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Konstantinos Politis

Dead Man’s Land. At the southeastern end of the Dead Sea, nestled between the salt-encrusted shores of the sea and the dark, foreboding slopes of the Transjordanian highlands, lies Biblical Zoar, known today as the Ghor es-Safi. According to the Bible and early Christian tradition, Lot and his daughters escaped to this barren wilderness after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, seeking refuge in a nearby cave that was commemorated with a monastery in the fifth century A.D. (the ruins of the monastery can be seen in the foreground). But as our author explains, the harsh, desolate hills of Zoar, located at the lowest spot on earth, also served for thousands of years as the favored burial ground for countless peoples and faiths.