The other record of these cities comes from Josephus in his "WARS OF THE JEWS", book IV, chapter VIII:
"Now this country is then so sadly burnt up, that nobody cares to come at it;... It was of old a most happy land, both for the fruits it bore and the riches of its cities, although it be now all burnt up. It is related how for the impiety of its inhabitants, it was burnt by lightning; in consequence of which THERE ARE STILL THE REMAINDERS OF THAT DIVINE FIRE; AND THE TRACES [OR SHADOWS] OF THE FIVE CITIES ARE STILL TO BE SEEN,..."
Josephus' description perfectly describes what can be seen in these 5 ashen sites. All whitish in color, the shadows and shapes display all the visual characteristics of ancient cities and walls.
The destruction of these cities took place approximately 3,900 years ago, so it is quite amazing to find ANY remains of ashen heaps. That they were destroyed in a Divine manner is understood, but it appears that they were also preserved in a Divine manner as well. These weren't composed of the kind of ash we commonly think of, that blows away into the wind. It was compacted ash- the material was densely-packed and crusty on the outside. But when broken open, the substance was much softer, and with continual crushing, was soon reduced to powder.
Since combustion is a chemical process, we read up on and discovered that the study by the Frenchman, Lavoissier, on the nature of oxygen and combustion came about when he discovered that substances burned with sulfur had a HEAVIER remaining ash than the original unburned substance. Further study into combustion got extremely complicated- much too much to get into here- but indicated that the event of the destruction of these cities was the result of a carefully controlled chemical reaction that took place VERY rapidly, yet maintained an equilibrium that didn't result in an explosion.
The rapidity of the destruction of these cities (and the entire plain) by fire is proven in the chronology of events in the Biblical account. We know that the event did not begin until Lot and his family were completely out of Sodom and IN Zoar:
GEN 19:23 The SUN WAS RISEN upon the earth when LOT ENTERED INTO ZOAR. 24 THEN the LORD RAINED upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah BRIMSTONE AND FIRE from the LORD out of heaven;
The sun had already risen when the conflagration began.
GEN 19:27 And Abraham gat up EARLY IN THE MORNING to the place where he stood before the LORD: 28 And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the SMOKE OF THE COUNTRY WENT UP AS THE SMOKE OF A FURNACE.
When Abraham arose, he saw the sky filled with black smoke. With flocks to tend, Abraham most certainly got up very soon after the sun arose, and found the event already finished.
One of the interesting features of these sites is the layering present in ALL of the ashen material. Hundreds and thousands of layers are present, none very thick. In very high temperature fires, and/or in very hot flames containing alkali metals or alkaline-earth metals (for example, sodium and calcium) the positive and negative ions attract and repel, resulting in this layering effect. We know the flames had to be extremely hot in order to completely burn stone and metals; and we know there is a tremendous amount of sodium (salt) in the region- the Dead Sea has the highest concentration of salt in any body of water on earth. And, the largest salt dome, Mt. Sodom, is also in the area.
Was ZOAR Destroyed? One potential puzzle arose when Ron found 5 sites instead of 4. The Biblical account tells that Lot and his daughters were allowed to flee to Zoar in order to escape the impending destruction. Yet, this fifth city was located just a few miles beyond the southernmost site, which would have been Sodom. In between this small site and Sodom was a segment of Mt. Sodom, and this fit the picture from Genesis perfectly. When Lot's wife tarried long enough to look back, she was turned into a pillar of salt, which indicated that there was another process which also took place at that time.
This process, whatever it was, converted a particular area into salt, and it appeared that Lot's wife got caught up in that. This 5th site was extremely small, compared to the other 4, and it was in a perfect square. Was this Zoar? We know Zoar wasn't destroyed when Sodom and Gomorrah were!? Again, we found the answer in the Biblical account.
GEN 19:30 And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for HE FEARED TO DWELL IN ZOAR: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. 31 And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and THERE IS NOT A MAN IN THE EARTH to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth: 32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.
For some reason, Lot became afraid to continue to stay in Zoar, so he and his daughters left. The next thing we read is that they dwelt in a cave and his 2 daughters state that there are no men left "in the earth" to "come in unto us after the manner of all the earth", or in short, to make them pregnant. This tells us that for some reason, shortly after leaving Zoar, they believe they are the only people left on earth. Why would they think this unless they had just witnessed the destruction of Zoar? The area of land that had been affected by the conflagration which destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah was extremely large, and to Lot and his daughters, it probably looked as if the entire world had been destroyed, except for little Zoar. Then, as they dwelled in Zoar and witnessed the fact that its inhabitants were just as wicked as those of Sodom, they expected its soon destruction, which is exactly what occurred. Whether this happened the next day, or week or month, we have no way of knowing. But Josephus, in our earlier quote, also states that "five cities are still to be seen".
