'World's first skyscraper sought to intimidate masses'

Jerusalem Post ^ | Tuesday, February 15, 2011 | Arieh O'Sullivan / The Media Line

[SunkenCiv]

Long before its Biblical walls came tumbling down, Jericho's residents were being enticed to give up hunting and gathering and start farming for a living. They settled in this oasis next to the Jordan River and built a mysterious 8.5-meter (28-foot) stone tower on the edge of town.

When discovered by archaeologists in 1952, it was dated at over 11,000 years old, making it the first and oldest public building even found. But its purpose and the motivation for erecting it has been debated ever since.

Now, using computer technology, Israeli archaeologists are saying it was built to mark the summer solstice and as a symbol that would entice people to abandon their nomadic ways and settle down...

The stone tower is about nine meters in diameter at its base and conical in shape. Built out of concentric rows of the stones, it also contains an enclosed stairway. Archeologists say it wasn't used as a tomb.

Barkai and fellow archaeologist Roy Liran used computers to reconstruct sunsets and found that when the tower was built the nearby mountains cast a shadow on it as the sun set on the longest day of the year. The shadow fell exactly on the structure and then spread out to cover the entire village.

[SunkenCiv]

I was looking for this one:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Brueghel-tower-of-babel.jpg

And was pleasantly surprised at the many other takes on the idea.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Renfield.

Excavated from deep layers of dirt, the Tower of Jericho (center) was once three stories aboveground. [Photograph from BibleLandPictures/Alamy]

[SunkenCiv]