About Babylon and the "Tower of Babel" Part-1

BABYLON AND THE "TOWER OF BABEL"
By
POLAT KAYA

(Copyright © 2004 Polat Kaya)


INTRODUCTION

The name "Tower of Babel" is a Biblical name that has baffled scholars
and the public ever since its conception. Supposedly, this man-made
tower would reach the heavens, yet, this ambition of man angered God
who destroyed it. [1] Archeologically no remains of such a tower have
been found. Some European artists, through their imagination, have
sketched very elaborate and fictitious tower drawings representing the
"Tower of Babel", for example, as shown on the frontispiece of the
book "Babylon" by Joan Oates. [2] Some students of the subject have
mistakenly regarded the Sumerian and Kassite ziggurats as being the
same as the "Tower of Babel" (Babil) so-called by the Semitic Babylonians.

The extra-ordinary ziggurats were sacred temple complexes built by
Turkic Sumerians and other Turanian peoples such as the Kassites in
Mesopotamia to honor the ancient Turanian Sky-God. Ziggurats were
constructed by the ancient Tur Sumerians, who called themselves
"KIEN-GI", of Mesopotamia just like the pyramids of Eastern Turkistan,
Kurgans of Eurasia and Anatolia, and the pyramids of Ancient Masar
(MISIR). It is important to note that the ancestors of Kirgiz Turks
were also called "KIEN-KUN"[3]. This correspondence in names between
the KIEN-GI (Sumerians) and the KIEN-KUN (Kirgiz) is because they were
the same Turkic people.

Ziggurats are step-pyramid like complexes emulating mountains rising
to the sky. Mountains were and are the natural ziggurats or pyramids
that were sacred for Turanian peoples. A mountain top, being the head
of the mountain, and like the head (tepe) of man, was sacred. The
pointed "conical" headdress that the ancient Turanians wore, pointing
to Sky-God, was an emulation of it. In their religious understanding,
everything in nature pointed towards the sky, and thus, to the
Sky-Father-God ("Gök-ATA-Tanri"). The ancient Tur/Turk peoples made
their annual ceremonial gatherings at the top of high mountains where
they made sacrifices of animals to their Sky-God. The Turkish name
"TAU" (TAG/DAG) meaning "mountain" and the name "ATA" for Sky-God
(Father God) are amazingly close and their similarity must be
intentional.

If Semitic peoples of Babylonia are said to have built ziggurats, they
were simply copying the concept from the much earlier Turkic Sumerian
architects.

Another name for ziggurat is given as "ETEMENANKI". [4] Joan Oates in
her book entitled "Babylon" gives the meaning as "the house that is
the foundation of heaven and earth". [5] Such an interpretation of
the name "ETEMENANKI" would be obtained if the name is separated as
"E-TEMEN-AN-KI" and read as :

E : Sumerian "house", Turkish "Ev" meaning "house;
TEMEN : possibly from Turkish "TEMEL" meaning "foundation";
AN : Sumerian "sky", Turkish "sky"; and
KI : Sumerian "earth", Turkish "KaIa" (kaya/gaya) meaning "big rock";

Thus the meaning "The house that is the foundation of heaven and
earth" attributed to E-TEMEN-AN-KI (ZIGGURAT) is verified by a
Turkish reading of it as shown above although it is not admitted that
the understanding is based on a Turkish reading. However, I differ
from this interpretation.

When the name "ETEMENANKI" is separated as "ETE-MEN AN KI", it becomes
the Turkish expression "ETE-MEN AN KöI" (ATA-MEN AN KÖY) meaning
"Village of Sky Father-Man" or "Sky Father Man Village" indicating it
is a structure dedicated to the Sky-God. Thus, this explains the
nature of the ziggurat very clearly. So, a ziggurat has absolutely
nothing to do with the idea of "stairway to heaven" or with the
fictitious name of "Tower of Babel". The height of a typical ziggurat
is reported to be about 300 feet high. This does not make a ziggurat
a stairway to heaven. In fact, a ziggurat is not a tower construction
but rather a pyramid like satructure. Such claims are diversions from
the real identity of the so-called "Tower of Babel" intended to be
kept secret by the cabalistic Babylonians. The "Tower of Babel" is
something very different as we will see in this paper.


