On the Signification of Mountains, Towers and Other High Places

Leonardo, Vol. 15, No. I, pp. 45-48, 1982 Printed in Great Britain 0024-094X/821010045-04$03.00/0 Pergamon Press Ltd. ON THE SIGNIFICATION OF MOUNTAINS, TOWERS AND OTHER HIGH PLACES Michael Moore* 1. Introduction High places have long attracted, fascinated and mystified humans. Mountain tops, shrouded in clouds, inaccessible, have been regarded as the abode of gods of diverse religions; the summits of hills, often rendered even higher by sacred stones, have served as sacrificial sites [I]. Gods have been commonly characterized by height, often directly in their appellation: 'He that is above', 'He that is in the sky' and the like [2-4]. How literally this was meant is clearly demonstrated by the following Talmudic passage: 'Raba did not order a fast on a cloudy day because it says [in Lam. 3:44]. "Thou hast covered Thyself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through'" (see Tractate Berakoth 32-B). The association of height with the sacred has also motivated generation after generation of worshippers to imitate nature by raising very high structures. The Biblical Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:4) [5] was apparently erected in Babylon during the rule of Hammurabi (37 or 38 centuries before the present); it reached a height of about 90 m and was called 'Eaemen-an-kt or 'House of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth'. This seven-storey ziggurat was but one of many Mesopotamian towers that, according to some accounts, were regarded as landing places for Babylonian gods [6]. This function may be hinted at by the name 'Bab-el', meaning 'Gate of God'. According to the Biblical account, the Tower of Babel was not completed. The Lord scattered its builders 'over Fig. J. Pieter Brueghelthe Elder. 'The Tower ofBabel'. oil on oak panel, 114 x 155 em, 1563. (Courtesy of Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) *Psychologist,Dept. of Education inTechnologyand Science, Haifa 32000, Israel. (Received4 Nov. 1980) 45 the face of the whole earth', and, thus, its top failed to reach heaven. Figures 1 and 2 are two different interpretations of this failure. Bruegel depicted a grotesque, mountain-like tower, about which one source wrote: 'The whole factual business of building looks absurd, because it is doomed to senselessness' [7]. Escher's woodcut 'Tower of Babel' is a depiction of a harmonious, symmetrical tower whose construction has abruptly stopped; the gesticulating builders are at loss, for this is the moment when in Genesis (II :7) it states: 'Let us then go down and there confuse their language, so that one will not understand what another says'. (For Escher's comment on the woodcut see Ref. 8.) Fig. 2. M. C. Escher, 'Tower of Babel', woodcut, 62 x 38.5 em, 1928. 46 Michael Moore 2. Cathedrals and Towers The Biblical story carries a rather clear warning to the descendents of those ancient builders. (Franz Kafka in one of his parables observed: 'If it had been possible to build the Tower of Babel without ascending it, the work would have been permitted' [9].) And yet this warning did not prevent later generations from constructing towers and tall buildings. In the 12th and 13th centuries the architects of Gothic cathedrals, inspired by the concept of the 'New Jerusalem' and the Holy Mountain of Psalms (48:2), built asymmetric tall structures, often resembling natural, rugged mountains (Fig. 3). Some of these had naves 50 m high and towers of 125 m [10-12]. Towers have similarly captured widespread interest throughout history and have come to signify a number of related ideas. In early religions, a tower (i.e., a fortress or a stronghold) signified a god. Related to this use is the frequent depiction of a tower. as constancy in medieval allegorical imagery iturris fortitudinist [13]. Gilman [14], writing about Stendhal's novel 'Chartreuse de Parmc', found a different association: 'Challengers and victims of Fortune ... have traditionally been tower builders. Such construction ... is a blazoning of the pride and power which eventually leads to a fall.' Towers have also been used as a political symbol of vigilance and fidelity (e.g., in Bruck's 'Ernblemata Politica' (1618), where the tower stands for 'the vigilant care with which the king secures...