Home Archaeology The remains of Sodom and Gomorrah

The remains of Sodom and Gomorrah

by Tracy Williams

Following 10 years of digging, archaeologist Steven Collins, of Trinity Southwest University of New Mexico,
and his team believe that they have identified the location associated with Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah in the Southern Jordan Valley in Jordan, about 14 kilometers north east of the Dead Sea. The city of Sodom, with its huge walls, palaces, management buildings and encompassing farm region, prospered and dominated the region for 3,000 years.

Based on evidence found at the site, some 4,000 years ago, the entire region suddenly became uninhabited for over 700 years. At this site, which is called Tall el-Hammam, Collins and his team found balls of sulfur (brimstone) burnt into walls, floors and pillars. They also found layers of ash and a large archway covered in sulfur, which looks like a hard white substance. They took samples of the sulfur which they found all over the area of Tall el-Hammam and inspected it in a lab. These balls of sulfur, are around 94-98 percent pure sulfur with some remaining magnesium in them. This evidence fits the biblical description for what happened to Sodom and its neighboring city Gomorrah as magnesium burns extremely hot and fast.

Some say that the balls of sulfur with the existence of the many ash layers found all over the city is because a volcano erupted covering the city in sulfur and ash. However, sulfur that is produced in a volcanic eruption, is only 40 percent sulfur and it’s a crystal type of sulfur, not a hard dense white sulfur like what we find at Sodom. It is clear to see from the evidence that sulfur, burning extremely hot and raining down from the sky lead to the total destruction of this city.

Balls of sulfur / brimstone.

Geological timechart.

More than geological layers.

Ron Wyatt also discovered round balls of encapsulated sulfur (brimstone) at the Sodom location and swirling layers geological layers telling a very real catastrophic story. See his images in this section – which can also be found here: http://wyattmuseum.com/

Wyatt was not the only person to have discovered brimstone near the Dead Sea. William Albright and Melvin Kyle also found these pieces of brimstone by the Dead Sea in 1924. “…a region on which brimstone was rained will show brimstone. Well, it does; we picked up pure sulfur, in pieces as big as the end of my thumb. It is mixed with the marl of the mountains on the west side of the sea, and now is to be found scattered along the shore of the sea even on the east side, some four or five miles distant from the ledge that contains the stratum. It has somehow scattered far and wide over this plain.” “Explorations at Sodom” by Dr. Melvin Kyle, 1928, pp. 52-53.

In Genesis 18/19 The Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous  that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.” The lord was with Abraham overlooking the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and Abraham asked if God would destroy the city if there were any righteous men living there. The Lord replied that if there was even 1 righteous person living there, then He would not destroy the city. Abraham’s nephew Lot, was in the city, and two angles went down to collect him, they got him, his wife and two daughters, then led them out of the city before the destruction began.

“By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.“ Genesis 19: 23-26, “…and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterwards would live ungodly.”
2 Peter 2:6

An ancient Jewish historian called Flavius Josephus (born AD 37/38, Jerusalem — died AD 100, Rome), admitted that he had seen the pillar of salt that Lots wife turned into and that it still remained there in the times he lived in as well as the remains of the five cities that were destroyed along with pieces of the “divine fire” which could mean the balls of Sulfur (brimstone): “God then cast a thunderbolt upon the city, and set it on fire, with its inhabitants; and laid waste the country with the like burning, as I formerly said when I wrote the Jewish War. But Lot’s wife continually turning back to view the city as she went from it, and being too nicely inquisitive what would become of it, although God had forbidden her so to do, was changed into a pillar of salt; for I have seen it, and it remains at this day.” Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Chapter 11 paragraph 4.

“Now this country is then so sadly burnt up, that nobody cares to come at it;… It was of old a most happy land, both for the fruits it bore and the riches of its cities, although it be now all burnt up. It is related how for the impiety of its inhabitants, it was burnt by lightning; in consequence of which there are still the remainders of that divine fire; and the traces (or shadows) of the five cities are still to be seen,…” Josephus “Wars of the Jews”, Book IV, Chapter VIII

We can piece the puzzle together using the accounts of the Biblical/historical records and archaeology to prove that indeed, God did destroy the cities called Sodom and Gomorrah because their terrible sins and deeds they committed against God came up towards the heavens forcing God to act and stop the sin spreading to other cities around the region. They chose to sin and not to keep the commandments of God. “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9.

Main featured image credit: Graphe Media House

The extent of the cosmic airburst at Tunguska, Siberia (1908), superimposed on the Dead Sea area. Image credit: Bunch et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-97778-3.

Destruction layer in the palace at Tall el-Hammam: (a) photo of excavation #1 marks MB II debris that was most likely deposited by post-fire erosion; #2 points to charcoal-rich ‘dark layer’ indicating a major fire in the palace; contains fragments of plaster and limestone spherules; blue arrows mark its top; #3 points to the cross-section of excavated clay flooring; Image credit: Bunch et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-97778-3.

(d) charred palace roof timber surrounded by 1.5-m-thick charcoal-rich debris matrix of pulverized mudbrick. A scale stick shows 10-cm markings. Image credit: Bunch et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-97778-3.

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