Rens van der Sluijs has a look at Hebrew myths at www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2014/09/16/19/lost-for-words-part-one/ … and how they affect tribal myths as a result of missionary activity in the 19th century. He sees this as a matter of bits grafted on to original similar stories – and recounts one from Tanzania. In this tale there are distinct differences to the Biblical Tower of Babel. The builders are beligerent, thee is also an earthquake, and the sky is lifted away from the Earth, motifs not in the Genesis version. There is also an absence of the confusion of tongues.
Another tribal group in Tanzania, the Nyamwezi, has a slightly different version still, whilst Polynesians have another, both groups influenced by the Bible story but both containing distinct differences which seem to imply an original native tradition of a tower in the sky was influenced by Christianity.
What was the tower? Well, we may have the opportunity to see such a phenomenon from the vantage point of orbiting spacecraft around Mars, in just a few short months time. This is when Comet Siding Spring is due to come fairly close to the red planet and we get a view of its coma brushing past. If the Electric Universe theory has any substance it must reveal something of itself this year or next – what with Comet Siding Spring and Comet Churyumov-Girasimenko.
Of course, comas aside, it is essentially an auroral event according to EU and it is this that may have given the impression of the sky coming close to each other – the sort of auroral event not witnessed in recent centuries (or for thousands of years). In that view the event may have nothing whatsoever to do with a comet, and the tower itself could arguably be as a result of a plasma discharge. See Rens van der Sluijs at www.mythopedia.info
In contrast, McCafferty and Baillie, in their book, 'The Celtic Gods: comets in Irish history' Tempus:2005 … mention towers in relation to comets and Irish myth. As an example they recount the story of the Milesians who built a tower so high (in Spain, or far across the sea) so that they could see in all directions – and were able to spy on Ireland. In Scandinavian epic, the 'Erik Saga' there is a tower hung in the air without foundations etc., while in Arthurian myth there is a glass castle on Avalon. This is mirrored in the Irish tale of the god Balor. He had a glass tower on Tory Island, situated off the coast of Donegal, and he is reputed to have so close to the Earth the vegetation became parched and dried and threatened to set the whole world alight with the heat he generated (a bit like the old British tale associated with the giant that metamorphosed into St Alban).