The Tower of Babel 

Gustave Doré rendered this engraving, titled "The Tower of Babel," based on the biblical narrative about humanity's attempt to reach the heavens. Notice the tower itself; its ambition, represented by its height, challenges divine authority. This striving for the celestial echoes in ancient ziggurats, which, like the Tower of Babel, were architectural embodiments of humanity's spiritual aspirations. Consider, too, the disarray among the workers. Their gestures of confusion and frustration symbolize the breakdown of communication—a divine intervention leading to the dispersion of peoples and languages. This motif of linguistic chaos recurs throughout history, representing the fragmentation of society and the limits of human unity. The image powerfully taps into our collective memory, reminding us of the inherent human drive to transcend limitations and the inevitable consequences of overreaching. Such is the enduring tension between aspiration and consequence, a theme that binds us across millennia.