All language subtitles for Holy.Marvels.with.Dennis.Quaid.S02E10.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[dramatic music]

- Tonight, sacred sites lost
to time from fabled cities.

- Starting in ancient times,

historians try to
determine a real location

for Sodom and Gomorrah.

- Archeologists are excavating

just southeast of the Dead Sea

and while they're
exploring the area,

they find something
pretty amazing.

- To a famous tomb.

- This is one of the
most important people

in all of religious history.

We know where his story starts,

and yet incredibly we
don't know where it ends.

- Or a miraculous pool.

- People keep looking for it,

but it remains
lost for centuries.

- A work crew is fixing
a broken sewer pipe

when they uncover two
ancient stone steps.

- The discovery makes alarm
bells go off for these guys.

- Now, the stories behind
these long lost places

and the attempts to find them.

[dramatic music]

Immortalized in Homer's
"Iliad," Troy was once believed

to be purely mythological,
a city of Gods and heroes.

But could there be
more to the story?

- Everyone has heard of Troy.

It's been referenced in
countless books, songs,

and of course Hollywood movies.

- The story of Troy
has been hugely famous

for well over 2000 years thanks
to the Greek writer Homer.

Around 750 BC, he writes
two of the world's

most legendary
works of literature,

"The Iliad ; And, The Odyssey."

- The "Iliad" recounts the
story of the Trojan War,

this epic ancient battle
that Homer says takes place

some 500 years before his time

between the Greeks
and the Trojans.

- In Greek mythology, the
walls of the city of Troy

were actually built by the
Gods Poseidon and Apollo.

So, Troy is both an
incredibly strong city,

but also an important
religious site

with a direct
connection to the Gods.

- [Dennis] Unfortunately, not
even the Gods can protect Troy

from its eventual fate.

- Sometime between the
12th and 13th Century BC,

Helen, who's considered

the most beautiful
woman in the world,

is married to Menelaus,
the Greek King of Sparta.

Paris, a young prince
from the City of Troy,

either seduces or kidnaps Helen,

and takes her back to his home.

Menelaus assembles as allies
and they sail for Troy.

- There's a legendary saying

that Helen's face
launched 1,000 ships.

There are reportedly 100,000
warriors on those ships,

all determined to
vanquish their enemy

and retrieve their queen.

- [Dennis] For
the next 10 years,

the Trojans managed to
keep the Greek army out.

- Now, we get to the
part of the story

that you definitely
know, the Trojan Horse.

The Greeks build a giant
hollow wooden horse

and secretly put a bunch
of soldiers inside.

They leave it at the gates
of Troy as a peace offering

while the rest of the
Greek army pretends

to give up the fight and
turn around to sail home.

- The people of Troy
welcome this gift.

They pull the
horse into the city

and close the gates behind it.

Now, that night, the Greek
soldiers jump out of the horse,

open the gates from the inside,

and let in their entire army

that was actually hiding nearby.

- A battle ensues and
the Greeks finally win.

Helen and Menelaus
return to Greece

and live happily ever after,
and Troy is totally destroyed.

That's basically the end
of this magnificent city

that the Gods helped to build.

- [Dennis] It's an
incredible story,

but could there be
any truth to it?

- There is a region
in Northwestern Turkey

called the Troad,

in Greek, this means
the land of Troy,

and in this area there is a
city called Ilion or Ilium

that we know was already in
ruins at the time of Homer.

- Around 700 BC,

likely right after "The
Iliad ; And, The Odyssey"

are written, the
Greeks start colonizing

the abandoned area around Ilion.

They soon start
referring to it as Troy.

It even turns into a
travel destination.

Then sometime around 580,
there's geological evidence of

a series of massive earthquakes
that flatten the area,

and the site is lost to time.

- [Dennis] 1,300 years later,

an accidental
discovery reignites

the search for this
legendary lost city.

- In the 1860s,

an amateur English archeologist
named Frank Calvert convince

his wealthy German businessman,
Heinrich Schliemann

to come look at some
historic artifacts

that were found on
Calvert's Family Farm

near the town of Tevfikiye
in Northwest Turkey.

Both men are well versed
in Homer's "Iliad"

and despite their lack of
formal archeological training,

they think these artifacts
mean that the lost city of Troy

was actually there
on Calvert's farm.

- [Dennis] Schliemann
and Calvert spend

the next 20 years excavating
the area themselves.

- Schliemann is basically
digging massive trenches

into the site, destroying much
of the archeological record,

but these questionable
methods do yield

some significant finds.

- Apparently the city on
this site had been destroyed

and rebuilt at least nine times,

starting in the Bronze Age

all the way through
the Roman Era.

Schliemann assigns a number

to each of the
different city levels

with IX being the
newest and I the oldest.

