City
Sodom
SOD-um · Modern Uncertain/disputed — mapped here at Bab edh-Dhra near the southeastern Dead Sea (the traditional southern-theory candidate); Tall el-Hammam in the eastern Jordan Valley is a competing, actively disputed northern candidate
Sodom is a city of the biblical world, known today as Uncertain/disputed — mapped here at Bab edh-Dhra near the southeastern Dead Sea (the traditional southern-theory candidate); Tall el-Hammam in the eastern Jordan Valley is a competing, actively disputed northern candidate.
What is known
- Genesis 19 recounts God's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by 'sulfur and fire' due to the cities' wickedness, sparing only Lot, his wife and his daughters — and his wife not for long
- The exact location of Sodom is genuinely unresolved among archaeologists — the two leading hypotheses place it either in the southern Dead Sea plain (Bab edh-Dhra or Numeira, associated with an Early Bronze Age destruction), historically the more widely favored identification, or at Tall el-Hammam in the eastern Jordan Valley near the northern Dead Sea, excavated as Sodom since 2005/2006 by S. Collins, where a large Middle Bronze city burned and was then left empty for centuries. The northern identification is disputed hardest by scholars who share the excavator's confidence in Scripture — B. G. Wood argues for the southern sites and E. H. Merrill argues that the chronology rules Tall el-Hammam out — and the app's article Tall el-Hammam sets out both cases
- The map pin for this entry follows the southern hypothesis (Bab edh-Dhra) so that Sodom and Gomorrah — neighboring 'cities of the plain' — are plotted under the same theory as the paired Gomorrah entry at nearby Numeira; under the northern theory, both cities would instead lie in the Jordan Valley northeast of the Dead Sea
- The 'cities of the plain' (Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar/Bela) are described as being in the fertile Jordan Valley 'like the garden of the LORD' before their destruction (Genesis 13:10)
- A 2021 paper in Scientific Reports arguing that an exploding meteor destroyed Tall el-Hammam, widely reported at the time as a scientific explanation for Genesis 19, was formally retracted by the journal's editors on 24 April 2025 after two published critiques — though eleven of its twenty-one authors are recorded in the retraction notice as disagreeing with the decision, and an expanded version was republished elsewhere the same year
- Sodom became a lasting biblical byword for wickedness and divine judgment, referenced by later prophets and New Testament writers alike
History
- Coordinates
- 31.2800° N, 35.5800° E
Scripture references
- Genesis 13:10-13 — Lot chooses the well-watered plain near Sodom
- Genesis 14:1-12 — War of the kings; Sodom and Gomorrah plundered
- Genesis 18:20-33 — Abraham intercedes for Sodom
- Genesis 19:1-29 — Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; Lot's escape
- Deuteronomy 29:23 — Sodom and Gomorrah as examples of divine judgment
- Isaiah 1:9-10 — Judah compared to Sodom
- Jeremiah 49:18 — Overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah as a comparison
On a modern map
Further reading
Reflect
Abraham bargained boldly with God over Sodom for the sake of a few — who do you care about enough to plead for?
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