Written by: Chuck Anderson of Discovery News
Unlike the historical sites found in Saudi Arabia, you can visit the ruins of the “five cities of the plain” in Israel. The ashen ruins of what is believed to be the city of ancient Gomorrah is the best preserved site. It is located at the foot of Masada, the well-known mountaintop fortress of King Herod where nearly 1,000 Jewish patriots took their own lives rather than submit to the tyranny of Rome.
As you drive into Masada from the main road that goes along the Dead Sea, you will notice a large parking lot on the right hand side. Going to the north it is an easy walk to the most striking ruin that stood out above the rest of the city. A large man-made sphinx-like object was apparently set up near the city gates for protection from their enemies. Now it stands there, its ashen remains giving testimony that the pagan idol was powerless against the destructive fires that descended upon the community.
I was quite surprised, when I visited the site, that a pocket knife could easily penetrate the layers of white ash. The material is easily broken off and crumbles in your fingers. As it is rubbed between your fingers it turns into a fine talc-like powder. One cannot help but wonder what kind of fire it would take to turn solid rock into crumbling ash.
In some areas of the ancient city there are numerous golf ball sized sulfur pellets. Some of them are encased in a hard shell which was the resulting of burning. The sulfur tablets have been tested and consist of 98% pure sulfur and a trace of magnesium which would have burned extremely hot. The samples I collected would burst into an immediate toxic flame when touched with a match. If you visit the site just after a rain storm you will find the brimstone pellets on the flat tops of the ruins. It would appear that a torrential rainstorm of burning sulfur tell upon these ancient cities.
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Nothing Left But Ashes and Brimstone Pellets!
We should remember, according to the Biblical account, that the area was once a very beautiful and prosperous valley. The book of Genesis records that Lot, the nephew of the ancient patriarch, Abraham, chose to live there because the area was “well watered everywhere, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the guarded of the LORD.” Genesis 13:10
It is obvious now, that the entire area came under the severe judgement of God.
What was the sin that brought about the fiery wrath upon these cities? Many other pagan societies survived without experiencing such horrendous judgment. According to the Bible, God destroyed the cities because of their great immorality and perversion.
God apparently preserved the ancient ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah as a warning to other civilizations as we read in 2 Peter 2:6 — “God turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly.”
THE SITES OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH WERE SEEN BY THE ANCIENT HISTORIAN JOSEPHUS
During the first century, the Jewish historian Josephus recorded the visible existence of the ruins in his day — “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 mow 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 the divine fire; and the traces of the five cities are still to be seen.” (Josephus in his “Wars of the Jews,” Book IV, Chapter VIII)
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Christians Are Us 