- [Dennis] Then Schliemann takes

a closer look at each level.

- At a level he calls Troy
II, Schliemann finds treasure.

There's silver, gold,
and copper vessels

and some really unique jewelry.

- He immediately claims
that this treasure belonged

to King Priam of Troy,

and that the jewels
were worn by the woman

who started the whole
conflict, Helen of Troy.

So, therefore he has found
the Troy of Homer's epics,

but this treasure can't
be accurately dated,

especially not in
Schliemann's time,

although it does
look very similar

to other Bronze Age artifacts.

- Not everyone
believes Schliemann.

Some even go so far as to claim

that he faked the jewelry find,

but this is still definitely

an ancient city of
great importance

and researchers continue
to work on the site.

- Two archeologists Wilhelm
Dorpfeld in the 1880s

and later Carl Blegen in the
1930s make finds that appear

to more firmly link the site
with the legendary Troy,

and by this time
some of the layers

can be dated more accurately.

- Troy II, where Schliemann
claims he found the treasure

actually dates to an older
time than King Priam.

It dates to around 2500
BC early Bronze age,

whereas King Priam ruled
probably in the late Bronze age

about 1,000 years later.

- The archeologists
instead begin to focus

on the areas of Troy VI and VII,

because these fit the
timeline of the Ilion.

Sometime around this period,

the city was destroyed
by a massive fire,

and they also find unburied
skeletons possibly suggesting

there was a natural disaster

or it was attacked and
destroyed by invaders.

- They also discover large
underground storage spaces

inside the city walls
suggesting a population dealing

with a long drawn out siege.

And according to Homer,

the Greek siege of Troy
took nearly a decade.

- [Dennis] To
date, archeologists

have conducted more than
20 digs at the site.

- Modern excavations have
uncovered 23 sections of walls,

11 gates, a stone ramp,

and parts of the defense of
bastions all over the place.

- There seems to be a
consensus among scholars

that Schliemann site
is at the very least

the location of the real Ilion.

- But there's still
debate in academic circles

as to whether this may
also be the City of Troy

that Homer writes about.

Some say yes while
others propose different,

much bolder alternatives.

- [Dennis] Like author
Iman Jacob Wilkens

who suggests a surprising
possibility in 1990,

- Wilkens writes a book called
"Where Troy Once Stood."

Now, in this book he proposes

that the real location
of Troy is in England.

- Wilkens writes that the
Trojan War was actually based

on a fight between
Celtic people in 1200 BC

in an area that today is
called Cambridgeshire,

which is about 70
miles north of London.

He claims that 14 rivers
named in the "Iliad"

can actually be found
in Cambridgeshire.

- [Dennis] After
scouting the area,

Wilkens believes he's
found the fabled city.

- Cambridgeshire is
a really flat area,

but it's broken up by this
very scenic topography

known as the Gog Magog Hills.

Wilkens boldly states
that these hills

are where the lost City
of Troy once stood.

- Wilkens cites an
earlier archeological find

to back up his claim.

In 1959, two brothers find
nearly 6,500 pieces of bronze

buried in a pit in Isleham,

which is on the outskirts
of Cambridgeshire.

These are tools, weapons,

and vessels from
the early Bronze Age

and there are a lot of them.

Wilkens speculates that
these might be remnants

from the Treasury of Troy.

- [Dennis] Wilkens
may be convinced,

but the debate continues today.

- The truth is that we can't
be sure if the Trojan War

was real or just an epic legend

until of course somebody
finds the remnants

of a giant wooden horse.

- Homer's epic poems have
inspired endless searches

for the City of Troy,

but there's another text filled

with sacred lost
places, the Bible.

One of the most
famous involves Moses.

- Moses is a main character
in the Bible's Book of Exodus

as well as the Jewish Torah
and the Islamic Quran.

He's a servant of
God and a prophet.

- One day Moses comes
face-to-face with God

in the form of the burning bush.

God orders Moses to free
the Hebrews from bondage

under the Egyptians.

- He obeys God and God even
gives Moses the 10 commandments,

which is the law for the
Israelites to live by.

- [Dennis] Despite his
close relationship with God,

Moses doesn't get the
happiest of endings.

- We all know that Moses
leads the Israelites

around the desert for 40 years

in search of the promised land.

Well, not surprisingly,

they get thirsty and a
little angry about it.

- As Moses miraculously brings
water forth from a stone,

he gets upset with
the Israelites

which God sees as an affront.

So, even after everything
Moses has done,

God punishes him by
denying him entry

into the promised land.

- God does allow
Moses one small favor.

He permits Moses a glimpse
of the promised land.

The 120-year-old Moses climbs

to the top of a mountain
called Mount Nebo.

