Belgium / Iraq / Mesopotamia: The Building of the Tower of Babel. Oil on panel painting by Abel Grimmer (1570-1619), 17th century. The Tower of Babel, according to the Book of Genesis, was an enormous tower built in the plain of Shinar. According to the biblical account, a united humanity of the generations following the Great Flood, speaking a single language and migrating from the east, came to the land of Shinar, where they resolved to build a city with a tower with its top in the heavens...lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the Earth.