Mount Sodom. Lot's Wife

Possible location of the legendary Sodom and salt pillar, reminding us of the story of Lot's wife.

Not far from the tourist complex of the Dead Sea is the Mount Sodom, on the side of highway 90 towards the Dead Sea Works industrial site.

According to legend, this natural object plays a part in the Scripture.

It is believed to be the site of the Biblical Sodom, destroyed alongside Gomorrah for the severity of their sins.

One of the weathered salt rocks is pillar shaped, like a woman wrapped in a blanket.

Folktales say that this is the infamous Lot's wife, who was turned into stone.

Lot, nephew of Abraham, the first Jewish forefather, lived with his family in the ancient city of Sodom.

They were the only righteous people there.

The people in Sodom, as well as in the nearby Gomorrah and three other cities in the area, wallowed in sins so grave that the Lord, as the Scripture tells us, decided to castigate them.

Shortly before streams of fire and sulfur came crashing down on the sinners, the angels brought Lot and his family out of the city and told them to go away quickly and by no means to look back.

Alas, Lot's wife wasn't up to the test.

Commentators say that she was stingy and that with all her heart and mind she wished to go back to Sodom, to all the possessions they had left there fleeing in a hurry.

That is why, despite having been told not to, she looked back and immediately turned into a salt pillar.

The rescued Lot and his two daughters arrived in the city of Zoara and took refuge in one of the nearby caves...

Despite the fact that all Abrahamic religions have legends about this natural site, it has never been considered an object of religious worship in any of them.

By all means, it would be rather strange to worship this symbol of disobedience to the Divine Will.

The rumor also has it that in the past the pillar used to look even more like a female figure, but the rains, winds and erosion have been gradually destroying it.

Who knows, will our descendants even believe that it was ever there?

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