PENTAPOLIS (Gk. ΠΕΝΤΆΠΟΛΙΣ). - The "five cities" (called P. in Wis. 10:6) that stood in Abraham's time 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 impiety 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 of the ruin that follows it (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). "A witness to so much wickedness remains a smoking wasteland and trees that bear unripe fruit, and, in memory of an unbelieving soul, a standing pillar of salt" (Wis. 10:6).
According to Flavius Josephus (Bell. Iud., IV, 8, 4), in the 1st century A.D. its remains could still be seen. Today, however, its site is unknown; there is even debate as to whether the P. was north or south of the Dead Sea.
Biblical tradition, classical and ecclesiastical writers, and archaeological and topographical study seem to indicate the P. south of the el-Lisân peninsula in the Dead Sea. The shallow water covered by only 5 or 6 meters of water can represent the "valley of Siddim" or "Salt Sea" (Gen. 14:3) better than the too-deep northern part. In the southern part, asphalt and bitumen are found in abundance even today, and the appearance of desolation described by the prophets suits it better. An archaeological exploration in 1924 identified at Bâb ed-Drâ' east of el-Lisân a vast cemetery and sanctuary with pottery from 2000 B.C., but without traces of nearby dwellings. The archaeologists concluded that the place was a pilgrimage destination for the cities that stood along the five streams which, from the mountains of Moab, enter the Dead Sea south of the el-Lisân peninsula, already "land irrigated like the garden of Eden and like the land of Egypt" (Gen. 13:10-12). An earthquake, whose traces are found along the shores, would have caused the combustion of the elements (petroleum, asphalt, sulfur) with which the subsoil of the region is full; this region, later, was invaded and covered by the waters of the Dead Sea, because of the slow but continuous rise of its level. The names of Gebel Usdum for the rock-salt hill on the right of the Dead Sea and of Bent Sej'h Lût for a block of salt of 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 region still very fertile, and where tombs from 2000 B.C. have been identified, also favors the southern tradition.
For the northern part, the main argument put forward is Lot's view from Bethel, which could not have extended to the southern end of the Dead Sea (Gen. 13:10), but only to the region below, where the remains of the city and the great deposits of ashes would attest the ancient region of the P. The arguments, however, do not seem sufficient to divert the ancient tradition.
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Donato Baldi