I was recently watching a show on PBS wherein the narrator was traveling the
lands of ancient Canaan, illustrating the paths of Abraham in the book of
Genesis. At one point he and his guide climbed a slope next to the Dead Sea,
and, having entered a tunnel in the cliff-side, found themselves staring up an
immense shaft blasted by salt. Due to a confluence of geographic and climactic
factors, the pressure from the Sea will often push great fountains of salt up
from the seabed through this shaft, and thence cover the plains above the cliff.
These very plains are one of the rumored locations of the ancient cities of
Sodom and Gomorrah. The film crew left the tunnels and returned to the cliff top
plains. The land was harsh; the uneducated eye would have no idea that salt
covered all, preventing growth. Was this spray of salt perhaps the origin of the
Bible's story of the destruction of these cities? Even more interesting to me,
however, was the pillar of salt that the crew passed – just bigger than a
person. "But Lot's wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt" (Gen
19:26). Could this be she?