A look around Babylon at the British Museum

View of the British Museum's exhibition showing glazed brick reliefs of lions and a model of ancient Babylon Photograph: David Levene/Guardian

Glazed brick relief showing a lion Photograph: David Levene/Guardian

Dragon relief, 6th century BC, glazed brick panel Photograph: © Olaf M Teßmer / SMB-Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin

Scale model of the ziggurat Etemenanki. Ziggurats were built as stairways to heaven Photograph: David Levene/Guardian

A view of various paintings of the Tower of Babel. The Biblical story has inspired artists from Brueghel to Rembrandt Photograph: David Levene/Guardian

The Tower of Babel; 1595, oil on panel by Lucas van Valckenborch Photograph: © Mittelrhein-Museum Koblenz

Fall of the Tower of Babel, 1547, etching by Cornelis Anthonisz Photograph: © The Trustees of the British Museum

A modern interpretation of the tower by artist Michael Lassel. Tower of Babel/Der Turm Babel, 2001, oil on canvas Photograph: © Michael Lassel

Babel Revisited, 2004, by Julee Holcombe Photograph: © Julee Holcombe / Conner Contemporary Art

Barbed wire surrounding the archaeological site of Babylon, about 50 miles south of Baghdad, Iraq. The British Museum protested at the use of the site as a military base Photograph: Karim Kadim/AP