The Tower of Babel; Illustration from the Dore Bible 1866. In 1866; the French artist and illustrator Gustave Dore (1832-1883); published a series of 241 wood engravings for a new deluxe edition of the 1843 French translation of the Vulgate Bible; popularly known as the Bible de Tours. This new edition was known as La Grande Bible de Tours and its illustrations were immensely successful. The Tower of Babel is meant to explain why the worlds peoples speak different languages. According to the story; a united humanity in the generations following the Great Flood; speaking a single language and migrating eastward; comes to the land of Shinar to build a city and a tower tall enough to reach heaven. God; observing their city and tower; confounds their speech so that they can no longer understand each other; and scatters them around the world..