BABYLON

The name "BABEL" (BABIL) and "BABYLON" are related words. "Babylon" is
described as: "An ancient city of Mesopotamia on the Euphrates,
capital of Babylonia from about 2100 B.C.; celebrated as a seat of
wealth, luxury, and vice." [6]

The term "vice" used above has synonyms such as: wickedness,
corruption, evil, dishonesty, immorality, etc. Thus, in its most
wealthy and hence, corrupt days, the city of Babylon must have been
filled with people who contributed such fame to this city. The city
is also famed for supposedly having a tower construction called "Tower
of Babel" which is the subject of this writing.

The term "Babel" is also related to the name Babylon. "BABEL" is
described as: "An ancient city in Shinar. —Tower of Babel 1 A tower
built by the descendants of Noah in Babel and intended to reach to
heaven: God punished the builders for their presumption by confusing
their language, preventing them from understanding each other and from
completing the tower, Genesis xi 9." [7]

The Greek-English dictionary defines the term "babulwnia" (babylonia)
as "babel, confusion (of languages)." [8]

Karen Armstrong, in her book entitled "A History of God" (1993),
writes about the area saying "the region was invaded by the Semitic
Akkadians who had adopted the language and culture of Sumer".

First of all, the Semitic Akkadians adopting the language and culture
of Sumer implies that they did not have a proper working language
and/or culture (töre) of their own. Secondly, "adopting" is a very
soft or cleansed term for what happened. The ancient Semitic Akkadians
anagrammatized the Sumerian/Turkish language to come up with the
so-called "Akkadian" in the same geographical area.

Encyclopaedia Britannica provides the following information regarding
the concept of "ANAGRAM". [9]

"ANAGRAM, the transposing of the letters of a word or group of words
so as to produce other words that possess meaning. The construction
of anagrams is of great antiquity, its invention being ascribed
without authority to the Jews, probably because the later Hebrew
writers, particularly the Cabalists, were fond of it, asserting that
"secret mysteries are woven in the numbers of letters." Anagrams were
known to the Greeks and also to the Romans, althought the known Latin
examples of words of more than one syllable are nearly all imperfect.
They were popular throughout Europe during the middle ages and later,
particularly in France, where a certain Thomas Billon was appointed
"anagrammatist to the king."

Particularly the Cabalists being fond of anagrammatizing is very
meaningful. A "cabal" is defined as: [10] "1. The secret artifices
of a few persons united in a close design; intrigue. 2. A secret
association of a few designing persons; a junto. -v.i.; CABALLED;
CABALLING. To unite in or form a cabal; to intrigue."

Similarly "cabala" is defined as: [11] "1. A kind or system of
occult theosophy or mystical interpretation of the scriptures among
Jewish rabbis and certain mediaval Christians. 2. Secretor
esotericdoctrine or science, in general; occultism; mystic art ;
mystery."

As seen from these definitions, a"cabal" is someone who is involved in
secrecy, intrigue, conspiracy and junta (junto) to overthrow an
existing system or government. Evidently, ancient Semitic Babylon had
cabalists with secret activities to overthrow the ancient Tur/Turk
Sumerian civilization.

Karen Armstrong also writes about the ancient Sumer cities of Ur,
Erech & Kish as "the first great culture of 'Oikumene' (the civilized
world)". This indicates that it was the ancient Turanians, i.e.,
Sumerians, Masarians (MISIR) and other Tur peoples, who created the
first great civilization that present civilization is almost totally
based on.


SHINAR

The name SHINAR in Akkadian refers to the original owners of the land,
that is, the SUMERIANS before it was invaded by the Semitic Akkadians.
The name SHINAR is very much reminiscent of the Turkish "iSHINAR"
("iSHI + NAR") meaning "Light of glowing fire" or "light from a
glowing fire" which is a description of the SUN and the "SUNLIGHT".
Sumerians, as believers of the Sun-God UTU, in their language, would
have also been identified as SHINAR (ISHINAR) meaning "sun and
sunlight" people, where SHINAR is an anagram made by the Akkadians.

Additionally, Sumerian term for "God" was "DINGIR" like the Turkish
"TENGIR" for Sky-God. But even embedded in DINGIR is the Turkish word
"GINDIR" (Gündür) meaning "it is the SUN" which was the ancient
Turanian "Sun-God (Gün-Tanri). Thus the Tur Sumerians, like all other
Turs/Turks, were Sun worshippers all the time and had differing names
for the Sun deity. Their country being called SHINAR (ISHINAR) by the
Akkadians is quite expected, although the name is visibly distanced
from ISHINAR.


