<P> Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God . He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah, a bold man, and of great strength of hand . He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God as if it were through his means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness . He also gradually changed the government into tyranny, seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence on his power...Now the multitude were very ready to follow the determination of Nimrod and to esteem it a piece of cowardice to submit to God; and they built a tower, neither sparing any pains, nor being in any degree negligent about the work: and, by reason of the multitude of hands employed in it, it grew very high, sooner than any one could expect; but the thickness of it was so great, and it was so strongly built, that thereby its great height seemed, upon the view, to be less than it really was . It was built of burnt brick, cemented together with mortar, made of bitumen, that it might not be liable to admit water . When God saw that they acted so madly, he did not resolve to destroy them utterly, since they were not grown wiser by the destruction of the former sinners (in the Flood); but he caused a tumult among them, by producing in them diverse languages, and causing that, through the multitude of those languages, they should not be able to understand one another . The place wherein they built the tower is now called Babylon, because of the confusion of that language which they readily understood before; for the Hebrews mean by the word Babel, confusion . The Sibyl also makes mention of this tower, and of the confusion of the language, when she says thus:--"When all men were of one language, some of them built a high tower, as if they would thereby ascend up to heaven; but the gods sent storms of wind and overthrew the tower, and gave everyone a peculiar language; and for this reason it was that the city was called Babylon ." </P> <P> Third Apocalypse of Baruch (or 3 Baruch, c. 2nd century), one of the pseudepigrapha, describes the just rewards of sinners and the righteous in the afterlife . Among the sinners are those who instigated the Tower of Babel . In the account, Baruch is first taken (in a vision) to see the resting place of the souls of "those who built the tower of strife against God, and the Lord banished them ." Next he is shown another place, and there, occupying the form of dogs, </P> <P> Those who gave counsel to build the tower, for they whom thou seest drove forth multitudes of both men and women, to make bricks; among whom, a woman making bricks was not allowed to be released in the hour of child - birth, but brought forth while she was making bricks, and carried her child in her apron, and continued to make bricks . And the Lord appeared to them and confused their speech, when they had built the tower to the height of four hundred and sixty - three cubits . And they took a gimlet, and sought to pierce the heavens, saying, Let us see (whether) the heaven is made of clay, or of brass, or of iron . When God saw this He did not permit them, but smote them with blindness and confusion of speech, and rendered them as thou seest . (Greek Apocalypse of Baruch, 3: 5--8) </P> <P> Rabbinic literature offers many different accounts of other causes for building the Tower of Babel, and of the intentions of its builders . According to one midrash the builders of the Tower, called "the generation of secession" in the Jewish sources, said: "God has no right to choose the upper world for Himself, and to leave the lower world to us; therefore we will build us a tower, with an idol on the top holding a sword, so that it may appear as if it intended to war with God" (Gen. R. xxxviii. 7; Tan., ed . Buber, Noah, xxvii. et seq .). </P>

What country was the tower of babel built