And the vale of Siddim was full of slime pits, and the Kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and fell there, and they that remained fled to the mountains.
By simon brown.
By simon brown.
Whilst driving past the Dead Sea en route for Eng’edi, many signs warning of open pits were noticed.
This rang a bell with Simon, who remembered reading something about pits in this area.
This rang a bell with Simon, who remembered reading something about pits in this area.
He asked Einar to stop, recalling Genesis 14. The King of Sodom the King of Gomorrah, the King of Admah, the King of Zeboim and the King of Bella that is Zoar marched out and drew up their battle lines in the valley of Siddim.
Could this be the valley of Siddim?
It could very well be!
The Bible says it happened by the Dead Sea, that is the Salt Sea, between the cities of the plain and that’s where they were standing at that moment.
 |
Finding another warning sign they decided to discover what manner of pits the Bible referred to. |
Curiosity came to the fore.
How big are they?
How deep?
How dangerous?
They began to walk gingerly onward, keeping well clear of any soft looking patches of ground. No-one wanted to suddenly disappear.
They came to a small ditch with a thin layer of shell over it.
Things were getting interesting. This could obviously be a trap for the unwary.
Nearby were larger pits 2 to 3 feet deep and Simon climbed a little way into one, noticing that the bottom appeared very dark in colour.
As they walked further on another Biblical verse sprang to mind, Genesis 14 v10. And the vale of Siddim was full of slime pits and the Kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and fell there, and they that remained fled to the mountains.
The group were surrounded by these pits, some huge and deep and once again the accuracy of the Bible amazed them.
The bottom of these deeper pits could most definitely be described as slime.
Looking behind them, the mountains stood, dark and brooding.
And they that remained fled to the mountains.
Obviously the pits had been uncovered over thousands of years by the gradual evaporation of the Dead Sea, because traces of crystalline salt and other minerals could clearly be seen shining on the crusted edges.
Not until after his return to the U.K. did Simon realise that he had forgotten to dig some samples for analysis.
The Israeli authorities are in the process of filling these pits with hardcore for health and safety reasons and so time is short.
To establish exactly where the pits were that were mentioned in the Bible it would be necessary to know the exact level of the sea 3,900 years ago, and this was beyond our capability.
To establish exactly where the pits were that were mentioned in the Bible it would be necessary to know the exact level of the sea 3,900 years ago, and this was beyond our capability.
Peter and Einar noticed that the ground was still soft and hollow right up to the road, where the ancient pits could have been.
Just as they were preparing to drive on, Simon filmed thousands of tons of hardcore piled up and ready to fill the dangerous pits.
It brought a lump to his throat as he realised that history was about to become a new tourist beach. This article is taken from the film Our Search for Real Discoveries DVD
In this documentary Simon's team return to Sodom and Gomorrah for a closer look. They also search for Admah and Zoar the surrounding towns.
No comments:
Post a Comment