MESOPOTAMIA

The area known by the term "MESOPOTAMIA" also includes the the city of
Babylon. It is defined as the land between the rivers EUPHRATES and
TIGRIS in IRAK. It is said that the Greek name means "between the
rivers". [12] Same source also gives the Hebrew definition of this
name as: "ARAM-NAHARAIM", that is, "Aram of the two rivers". [13]
This Hebrew definition is very enlightening because both "ARA" and
"NAHAR" (NEHIR) are words that are used in Turkish. Particularly, the
Hebrew word ARAM and Turkish ARA are the same. Turkish "ARA" means
"space between two things", in this case between two rivers.
Additionally, Turkish word "ARAM" means "my space between me and the
next object". How did ARA get to be in HEBREW language - unless
HEBREW was Turkish originally? I have pointed out before that the
name "HEBREW" is a distorted Turkish expression coming from Turkish
"BIR-O" referring to the Turanian Sky God.

The ancient Canaanites and Phoeniciens were called "HEBREW" and were
Turkic speaking Tur peoples. They were not Semitics as falsely
claimed.

The Latin word HEBRAEUS is defined as "Hebrew, Jewish". [14] But the
term "HEBRAEUS", when rearranged as "HE-BER-AUS", is Turkish
expression "AHA BIR AUS" (Aga Bir Oguz) meaning: a) "Lord One OGUS"
the ancient Turanian Sky-God, and its believers i.e., the OGUZ people
and b) the speakers of "Lord One Language", that is, Turkish "AHA-BIR
AUS" (Aga-Bir Aguz) meaning Turkish - indicating that all OGUZ
believers were speaking one language. Thus, this title "HEBRAEUS"
refers very much to Turkish speaking Oguz people rather than to Jews
as wrongfully claimed. This makes the identity of "HEBREW" very
questionable. "JEWS" and "HEBREW" are not the same people.

Thus both ARA and ARAM are pure Turkish words and refer to a space
between two objects. With this background, the term "ARAM-NAHARAIM",
when decrypted as "NAHAR-ARAIAM-M", is an anagram of Turkish
expression "NEHIR ARAYAM" (nehir arasiyam, nehir arasiyim) meaning "I
am the space between rivers". This definition in Turkish is the exact
meaning attributed to both the Hebrew and Greek definitions. Such
exact correspondence is not due to coincidence. Evidently, intentional
manipulations of Turkish words and phrases have been carried out by
skillful anagrammatizers. Even the Semitic term "NAHAR" and its
Turkish version "NEHIR" are anagrams of the original Turkish word
IRMAH ("irmak" meaning "river") where an M to N change has taken place
in the rearrangement of the Turkish word into Semitic NAHAR.


The Greek term "MESOPOTAMIA" is also an anagram of a Turkic expression
but is not necessarily related to the complete land of Mesopotamia.
It seems that the meaning of this word is related to the ancient name
of Babylonia only - which was a part of all of the land between the
rivers rather than the whole of the land called "Mesopotamia"
presently. This we will see below under BABYLON.

a) "MESOPOTAMIA", when decrypted letter-by-letter as "PO ATAMIS OEM",
is an anagram of Turkish expression "APA-ATAMIZ ÖYEM" meaning "I am
the Homeland of our grandfathers". This indicates that area was
initially the homeland of Turkish speaking peoples. In this anagram,
Turkish "OEM" (öyem/öyüm) means "I am the house" or "I am the
homeland" in Eastern Anatolian, and Azerbaijan dialects of Turkish.
Türkish "APA-ATAMIZ" means "our grandfathers". We will find below in
this paper that this meaning of the word Mesopoatamia is also verified
by one meaning of the term BABIL (BABEL).

b) "MESOPOTAMIA", when decrypted as "PASA-OTEM OIM", with respect to
Tur Sumerians and other Turkic peoples, is an anagram of Turkish
expression "PASA-ATAM OEM" (Pasha Atam öyem) meaning "I am the home of
my lordly Fathers". Thus referring to this land as the home of
Turanian Tur/Turk peoples which is a fact since the time of Sumerians
and even earlier.

c) "MESOPOTAMIA", when decrypted as "POSA-ATEM OIM", with respect to
the invading Akkadian wanderers, is an anagram of Turkish expression
"POSA ATAM OIM" (Posha Atam öyem) meaning "I am the home of my Gypsy
Fathers". Thus, the term also refers to this area as the home of
wandering peoples probably since the time of Akkadians. However, the
fact is that all these references are made in Turkish.

