It seems probable that the region did once support a larger population. We know this to be true of other parts of the Orient which have since become desolate owing to the ravages of war, the change of climate, and the decay of Oriental civilization. And when we recall how the sinking of the great earth block that carried this land so far below the level of the sea forced lava up through the earth cracks, we can account for "the fire from heaven" that poured down upon the cities of the plain.
Professor Huntington, who headed the Yale Expedition into Palestine in 1909, speaks of visiting the ruins of Suweim south of the Dead Sea and picking up bits of lava (the whole region abounds in evidences of volcanic action) while the sheik who acted as guide told the story of Sodom as the story of Suweim. The name Suweim, Professor Huntington thinks, may be a corruption of Sodom. Continuing, he says:[41]
"The place is much greener than the other side of the valley, and in the days of Lot may have been 'like the garden of Jehovah'[42]; for in those times, as our studies of old levels of the Dead Sea quite clearly indicate, the climate of Palestine was probably decidedly moister than it is now.
"And not two miles from Suweim we found a little volcano of very recent date geologically, and an eruption may have wrought havoc in a town located near Suweim."
[41] "Palestine and Its Transformation."
[42] Genesis 13:10.
In one part of the valley he also found a cave among the mountains, hewn out of the limestone above a spring.
Now turn to your Bible, Genesis 9:30:
"And Lot went up out of Zoar and dwelt in the mountain, in a cave, he and his two daughters."
In short, the geography of the region—such is the conclusion of Professor Huntington's careful study—"supplies all the elements of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in exactly the location where the Biblical account would lead one to expect them."