Where Were Sodom and Gomorrah Located?

Genesis places Sodom and Gomorrah on the plain of the Jordan, in the region of the Dead Sea. The oldest tradition puts them near the southern end of the sea. A second view places Sodom at Tall el-Hammam, northeast of the sea. No inscription has named either city, so the exact location is not proven.

Meta description: Where were Sodom and Gomorrah? Genesis points to the Dead Sea plain. This post checks the southern site, the sulfur, and what Strabo, Diodorus, Philo and Volney wrote.

Brimstone: The English translation of the Hebrew word gophrit in Genesis 19:24. It is generally understood as sulfur, a yellow mineral that melts near 115°C (239°F) and burns with a blue flame.

Valley of Siddim: The Genesis 14 name for the region where Sodom, Gomorrah and the other cities of the plain stood. Genesis 14:3 says it is the Salt Sea, and Genesis 14:10 says it was full of bitumen pits.

Keywords: where were Sodom and Gomorrah located, Sodom and Gomorrah Dead Sea, brimstone Genesis 19, Bab edh-Dhra, Tall el-Hammam, Perry Stone Dead Sea

What Perry Stone Says

Perry Stone places Sodom and Gomorrah near the southern Dead Sea. He ties their destruction to the sulfur found in the region. “They were destroyed with fire that came out of heaven,” he says. He describes brimstone as “a combustible sulfur substance that can burn.”

He also cites Strabo, Diodorus, Philo and the explorer Volney. As he recounts them, those writers describe sulfurous odors and smoke, with fire beneath the surface. From that he concludes there is “a subterranean fire of some kind that is underneath the Dead Sea.”

That summary holds five claims. Here is how each one checks out.

Claim 1: The Cities Stood Near the Southern Dead Sea

Verdict: Defensible, but not settled.

Evidence for the south:

Genesis 14:3 says the Valley of Siddim “is the Salt Sea,” and Genesis 14:10 says the valley was full of bitumen pits.

Lot flees to Zoar in Genesis 19. Early writers placed Zoar at the southern end of the sea, and the sixth-century Madaba mosaic map marks it there.

Josephus, Eusebius and Jerome all located the cities at or beside the Dead Sea.

Five Early Bronze Age sites lie on the southeast plain: Bab edh-Dhra, Numeira, Safi, Feifa and Khanazir. Genesis 14 names five cities of the plain.

Jebel Usdum, “Mount Sodom,” is a salt ridge on the southwest shore. Its salt formations match the tradition of Lot’s wife.

Evidence against the south:

Bab edh-Dhra and Numeira were abandoned around 2350 BC. Most conservative chronologies date Abraham to about 2000 to 1900 BC. That leaves a gap of roughly 350 to 450 years.

Genesis 13:10 has Lot looking at “the plain of the Jordan.” Some scholars read that as the well-watered northern Jordan Valley.

Tall el-Hammam, northeast of the sea, was a large Middle Bronze Age city destroyed around 1650 BC. Archaeologist Steven Collins argues it is Sodom.

A 2021 paper claimed a cosmic airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam. Scientific Reports retracted that paper on April 24, 2025, after critics showed errors in its evidence. The retraction removes the airburst claim. It does not settle where Sodom stood.

Claim 2: Fire Came Out of Heaven

Verdict: Accurate to the text.

Genesis 19:24 says the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah “out of heaven.” Stone quotes the verse correctly. It is a statement of Scripture, so history cannot test it directly.

Claim 3: Brimstone Is Combustible Sulfur

Verdict: True.

Sulfur melts near 115°C (239°F) and ignites around 230°C (446°F). Sulfur springs and deposits are documented around the Dead Sea basin, including near Mount Sodom and at Ein Gedi. Bitumen is even more prominent. The Greeks and Romans called the sea Lake Asphaltites because asphalt rises from its floor.

One caution applies. Sulfur occurs in many places with no destruction story attached. Its presence fits Genesis 19, but it does not prove Genesis 19.

Claim 4: Strabo, Diodorus, Philo and Volney Describe It

Verdict: Accurate about surface features. Overstated for underground fire.

Strabo (Geography 16.2.42 to 45) describes burnt rock, dripping pitch, foul-smelling boiling streams and ruined cities. He reports a local tradition of thirteen cities, with Sodom as the chief one. He believed the lake formed through earthquakes and eruptions of fire and hot water carrying asphalt and sulfur. He reports the tradition. He does not confirm it.

Diodorus Siculus (2.48 and 19.98 to 99) describes the bitumen harvest and the foul air over the lake. His account does not name Sodom or Gomorrah.

Philo (Life of Moses 2.56 to 58 and On Abraham 140 to 141) says smoke and scorched remains were still visible. Philo was a Jewish writer retelling Genesis, so he is not an independent witness.

Volney (Travels through Syria and Egypt, 1787) argued for a natural, volcanic origin of the basin. He did not write as a defender of Genesis 19, and he drew heavily on earlier writers and local reports.

Stone leaves out two stronger sources. Josephus (Jewish War 4.476 to 485) and Tacitus (Histories 5.7) both describe a burnt plain and fruit that turns to ash.

Claim 5: A Subterranean Fire Burns Under the Dead Sea

Verdict: Not supported as stated.

The ancient writers saw bitumen, hot springs, gas and a sulfur smell. They inferred fire underground. Modern geology finds no burning fire there. The Dead Sea sits in an active rift. That means hot springs, hydrogen sulfide, petroleum and gas seeps, and earthquakes that still push blocks of bitumen to the surface.

That geology offers a possible mechanism for Genesis 19:28, where smoke rises “as the smoke of a furnace.” An earthquake could release gas and bitumen, and the release could ignite. Some researchers have proposed versions of this. It is a hypothesis, and no excavation has confirmed it. It also does not require a fire that burns today.

My View

I believe Genesis 19 records a real event. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone from heaven, exactly as Genesis 19:24 says. I read the account as history. I read the sulfur, the bitumen and the burnt ground that ancient visitors described as what that judgment left behind.

What You Can Say With Confidence

Genesis places the cities on the plain at the Dead Sea.

Sulfur and bitumen are real and documented in the region.

Strabo, Philo, Josephus and Tacitus describe burnt ground, smoke and foul odor. None of them verifies an underground fire.

The southern site is one of two main positions. The airburst claim for Tall el-Hammam has been retracted.

About the author: CK Quarterman is a USAF veteran, independent author and publisher at CKQbooks (ckqbooks.com). He writes nonfiction under the Malaterrestrials brand and develops the malaterrestrial concept in his books and blog.

Truth · History · Scripture