Bricks: the making of, formed the chief labour of the Israelites in Egypt (Exodus 1:13,14). Those found among the ruins of Babylon and Nineveh are about a foot square and four inches thick. They were usually dried in the sun, though also sometimes in kilns (2 Samuel 12:31; Jeremiah 43:9; Nahum 3:14). (See NEBUCHADNEZZAR.)

The bricks used in the tower of Babel were burnt bricks, cemented in the building by bitumen (Genesis 11:3).