He looks towards Sodom, now only a pit filled with pitch, from which rise smoke, ashes and cinders, as from a furnace.
A sea now occupies the place of the four cities.
It is a stinking pool, and is called the Dead Sea.
Nothing may live in it.
Lead floats on its surface.
A feather sinks to the bottom of it.
Lands, watered by this sea, never bear grass or weed.
A man cannot be drowned in it.
The clay clinging to it is corrosive, as alum, alkaran, sulphur, etc., which fret the flesh and fester the bones.
On the shores of this lake grow trees bearing fair fruits, which, when broken or bitten, taste like ashes.