Buried Cities and Bible Countries

by George St. Clair

Dr Selah Merrill, in his “East of the Jordan,” also discusses the site of the Cities of the Plain. He says:—“Since Zoar was one of them, a hint as to their situation may be derived from Gen. xiii. 10, where Lot and Abraham are represented as standing on a hill near Bethel, and looking down the Jordan Valley towards the Dead Sea. As this verse is rendered in our English Bible, the meaning is not clear; but it will become so when all the middle portion of the verse is read as a parenthesis, as follows: ‘And Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the Plain of Jordan (that it was well watered everywhere, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt), until thou comest to Zoar.’ The last clause qualifies the first. Lot saw all the Plain of Jordan as far as Zoar, or ‘until you come to Zoar.’ Zoar was both the limit of the plain and the limit of vision in that direction, so far as the land was concerned.”

Dr Merrill then shows that nothing could have been distinguished at the southern end of the Dead Sea; and quotes early writers to show that Zoar existed near the northern end.

Regarding the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, it is not sufficient to say briefly that it was a miracle, and assume that no further explanation can be given. A rain of brimstone and fire is spoken of, and it is legitimate to look for the source of it. With the instance of Pompeii in our minds it is natural to suggest volcanic agency, especially as the region north-east of the Dead Sea affords evidence of volcanic action. But Sir J. W. Dawson (a well-known American geologist), in his volume on “Egypt and Syria,” ingeniously argues for a petroleum explosion. The “slime pits” spoken of as abounding in the Vale of Siddim (Gen. xiv. 10), he regards as petroleum wells, and then traces a parallel as follows:—“Regions of bitumen, like that of the Dead Sea, are liable to eruptions of a most destructive character. Of these we have had examples in the oil regions of America. In a narrative of one of these now before me, and which occurred a few years ago, in the oil district of Petrolia, in Canada, I read that a borehole struck a reservoir of gas, which rushed upward with explosive force, carrying before it a large quantity of petroleum. The gas almost immediately took fire, and formed a tall column of flame, while the burning petroleum spread over the ground and ignited tanks of the substance in the vicinity. In this way a space of about fifteen acres was enveloped in fire, a village was burned, and several persons lost their lives. The air flowing toward the eruption caused a whirlwind, which carried the dense smoke high into the air, and threw down burning bitumen all round.

“Now, if we suppose that at the time referred to, accumulations of inflammable gas and petroleum existed below the Plain of Siddim, the escape of these through the opening of a fissure along the old line of fault might produce the effects described—namely, a pillar of smoke rising up to heaven, burning bitumen and sulphur raining on the doomed cities, and fire spreading over the ground. The attendant phenomenon of the evolution of saline waters, implied in the destruction of Lot’s wife, would be a natural accompaniment, as water is always discharged in such eruptions; and in this case it would be a brine thick with mud, and fitted to encrust and cover any object reached by it.”

An important note, with reference to the destruction of the Cities of the Plain, appears in the statement in Gen. xiv., that the Vale of Siddim had bitumen pits or wells, and that these were so abundant or important as to furnish a place of retreat to, or to impede the flight of, the defeated kings of Sodom and Gomorrah. These bitumen pits have disappeared, unless their remains are represented by the singular pits described by Dr Merrill as occurring near Wady Nimrim. Their existence in the times of Abraham would bespeak a much greater abundance of bituminous matter than that now remaining; and it is possible that the eruption which destroyed the Cities of the Plain may have, to a great extent, exhausted the supply of petroleum.

“There is no reason to think” (adds Dr Dawson) “that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was connected with any important change in the limits of the Dead Sea, though it is highly probable that some subsidence of the valley took place, and may have slightly affected its levels relatively to the Jordan and the sea; but it would appear from Deut. xxix. 23, that the eruption was followed by a permanent deterioration of the district by the saline mud with which it was covered.”

In the Theological Monthly for May 1890, Rev. James Neil declares that no bitumen pits are to be found anywhere in the neighbourhood of the Jordan. The pits spoken of by Dr Selah Merrill were connected with aqueducts, and used for purposes of irrigation. But the asphalt thrown up from the bottom of the Dead Sea may have been employed to render such pits watertight, and to that extent they would be slime pits. He shows that such pits do exist in the Jordan Valley, extending across it in long lines just north of the supposed site of some of the Cities of the Plain; and it is a very curious fact that the Bedawin, who are unacquainted with their nature and purpose, have a legend connecting them with a great battle.

[Authorities and Sources:—Smith’s “Dict. of the Bible.” “Tent Work in Palestine.” Major Conder, R.E. “The Land of Moab.” Rev. Canon Tristram, F.R.S. “East of Jordan.” Dr Selah Merrill. “Egypt and Syria.” Sir J. W. Dawson.]

5. “Lot’s Wife.”

In connection with the destruction of Sodom, the Bible mentions the fate which overtook Lot’s wife, who “became a pillar of salt.” In the Book of Wisdom also we read of the waste land that smoketh, and plants bearing fruit that never come to ripeness, and a standing pillar of salt—a monument of an unbelieving soul (Wisd. x. 7). Josephus also says that he had seen it (Ant. i. 11, 4). The Arabs have legends on the subject; and travellers now and again describe the pillars of salt which have been pointed out to them, and to which the legends attach. The stories are by no means modern. Major Conder, in his “Syrian Stone Lore,” brings into brief compass the notions of the Fathers of the Church on the subject. From an early period “Lot’s wife” is mentioned as standing by the western shores of the Dead Sea, and Antoninus Martyr is careful to combat the idea that the pillar of salt was destroyed through its being constantly licked by animals. Clemens Romanus had seen it; Irenæus also (IV. xxxi. 3) mentions “Lot’s wife” as a pillar still standing. (Quoted by Kitto, Cyclopæd. “Lot.”) So does Benjamin of Tudela, whose account is more than usually circumstantial; and in later times Maundrell and others. It seems possibly to be the natural pinnacle, now called Karnet Sahsul Hameid, to which these writers refer. The feminine nature of this statue was supposed to be still perceptible, in spite of petrification.