Tower of Babel Update
When I was just in Turkey in October 2000 I met up with Aaron Sen. Aaron and I have worked together on a number of projects over the years in Israel, Egypt and Turkey. He and a few others had traveled to the "tower" site and what they saw was consistent with what Ron Wyatt told me about the site about 2 years ago. Here is his report.
On this trip I was part of a tour group led by Elin Berglund. On a previous visit Elin, Ross Patterson and Ian Rodley among others located the area that Ron identified the Tower of Babel to be in. So this trip we returned to find the exact location.
We located the nearest village and asked the locals about the Tower. We had a member of the group who spoke a little of the language which was invaluable. We showed them pictures of the Tower and their reaction seemed very genuine. They all consistently pointed in the same direction, and all said that it was now underwater. So we drove in that direction and found a little house close to the edge of the water. We asked the man living there about the Tower and showed him the pictures. He too pointed out to the water.
They told us that 5 to 10 years ago the Turks built a dam and flooded the whole area. That is exactly what Ron had said too, and one of the tourist guide books for Nemrut Dagi also confirmed this. It added that several ancient archaeological sites had now been lost forever.
Since I had my wetsuit and underwater camera with me I asked if he could take us out in a boat and if he could get us right above the site. He said he could, so we set off.
When he said we were right above the site, I jumped in and looked below the surface. It was extremely scary! I don’t know what I was scared about as there was no danger at all, but looking under the water I could not see a thing. It was all just very murky green. I wouldn’t let go of the boat!
I took a rock from the boat and dropped it, and lost sight of it after about two seconds! It just got past my feet, so visibility was about 6 feet. I finally convinced myself to let go of the boat and swim around. However I could not even see a dark patch where the Tower should have been.
The locals told us that in August the water is the lowest and the top half of the tower is exposed. We checked that with the Dam authority and they confirmed it as they open the dam and let the water out in July. So hopefully someone will be there in August and visit the site with a good video camera and underwater equipment.
The locals confirmed that the formation was hollow and said they had been down inside it and seen different colourings and markings on the walls. I guess most of the evidence inside would have been destroyed by the water and I wonder at this point whether it could ever be used as a witness to the world like Sodom and Gomorrah, Noah’s Ark, etc.