Engraving of the Tower of Babel
The idea of a tower, pillar or column that reaches the heavens is ancient; it is the axis mundi (world pillar, or cosmic axis), the mythical link between heaven and earth found in religions and cultures all over the world: the Tree of Life, Yggdrasil, Mount Olympus, Shambala, the Golgotha, Jacob’s Ladder, the Mayan pyramids, and even in maypoles and church steeples. It is found at the place where the four compass points meet, and therefore rises from the centre of the world.