A Banach algebra 9t is said to be topologically left Noetherian (TLN) if for any increasing chain of closed left ideals I1 subset of I2 subset of MIDLINE HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS, there exists an n is an element of N such that Im = In for all m >= n. We study some basic properties of this class of Banach algebras. In particular, we show that if 9t has an essential socle, then it is of finite dimension.