The destruction of the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah is one of the Old Testament’s more gripping stories. A great tale, but does it have any basis in historic fact? As it turns out it just might. Recently, scholars released a report about an ancient city near the Dead Sea, where Sodom and Gomorrah were supposed to have been. It was destroyed by an asteroid airburst, an event that could well have provided the basis for the biblical narrative. Below are thirty things about that and other lesser-known ancient world facts.
30. The Fiery Destruction of Sodom
In both the Bible and the Quran, the city Sodom and Gomorrah are cautionary examples of divine punishment as the wages of sin. In the best-known account, that contained in the Old Testament’s Book of Genesis, God informs Abraham that Sodom and the nearby city of Gomorrah are to be destroyed for their wickedness. Abraham pleads for the lives of righteous inhabitants, especially his nephew Lot and his family. The Lord agrees to spare the cities if fifty good people could be found in them – a figure that Abraham bargains down to ten. Two angels disguised as men are sent to Lot in Sodom, only for a depraved mob to demand that he hand over his guests so they could slake their lusts upon them.
The horny mob turns a deaf tear to Lot’s entreaties, so the angels blind the crowd, tell their host to get out of the city ASAP with his family, and not look back. As God rains down fiery destruction upon Sodom, Lot’s family flees and is spared the heavenly wrath. Except for Lot’s wife, who looks back and is immediately turned into a pillar of salt. All in all, a great story packed with action and drama – but is there is any basis for it in ancient historic facts? As seen below, there just might be. Not the bits about angels and wives getting turned into pillars of salt, but the part about the heavens raining down fiery destruction upon a city.
