etymology was found for the name of Babylon in the Hebrew verb
_b[=a]lal_, "to confuse or confound," Babel being regarded as a contraction
of Balbel. In Gen. x. 10 it is said to have formed part of the kingdom of
Nimrod.

The origin of the story has not been found in Babylonia. The tower was no
doubt suggested by one of the temple towers of Babylon. W. A. Bennet
(_Genesis_, p. 169; cf. Hommel in Hastings' _Dictionary of the Bible_)
suggests E-Saggila, the great temple of Merodach (Marduk). The variety of
languages and the dispersion of mankind were regarded as a curse, and it is
probable that, as Prof. Cheyne (_Encyclopaedia Biblica_, col. 411) says,
there was an ancient North Semitic myth to explain it. The event was
afterwards localized in Babylon. The myth, as it appears in Genesis, is
quite polytheistic and anthropomorphic. According to Cornelius Alexander
(frag. 10) and Abydenus (frags. 5 and 6) the tower was overthrown by the
winds; according to Yaqut (i. 448 f.) and the Lisan el-'Arab (xiii. 72)
mankind were swept together by winds into the plain afterwards called
"Babil," and were scattered again in the same way (see further D. B.
Macdonald in the _Jewish Encyclopaedia_). A tradition similar to that of
the tower of Babel is found in Central America. Xelhua, one of the seven
giants rescued from the deluge, built the great pyramid of Cholula in order
to storm heaven. The gods, however, destroyed it with fire and confounded
the language of the builders. Traces of a somewhat similar story have also
been met with among the Mongolian Tharus in northern India (_Report of the
Census of Bengal_, 1872, p. 160), and, according to Dr Livingstone, among
the Africans of Lake Ngami. The Esthonian myth of "the Cooking of
Languages" (Kohl, _Reisen in die Ostseeprovinzen_, ii. 251-255) may also be
compared, as well as the Australian legend of the origin of the diversity
of speech (Gerstaecker, _Reisen_, vol. iv. pp. 381 seq.).

BAB-EL-MANDEB (Arab, for "The Gate of Tears"), the strait between Arabia
and Africa which connects the Red Sea (_q.v._) with the Indian Ocean. It
derives its name from the dangers attending its navigation, or, according
to an Arabic legend, from the numbers who were drowned by the earthquake
which separated Asia and Africa. The distance across is about 20 m. from
Ras Menheli on the Arabian coast to Ras Siyan on the African. The island of
Perim (_q.v._), a British possession, divides the strait into two chan