The present name IRAK is a form of the Sumerian city name URUK which
is the Biblical name ERECH. Thus the Sumerian name has been altered at
least twice up to present times. Evidently somebody was very busy in
renaming this old Ottoman (i.e., UTU-MAN) province as IRAK. Linguists
may not necessarily connect the present name of IRAK with the ancient
Sumerian (by another name "UTU-MAN", that is "the sun believers") name
URUK. The city name URUK is very much the Turkish word "ÖRÜK" or
possibly in the form of "ORUK/URUK" in ancient times meaning "woven or
constructed". Any city is an URUK (ÖRÜK), that is, "constructed"
place.

So it is seen that many ancient Turanian names have been restructured
(anagrammatized) which leads to all the confusion that researchers experience.

Regarding the area called Mesopotamia, the same source, in an
additional definition gives the term: "PADAN-ARAM; that is, the plain
of Aram, a country between the Euphrates and Tigris northwards;
residence of Bethuel, Abram, Laban, and Jacob, Genesis (Gen.) 24, Gen.
25.20, Gen. 28.2-7, Gen. 31.18, Gen. 33.18, Gen. 46.15, Gen. 48.7."
[15]

In this definition, the term "ARAM" becomes a "noun" as if it was the
name given to the land between the rivers. Thus the land identified by
the name Mesopotamia becomes ARAM derived from Turkish again.

About The Names ABRAM, LABAN, JACOB and BETHUEL:

Additionally, I like to note that the names ABRAM, LABAN, JACOB and
BETHUEL are the anagrammatized personifications of the ancient
Turanian creator "Sky-Father-God, Sun-God, Moon-God and the Wind-God,
indicating that all of these four deities were recognized and
worshipped in Mesopotamia.

In these anagrams, ABRAM, when decrypted as BR-AAM is an anagram of
Turkish "Bir-Agam" meaning "My One Lord" referring to the ancient
Turanian creator Sky-Father-God, LABAN is from Turkish "AL aBa AN"
meaning "Red Father Sky" which is the Sun, JACOB (YAKUB), since there
was no letter "J" at that time, and "J" was a later invention to
replace letter "I" or "Y" in order to cause further confusion, is an
anagram of Turkish expression "AY-BeK" meaning "Moon Lord", and
BETHUEL, since Greek letter H is actually an "I" and U=Y, is from
Turkish "BEYTI YEL" meaning "Wind is the Lord". Thus these four
ancient Turanian deities were being followed in the place called
"ARAM", that is, Mesopotamia.

REFERENCES:

[1] Encyclopaedia Britannica World Language Dictionary (EBWLD), 1963,
Vol. 1, p. 103.
[2] Joan Oates, "BABYLON", Thames and Hudson Ltd, London, 1979, Frontispiece.
[3] "Türk Dünyasi El Kitabi Birinci Cilt" Türk Kültürünü Arastirma
Enstitüsü Yayinlari: 121, Ankara, 1992, s. 150.
[4] Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1963, Vol. 2, p.950.
[5] Joan Oates, "BABYLON", Thames and Hudson Ltd, London, 1979,
p. 157-159.
[6] EBWLD, 1963, Vol. 1, p. 103.
[7] EBWLD, 1963, Vol. 1, p. 103.
[8] DIVRY's "Modern English-Greek and Greek-English Desk Dictionary,
p. 450.
[9] Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1963, Vol. 1, p. 841.
[10] Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Fifth Edition, 1947, p. 139.
[11] Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Fifth Edition, 1947, p. 139.
[12] James Inglis, "The Bible Text Cyclopedia", Pickering & Inglis,
London, England, p. 300.
[13] James Inglis, "The Bible Text Cyclopedia", p. 300.
[14] Cassell's Latin - English Dictionary, MACMILLAN, USA, 1987, p. 104.
[15] James Inglis, "The Bible Text Cyclopedia", p. 300.


Best wishes to all,

Polat Kaya

28/02/2004

(Continued in Part-2)