Lot’s Cave

The Dead Sea valley is incredibly desolate, but it’s the seat of Christianity. It is where so many of the stories of the Old and New Testaments took place. Hearing the stories growing up didn’t give me an appreciation for how hard life must have been in that area. I grew up in a lush and flat state which supports agriculture and is surrounded by fresh water lakes. Rock, cliffs, and extremely salty water is outside of my imagination.

    

Shoubak Castle.

One of the stops we had on our list was Lot’s Cave. In Genesis, Lot was Abram’s (who changed his name to Abraham) nephew and he lived in Sodom. God told Abraham he planned to destroy it and Abraham pleaded to spare it if but a few righteous men could be found within. Genesis 19 tells of two men who visited Lot and were threatened by the residents of Sodom. The men turned out to be angels sent to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. They warned Lot, who was told to take his wife into the mountains and not look back. The Lord rained fire and brimstone down upon Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot’s wife couldn’t resist looking back and was turned to salt.

This cave is where Lot lived afterwards with his two daughters.

Ironically the “Lowest Point on Earth Museum” is on a bit of a hill. Southern tip of the Dead Sea in the distance. Where does it get that name? Well, on the way down to the Jordan Valley Highway, that road you see in front of the museum, we passed this sign to signify sea level.

Here’s the view from the sign.

We had another ten minutes of switchback turns to get down to the road at the bottom of the valley.

The Byzantines built a basilica on the site to protect and preserve Lot’s cave. The actual cave was behind that opening and was entirely unremarkable, except for the feeling of standing in the footsteps of the Old Testament.

This area has been under construction since we visited. The sun is now kept at bay by a large glass and steel awning, according to Google.

An hour drive through the mountains took us to Kerak Castle. It is a large Crusader castle built in the 1100s. It’s strategic location protected the trade routes from Damascus in the North to Egypt and Mecca to the south.

We parked along that street with all the buses and had a grand time trying to get out. Kerak was a much more popular tourist site than Lot’s Cave.

~ Freddy