Plain of Sodom and Gomorrah
In the picture we are looking toward the east. Our chief muleteer is seen sitting upon a rock to the left. The Mountains of Moab rise in the distance from beyond the River Jordan. The picture was taken from ancient Jericho, just underneath the Mount of Temptation. We see in the distance to the left the village of modern Jericho. From the point where we now stand to the top of the Moab Mountains is about twenty miles. The real Nebo can not be distinguished in the picture, but our dragoman points out the “traditional Nebo.” From the place where we stand we are looking upon the plain that Mark Antony gave to Cleopatra and that she rented to Herod. The whole country was once irrigated by waters from the Judean Mountains and was the most fertile tract in Judea. Josephus called it “a divine region.” Here Cleopatra had her gardens; here were vast plantations of balsam trees and palm; it is now but a desert. It is to the extreme left of the picture that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are supposed to have stood. This is the region over which Lot looked and was tempted by its luxuriance and wealth to settle in it. This is the region over which Moses looked when he viewed the promised land from the heights of Nebo. This is the region that Jesus saw when tempted to accept the gift of the world on condition that he would simply bow before Satan, the god of this world, and worship him.
Comments