Borsippa (
Sumerian: BAD.SI.(A).AB.BA
KI;
Akkadian:
Barsip and
Til-Barsip) or
Birs Nimrud (having been identified with
Nimrod) is an archeological site in
Babylon Province,
Iraq. The
ziggurat, the "Tongue Tower," today one of the most vividly identifiable surviving ziggurats, is identified in the later
Talmudic and
Arabic culture with the
Tower of Babel. However, modern scholarship concludes that the
Sumero-Akkadian builders of the Ziggurat in reality erected it as a religious edifice in honour of the local god
Nabu, called the "son" of Babylon's
Marduk, as would be appropriate for Babylon's lesser sister-city.