“Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves”

What is the true significance of the “Tower of Babel” story/myth..?   The Biblical timeline is unclear (to put it mildly) – so the events described could have taken place decades or even centuries after the great flood, when a group of survivors decided to build a “city with a tower” so as to “make a name for ourselves”, all of which is very intriguing.   Was their intention to “reach God” or was it to “become like Gods” themselves?    Their “city” was clearly not intended to be a normal low-rise walled city of those times, but rather an enormous structure, most likely a pyramid of some kind.  Was it perhaps intended to be an arcology?

Of the many imaginative representations of the fabled “Tower of Babel” that one can find on Google, some are conical whilst others are pyramidal.  Biblical historians generally assume it to have been a ziggurat – the focal point of every Mesopotamian city-state – so a stepped pyramid seems to be most likely.  The biblical narrative focusses on the “confusing of the language” aspect (hence “Babel”) but nobody ever bothers to ask why, not long after the legendary Great Flood, the survivors would spontaneously decide to build an enormous building of that particular type..?  Did such enormous buildings exist in an advanced civilisation BEFORE the flood..? 

Was the Tower of Babel an attempt to re-create the type of city which had existed pre-deluge..?  But could not be completed because the advanced building technology had been lost in the great flood..?