Buried Secrets of the Bible with Albert Lin: Sodom & Gomorrah

The stories in the Bible are some of the most incredible tales in human history - depicting right and wrong, good versus evil. But where did these stories come from? I'm curious to know the origins of these cultural narratives because regardless of your beliefs, they have shaped the lives of billions over thousands of years.

My name is Albert Lin and I explore the ancient world in a unique way, using 21st century technology to uncover secrets buried for centuries and reveal lost cities and ancient catastrophes. This time, it's the Old Testament's most fearsome disaster story - the obliteration of two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, in a hail of fire by the wrath of God.

I've come to Jordan in the Middle East, one of the most epic landscapes on Earth. This is the Holy Land. Beneath my feet is just rocky desert, but to the west is Israel, south is Saudi Arabia, east is Iran and Iraq, and to the north is Syria. I'm smack in the middle. I'm here to investigate one of the most terrifying stories in the Bible - Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities supposedly wiped off the face of the Earth by God's wrath.

The story begins with Abraham and his nephew Lot looking for the home promised to them by God. But they split up and Lot makes a bad choice settling near Sodom, a city at war with its neighbor and condemned from above. That's when things get fiery. Lot is warned that God will destroy the town and must flee without looking back, which he does just in time as fire and brimstone rain down, destroying everything alive. But Lot's wife looks back and is turned into a pillar of salt. The cities are utterly destroyed.

This is like the mother of all disaster movies, playing into our deepest fears of apocalypse. But was it just a moral tale or based on real events? Could it have actually happened? My mission is to find traces of an ancient city where this could have occurred. But there's barely anything here except sand and rock. With so little evidence, it's hard to imagine cities existed in this vast desert.

But there's a clue in the ancient Hebrew word for Sodom - it means "salt lake." So scholars believe it was near the Dead Sea. It's a rugged drive, but I come to this vast inland lake, the Dead Sea - one of the most spectacular bodies of water yet not the fertile oasis described. Instead of sand, the beach is salt.

Archaeologists say there may be a clue 80 miles south. Petra - an ancient city carved into solid rock amid desert. Its towering columns and perfect lines are astonishing, showcasing the wealth and success here thousands of years ago at the time of Sodom and Gomorrah. But the most amazing thing is its irrigation system, engineered to create an oasis. This technology allowed a city to survive by capturing scarce water. It's what Sodom and Gomorrah would have needed.

But why settle in this harsh landscape? In Petra, archaeologist Katrina explains they had a monopoly on precious goods like asphalt, used for mummification in Egypt. The most desired source was the Dead Sea, so kings fought for control of it - possibly inspiring the warring cities in the biblical story. This is promising, but is there evidence at the Dead Sea?

My tech reveals mysterious sinkholes dotting the area, perhaps the tar pits described. Satellite scans also show canyons cutting through a plateau, channeling rainfall - another essential for survival. And scans uncover ancient ruins along the shores, including one called Bab edh-Dhra. It matches key features in the story - a tower, city square, fortified walls. A collapsed tower holds skeletons, possibly from an earthquake that sparked catastrophic fires. Ash and charcoal cover the site. It was abandoned suddenly around 2350 BC - tantalizing clues, but not yet a smoking gun.

Moving west, the Dead Sea lies in the Jordan Rift Valley, a massive tear in the Earth's crust prone to quakes. This means any city here sat atop a seismic time bomb. For thousands of years, the Dead Sea has risen and fallen, exposing ancient flood sediments on its dry shores. In them, a geologist finds rippled patterns showing historical quakes, including around the timeframe of 2350 BC when cities were abandoned.

So an earthquake may have been involved, but the Bible describes fire falling from the sky. For this, I travel east to a strange rock pillar called Lot's Wife. It inspires the story, and the Hebrew name for the Dead Sea means "salt lake" - a clue. Ten miles away is Mount Sodom, named for the biblical city. Inside, it's not a mountain but a salt cave. An earthquake could have released flammable gases trapped below, ignited by electricity. This fits the biblical descriptions.

Nearby, geologists show me sulfur nodules found in the area - brimstone. This burning rock rained down in the story. With all the evidence, I can envision cities trading asphalt destroyed by an earthquake, unleashing fiery explosions from below. But the scale implied seems too big.

Then I learn of a new theory - the cities were destroyed by a meteor. At another site called Tall el-Hammam, archaeologists found massive destruction debris and mud bricks strangely melted into glass, requiring insane temperatures. This could come from a meteor airburst, hotter than the sun. My tech team scans the site, finding a large circular depression that resembles an impact crater. It's possible a meteor exploded over the Dead Sea, annihilating everything and raining salt across the land.

While some tales may be more metaphorical, the geological upheaval in this region could have inspired an epic story of biblical proportions. The forces that seemed like divine wrath may have just been natural powers of immense destruction.