PENTAPOLIS (Gr. Πεντάπολις). — The “five cities” (called P. in Wis. 10:6) that stood in the time of Abraham in the Jordan region (Gen. 13:10), near the valley of Siddim (ibid. 14:10): Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar (ibid. 14:1); because of the wickedness of their inhabitants, they were completely destroyed by divine justice, with the exception of Zoar, where Lot had taken refuge (ibid. 13:13; 18:20; 19:45).
The four cities became the type of perversity and consequent ruin (Deut. 29:22; Sodom, Ex. 16:79; Sodom and Gomorrah, Is. 1:9; 13:19; Jer. 23:14; 48:18; 50:40; Am. 2:9; Admah and Zeboiim, Hos. 11:8). “As testimony to such wickedness there remains a smoking wasteland and trees that bear unripe fruit, and, as a reminder of an unbelieving soul, standing upright, a statue of salt” (Wis. 10:6).
According to Flavius Josephus (Bell. Iud., IV, 8, 4), in the first century A.D. its remains could still be seen. Today, however, its site is unknown; it is even debated whether P. lay to the north or south of the Dead Sea.
Biblical tradition, classical and ecclesiastical writers, and archaeological and topographical study seem to locate P. south of the el-Lisân peninsula in the Dead Sea. The shallow area, covered by only 5 or 6 meters of water, may represent the “valley of Siddim” or “Salt Sea” (Gen. 14:3) better than the excessively deep northern part. In the southern part, asphalt and bitumen are still found in abundance, and it corresponds more closely to the desolate appearance described by the prophets. An archaeological exploration in 1924 identified at Bâb ed-Drâ', east of el-Lisân, a vast cemetery and sanctuary with pottery dating from 2000 B.C., but no remains of nearby habitations. The archaeologists concluded that the place had been a pilgrimage destination for the cities that stood along the five torrents flowing from the mountains of Moab into the southern end of the el-Lisân peninsula in the Dead Sea, formerly “a land watered like the garden of Eden and like the land of Egypt” (Gen. 13:10-12). An earthquake, traces of which are found along the shores, would have caused the combustion of the elements (petroleum, asphalt, sulfur) with which the subsoil of the region is filled; later, the region was invaded and covered by the waters of the Dead Sea, as its level slowly but continuously rose. The names Gebel Usdum, applied to the hill of rock salt on the right bank of the Dead Sea, and Bent Sej'h Lût, applied to a block of salt from Gebel Usdum, reflect the southern tradition. The locality of Zoara (= Zoar), in the Gor es-Sâfijch at the mouth of the Sejl el-Qerâh, in a still extremely fertile region and where tombs dating from 2000 B.C. have been identified, also supports the southern tradition.
For the northern location, the principal argument is Lot’s view from Bethel, which could not have extended to the southern extremity of the Dead Sea (Gen. 13:10), but only to the region below, where the remains of the city and the large deposits of ash would attest to the ancient region of P. The arguments, however, do not seem sufficient to displace the ancient tradition.