Encyclopedie , The Catholic Encyclopedia,, , Babel
Babel occurs in the Vulgate only in Gen., xi, 9; the form Babylonia is found in Bar., i, 1, 4; ii, 22; vi, 1-3; I Mach., vi, 4; II Mach., viii, 20; everywhere else the Vulgate uses the form Babylon. The word is derived from the Babylonian bab-ilu, meaning "gate of God". Gen., xi, 9, suggests a different meaning based on the derivation of the name from the Hebrew word batál, to confound. The city of Babylon had various names among its inhabitants, e.g. Ka-dingir, Babi-dingir, Tintir, Shu-an-na, etc. The prophets call it "daughter of the Chaldeans" (Is., xlvii, 1), and Sesach or Sesac (Jer., xxv, 26; li, 41), a word variously explained by commentators. It was built on the site of the modern village of Hille. According to Herodotus, a double or perhaps a triple wall, 50 cubits in width and 200 cubits in height, surrounded the town, forming a square of 120 stadia. The square of the interior wall was 90 stadia long and 360 stadia in circumference. Both the Bible and the cuneiform inscriptions assign a very great age to the city, and the Biblical data (Gen., xi, 1-9) concerning the material of the walls are confirmed by the testimony of the ruins. "Let us make brick, and bake them with fire. And they had brick instead of stones, and slime instead of mortar."