SEGOR (Hebrew Sōʿar; Greek Σῆγων), – An ancient city of Palestine, south of the Dead Sea (Gen. 13:10; Deut. 34:3), originally called Bela (Belaʿ: Gen. 14:2–8).
It was the smallest of the Pentapolis (cf. Gen. 14:2–8) and was spared destruction through the intercession of Lot, who obtained permission to take refuge there, moving from Sodom (q.v.) toward the mountain (Gen. 19:21–25). Jeremiah (48:34) and Isaiah (15:5) describe Segor in relation to the other cities south of the Arnon, placing it near the Dead Sea and at the foot of Mount Moab.
Among Roman and Byzantine writers it is known as Zoora or Zogora and located at Ghor es-Safieh on the easternmost tip of the Dead Sea. Conquered by Alexander Jannaeus, it was later ceded to the Nabataeans (Flavius Josephus, *Antiquitates Judaicae*, XIII, 15, 4; XIV, 1, 4). The Romans stationed a military garrison there; a Christian community with a bishop flourished, as did a Jewish colony. The Madaba mosaic map depicts the fortified city amid palm groves near the Dead Sea, and higher on the mountain the church commemorating the just Lot’s refuge. In the time of the Crusaders it was called Paumiers, on account of the abundance of palm trees. Among the various identifications proposed for Roman and Byzantine Zoora, the one now prevailing is Sejh ʿIsá on Sejl el-Qurāḥi, where significant remains of Christian buildings have been found. In Ghor es-Safieh, now submerged beneath the waters of the Dead Sea, tombs from the second millennium B.C. have been noted; here must lie buried the ancient biblical city of Segor.