“Seven mountains on which the woman sits”
This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits… And the woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth. (Revelation 17:9, 18 BSB)
What it sounds like today
Apocalyptic code, deliberately.
The cultural key
And then the text decodes itself twice. 'Seven mountains' was the ancient world's postcard description of Rome, the city of seven hills, celebrated in its poets and stamped on coinage (the goddess Roma seated on the seven hills). 'The great city with dominion over the kings of the earth' had exactly one referent in the first century. 'Babylon' completes the cipher already met at 1 Peter 5:13: the empire that burned the temple wearing the name of the empire that burned it first.
Recovered meaning
The whore of Babylon's street address is given plainly enough that no first-century hearer could miss it, while staying deniable if the scroll were seized: Rome, named by its own tourist slogan. The cipher is protective packaging, not obscurity for its own sake.