When was the tower of babel built?

Question

What was its purpose?

Answer 1

About 5000 years ago.

Answer 2

After the Great Flood Noah, his wife, sons and daughter-in-laws emerged from the Ark and began living in a new world that was created after the flood. According to the scriptures Ham, the son of Noah, had 4 sons (named below) and his son Cush was the father of Nimrod.

6 And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.
7 And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtechah: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan.
8 And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.
9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord : wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord .
10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

Nimrod was the king of Babel at the time of the building of the Tower of Babel which was being built to reach the heavens. At this time everyone spoke the same language and they were able to work without any hindrance. God did not allow this to happen by confounding their language thereby stopping all work and the tower was never finished. The term babbling comes from babel and describe foolish or hurried rapid speaking that often makes no sense.

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Answer 3

According to a 1988 book published in London called "The Wall Chart of World History", it was built around 500 BC near Babylon which was near present day Baghdad in Iraq. It was not completed. This source says it was eight stories (~ 650 ft)
high.
Wiki has some interesting theories (see excerpt below). Many people dislike the Wikipedia, but in this case - obviously - no one really knows the answer, so it is just a matter of theories or guesses.
The purpose of such a tower in the time of Babylon, ancient Persia, or the farther back kingdom of UR would have been religious - a pagan temple.

From Wiki (paraphrased) :
One recent theory first advanced by David Rohl associates Nimrod, builder of Babel, with Enmer, king of Uruk, said to have been the first builder of the Eridu temple(c. 2046-2037 BC) - Third Dynasty of Ur. This theory proposes that the actual remains of the Tower of Babel are in fact the much older ruins of the temple of Eridu, just south of Ur, rather than those of Babylon, where the story was later transposed.

Answer 4

It's Biblical mythology, just the response of the Jews exiled in Babylonia 596-522 BC to the tall ziggurats they saw around, and possibly their experience of a multi-lingual empire.

Answer 5

It was never built, remember? God didn't appreciate those folks thinking they could reach the heavens,so he halted the constuction and confused the men. making them speak differently.