Daniel chapter 3 relates that Nebuchadnezzar set up a golden image outside Babylon, on the plain of Dura. As the chapter unfolds, he commands everyone present to bow down and worship the image or be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire (Dan 3:5-6). What did this furnace look like,  why was it there, and how could it hold several men and have an opening by which one could look inside? Furnaces or kilns of various sizes were used widely in antiquity. Small furnaces were used for smelting metal ore, or for......