The Quran attributes the Tower of Babel to Nimrod. It is not by explicitly naming, but by reference to a king who wishes to claim divinity for himself. (Flavius Josephus agrees.) So the tower is built, and according to Tha’labi’s commentary, it is blown down by a great wind. This wind, which destroys the summit, sending it into the sea, also brings fear, and this fear fragments one language into 73. Why 73?

73 is prime, the 21st prime number. It’s reverse, 37, is also prime. Primes have been around longer than Babel. Well, primes have always existed, but the awareness of them is quite explicit in Euclid’s Elements, and it seems the Egyptians had a thing or two to say about them as well.

The numerologists have a lot to say about 73, as does the writings on the numerical aspects of Hebrew.  I am going to table this for the time being, I shall come back to 73 later.