Traditions of such a tower may be found in many forms and in many countries. In Babylonia there was a tradition that not long after the flood men were tall and strong and became so puffed up that they defied the gods and tried to erect a tower called Babylon by means of which they could scale heaven.  But when it reached the sky the gods sent a mighty wind and turned over the tower.  They said that hitherto all men had used the same language, but that at this time there was sent on them a confusion of many tongues, from which confusion the tower was named Babel. In Greece, there was a legend in which we trace the story of the tower of Babel.  According to this legend a race of giants tried to reach Mount Olympus, which was supposed to be the residence of the gods, by piling Mount Ossa upon Pelion.  But the gods interfered with their plan and scattered the impious conspirators.  This effort of the Titans to mount up to heaven corresponds so well to the motive of the builders of the tower as to indicate that there was a common origin for both stories.

There is also a Greek tradition that Helen had three sons:  Aeolus, Dorus, and Ion, who were the ancestors of the three great branches of the Hellenic race.  This again corresponds to the prophetic table of nations which were to descend from Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the three sons of Noah.

The Civilization of the Ancient World.  Just when and where civilization began we have no means of telling.  The Bible speaks of a very high state of civilization at a very early time (Gen. 4:20-22).  In ages long before Abraham and Moses the world had made great advancement in culture, commerce, law and religion.  From the monuments and engraven vases that have been found in such unearthed cities as Nippur, we now know that Abraham and Moses did not live in a crude and undeveloped age, but, as the Bible would imply, in an age of great progress.  We even learn that long before their time there was a most complete and complex civilization.

Two Great Empires of Antiquity.  It is impossible to tell which of two great nations, the Chaldeans and the Egyptians, first attained to a high state of civilization.  They appear to have started very early in the race, the Chaldeans in the plains on the banks of the Euphrates and the Egyptians in the plains on the banks of the Nile.  They seem to have made about equal progress in all the arts of civilization.

Nimrod, a descendent of Ham, is declared to be the founder of the Chaldean Empire.  His exploits as a hunter seem to have aided him to the throne.  He began to reign at Babel and had a number of cities in the plain of Shinar.  Later he went out in the district of Assyria and built Ninevah and a number of other cities.  From the Assyrian and Chaldean ascriptions, we have learned much of the Accadians, whose influence carried forward that early civilization.  We thereby confirm the Biblical claim that it was under Nimrod the Cushite, and not through the Semitic race, that the Chaldean kingdom began.