The Tower of Babel

12th century
Mosaic
Palatine Chapel, Palermo, Sicily

Genesis 11:1-9. The inscription on the left says filii noe edificant civitatem babel, "the sons of Noah build the city of Babel," but the text calls them the sons of Adam. At left the men harden bricks in a furnace, per verse 3, but they make mortar to fix the bricks rather than the bitumen ("tar" or "pitch") mentioned in that verse. The center shows them at work with various mason's tools not very different from today's. At right we see them affected by God's decision to confuse their language. The inscription says filii noe confusi lingua c[es]sant edificare civitatem, "the sons of Noah, their tongues confused, cease to build the city."

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Photographed at the chapel by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.