomy, and because peoples of many tribes and languages were working on it, this became the Babel of Genesis. It helped one of the peoples working to build it were obscure Hebrew-speaking Semites who wrote it into their holy book, who later left Egypt to found a land of their own...[[/note]]

* In ''Anime/SenkiZesshouSymphogear'', the first season's BigBad, Finé, is motivated by revenge on God[=/=][[{{Precursors}} "The Custodians"]] for inflicting the Curse of Babel on mankind, which culminates in her [[spoiler:building a new Tower that doubles as a WaveMotionGun in an attempt to [[DetonationMoon destroy the moon]], which she claims is the curse's physical anchor]]. The Symphogears [[ThePowerOfRock are powered by music]] because it's a form of communication which transcends language, [[spoiler:and in their {{Super Mode}}s, usually triggered by [[CombinedEnergyAttack the group song "Song (Babel) of the Beginning"]], can simply [[{{Telepathy}} transmit the user's thoughts and feelings directly]]]]. [[spoiler: Turns out the Custodians ha d apretty Good Reason for inflicting the Curse of Babel on humanity, as Shem-ha, the GreaterScopeVillain of the franchise, was actually trying to use {{Yggdrasil}}, the norse counterpart of the tower, to take over all of humanity when they all shared the original language, and in reality, using Kadingir ont he moon actually jump started Shem-ha's plans to return. Ooops.]]

* In ''Anime/SenkiZesshouSymphogear'', the first season's BigBad, Finé, is motivated by revenge on God[=/=][[{{Precursors}} "The Custodians"]] for inflicting the Curse of Babel on mankind, which culminates in her [[spoiler:building a new Tower that doubles as a WaveMotionGun in an attempt to [[DetonationMoon destroy the moon]], which she claims is the curse's physical anchor]]. The Symphogears [[ThePowerOfRock are powered by music]] because it's a form of communication which transcends language, [[spoiler:and in their {{Super Mode}}s, usually triggered by [[CombinedEnergyAttack the group song "Song (Babel) of the Beginning"]], can simply [[{{Telepathy}} transmit the user's thoughts and feelings directly]]]].

This page is for allusions and references to the legend; for the trope about ominously imposing skyscrapers in general, see TheTower. See also CurseOfBabel for the language mix-up and SpaceElevator for the SciFi version. As to whether the successful completion of one will lead to God confounding our tongues ''[[StarfishLanguage even more]]'', stay tuned!

* The [[Creator/MaxAndDaveFleischer Max Fleischer]] WesternAnimation/ColorClassics short “Greedy Humpty Dumpty” heavily alludes to the Tower of Babel with the titular egg forcing all of Mother Gooseland to build him a wall to reach the sun [[InsaneTrollLogic because he thinks the sun has gold in it]]. This ends with him [[RageAgainstTheHeavens PISSING THE SUN OFF]] and a [[LightningCanDoAnything lighting bolt coming to life to spank him for his greed]] before the tower and subsequently his castle collapses; you can probably guess how the story ends from there...

* The MaxFleischer WesternAnimation/ColorClassics short “Greedy Humpty Dumpty” heavily alludes to the Tower of Babel with the titular egg forcing all of Mother Gooseland to build him a wall to reach the sun [[InsaneTrollLogic because he thinks the sun has gold in it]]. This ends with him [[RageAgainstTheHeavens PISSING THE SUN OFF]] and a [[LightningCanDoAnything lighting bolt coming to life to spank him for his greed]] before the tower and subsequently his castle collapses; you can probably guess how the story ends from there...