The Bible says God burned two wicked cities with fire from the sky, and that Lot's wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. Near the Dead Sea there's a whole mountain made of salt, and salt pillars there sometimes look like people. Ancient storytellers probably used the story to explain those strange shapes and the barren land around them. A science paper claiming a space rock destroyed "Sodom" turned out to have serious mistakes and was taken back.
No city has been confirmed as Sodom. The landscape around the southern Dead Sea (a salt mountain, natural salt pillars, a barren valley) fits what scholars call an etiological legend: a story that explains a strange place.2 The most famous recent "evidence," a 2021 paper about an exploding space rock, was retracted in 2025.1
"Archaeologists found Sodom, destroyed by fire from the sky, exactly as the Bible says."
The story
In Genesis 18:20–33 Abraham bargains with God to spare Sodom if fifty righteous people can be found, then forty-five, then down to ten. In Genesis 19:1–29 two angels visit Lot; the men of the city surround the house; and Lot offers his two virgin daughters to the mob instead (Genesis 19:8). The angels pull Lot inside, the family flees, and God rains "brimstone and fire" on the cities. Lot's wife looks back and becomes "a pillar of salt" (Genesis 19:26). Jesus later says "Remember Lot's wife" (Luke 17:32).
The chapter ends with Lot's daughters getting him drunk and having children by him, who become the ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites (Genesis 19:30–38). These were Israel's neighbors and frequent enemies.
Ezekiel 16:49: "this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom: pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness… neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy." Debates about what Sodom "means" often skip this verse.
A mountain made of salt
Salt is the most soluble common mineral on Earth's surface, so rain and underground water constantly carve caves and pillars into it.3 A 2009 study by geologist Amos Frumkin explained the roughly 20-meter "Lot's wife" pillar as the result of a salt cave collapsing inside the rising salt mountain.2 The historian Josephus and early church writers claimed to have seen her. Tourists are still shown pillars on both the Israeli and Jordanian sides.2
Put together, a story where a woman turns to salt, the cities are burned, and Israel's rivals have a shameful origin explains a strange local landscape and two neighboring peoples. That's the pattern of an origin legend.
The "comet destroyed Sodom" paper
In September 2021, the journal Scientific Reports published a paper arguing that a Tunguska-sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam, a Bronze Age city near the Dead Sea, and suggested it might have inspired the Sodom story. It made headlines worldwide. Then other scientists looked closely:1
- Image-integrity expert Elisabeth Bik flagged dozens of manipulated figures; the authors issued a correction in 2022.
- A 2022 response argued the melted materials could come from ancient metal smelting, not a space impact.
- The journal posted an editor's note of concern in 2023, and a 2025 critique argued errors led to unsupported conclusions.
- The paper was retracted in April 2025. The authors disagree and plan to republish with new data.
This is science working as designed: a dramatic claim got checked, failed, and was withdrawn, publicly. See How science works. Notice that the headlines said "evidence for the Bible," and the retraction got far less attention.
Some archaeologists and believers still think a real destruction of a Bronze Age city (some point to Tall el-Hammam, others to sites like Bab edh-Dhra on the Dead Sea's eastern shore) could lie behind the story, with the details shaped over time. That's possible. But a real ancient fire wouldn't confirm the miracles, the angels, or the salt-woman, and so far no site is confirmed as Sodom.
Mount Sodom is a salt diapir with natural salt pillars. The 2021 airburst paper was retracted.
God destroyed Sodom with fire from heaven and turned Lot's wife into salt.
Sources
- Retraction Watch, Sodom comet paper to be retracted two years after editor's note (April 2025); also Criticism engulfs paper (2021).
- Wikipedia, Lot's wife: etiological legend; Frumkin (2009); Josephus and early church writers; pillars in Israel and Jordan. Also Amos Frumkin, "How Lot's Wife Became a Pillar of Salt", Biblical Archaeology Review (2009), whose notes cite W. E. Rast (1987) linking the Sodom saga to Bab edh-Dhra.
- SERC, Carleton College, Salt Karst: Mount Sedom diapir: rock salt as the most soluble common mineral; one large salt pillar, "Lot's Wife," preserved by its caprock.
- Marked for a second source: the scholarly view that Genesis 19:30–38 functions as a hostile origin story for Moab and Ammon; Dead Sea elevation (≈430 m below sea level).