512 SUPPOSED RELATIVE POSITIONS OF THE CITIES. [1848. 



stood. The south-eastern portion of this plain is still very 

 fertile ; the whole is abundantly irrigated. Its great depth 

 draws all the streams of El-Arabah into it. Numerous rivu- 

 lets descend on both sides from the hills ; and to these causes, 

 no doubt, it owed the fertile aspect in which it appeared to 

 Lot, when he chose it for the range of his flocks. 



"Moreover, it is more reasonable to suppose that the five 

 cities stood on this plain, than that they were scattered over 

 so large a space as that which is now occupied by the lake. 

 Each of the cities, we are told, had a king ; but the kings 

 of those days resembled the village sheikhs of modern times ; 

 and even granting that the cities were opulent, and had 

 dependent villages around them, still the plain was amply 

 sufficient to maintain them. In the East, the towns were 

 thickly planted, seldom at greater distances, as we learn from 

 the ruins, than three or four miles — a space so large as that 

 which the waters of the lake now cover, considering its great 

 fertility, instead of containing five, would have contained 

 fifty cities. From the expression frequently used in Scrip- 

 ture — ' Sodom and her daughters,' and from the circumstance 

 of the destruction of the cities being often mentioned simply 

 as the ' overthrow of Sodom,' we infer that Sodom was the 

 capital, or at least the principal city of the Pentapolis ; and 

 it is probable that the other towns which perished with her 

 were ranged around her at no great distances. The exact 

 part of the plain in which Sodom was situated, we do not 

 know ; but the following consideration will satisfy us, that 

 its site could not have been far from what are now the south- 

 ern limits of the lake. 



" When Sodom fell, the little town of Zoar afforded refuge 

 to Lot. The time which Lot occupied in going thither, will 

 give us the distance of Sodom, the probable capital, of Zoar. 

 We read that ' there came two angels to Sodom at even ; 

 and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. And he said, ' Behold 

 now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house 

 and tarry all night.' During night, the angels disclosed the 

 approaching destruction of the city, and enjoined Lot to 