- He can see Bethlehem,
he can see Jerusalem,

he can see the Dead
Sea, he can see Jericho,

and that's when he dies
seeing the promise,

but not touching the promise.

- The Bible says that
God himself buries Moses

in the land of Moab, presumably
somewhere around Mount Nebo,

and the verse continues, quote,

"And no man knoweth of his
sepulchre unto this day."

- This is one of the
most famous stories

and one of the
most famous people

in all of religious history.

We know where his
story starts, in Egypt,

and yet incredibly we
don't know where it ends.

- [Dennis] But that hasn't
stopped people from looking,

starting in the
most obvious place.

- There is currently a
mountain called Mount Nebo

in modern day Jordan.

Now, we don't know for sure

that this was the same
Mount Nebo from Moses' Day,

but it does fit the
Biblical description.

It has a panoramic
view of Jericho,

Jerusalem and the rest
of the promised land

in the Jordan River Valley.

- One of the first
written accounts we get

is from a Christian
pilgrim named Egeria

who visits the Holy Land
in the 4th Century AD.

She tells a story of
climbing Mount Nebo

and finding a group
of monks living there.

- At the top of the mountain,

there's a small
church with a shrine.

Inside by the pulpit
of this church,

Egeria notices a
slightly raised area.

The monks tell her
that's where Moses

was laid out by the angels.

Basically, this is his tomb.

- The official story
is that Moses's body

was placed here upon his death,

but then God himself
moved the body

to an undisclosed location.

So, it's Moses' first resting
place, not his final one.

- [Dennis] Christians
continue to visit the site,

but their accounts
of the tomb vary.

- We have lots of writings
from people who came up here,

but if it's the same place, it
seems to have been remodeled.

Pilgrims to the site are
shown an actual crypt,

not just a raised
spot on the floor,

and they're told this
is the tomb of Moses

and yet it's still
said to be empty.

- By the 6th Century,

there's now an even bigger
church on Mount Nebo.

Accounts say that it was much
more grand than just a shrine.

It has a basilica,
a baptist tree,

and it's decorated with
ornate Byzantine mosaics,

at the center remains
the empty crypt

that said to belong to Moses.

- [Dennis] By 900 AD
this church is abandoned

and falls into ruin.

It sits undisturbed for
the next 1,000 years

until two Franciscan
researchers explore the site

in the 1930s.

- And they find remains
of the church buried

exactly where the ancient
accounts indicated it would be.

The church is
covered with mosaics

and it's laid out in
a basilica pattern.

They come to believe that
this is the original shrine

that the Christian
pilgrim Egeria wrote about

in the 4th Century.

- But what they're
most excited to find

is a series of tombs,

and there's one at
the center of the nave

in the middle of the
basilica that's empty.

It's obviously a special
tomb for an important person

which lines up perfectly
with these stories of Moses,

and so many start to call this
the Tomb of Moses once again.

- Today a new church has
been built on the site.

It was completed in
2016 and fully encloses

the original ancient church.

It's called the
Memorial of Moses,

and it's important to note

that the site makes
no public claims

to be the actual place
Moses was buried,

but that hasn't stopped
people from believing.

- [Dennis] Incredibly,
there's another possible place

where Moses is buried.

- We need to remember that Moses

isn't only revered
by Christians.

He's one of the main
characters in the Jewish Torah

and is also featured prominently
in the Islamic Quran.

- There are many Islamic
texts known as Hadith,

which contains sayings
from the Prophet Muhammad

including a notable
lecture on Moses' death

and it's got a few differences
from the Biblical account.

In the Hadith version,

Moses is out walking one day

when he comes across
a man digging a grave,

the man goes to lie
down in the hole

to make sure he's
made it big enough.

Moses says, "Hey, let me
lie down in there for you."

And when he does,
God opens Moses' eyes

and shows him his
place in paradise.

- The grave digger,
it turns out,

is actually the Angel of Death

and this was all
an elaborate plan

to get Moses to
give up the ghost.

Once Moses sees paradise,
he says, essentially,

"Take me away
God," and God does,

and the Angel of Death
then fills in the grave

burying Moses right on the spot.

- [Dennis] It's a place
that still exists today.

- There's a mosque in
the modern day West Bank

pretty close to Jericho
called the Maqam an-Nabi Musa,

and this claims to be the
actual site of Moses' burial.

- In the Quran,
Moses is called Musa,

and Maqam an-Nabi
Musa translates

to the shrine of
the Prophet Moses.

It's a beautiful three-story
building topped with domes.

- Just to the right
of the main entrance,

there's a small chamber.

Inside is a tomb covered
with a green cloth,

and if you talk to the
faithful they'll tell you

that's where Moses is buried.

This shrine was
completed in 1269,

and the tomb has been a
pilgrimage destination

since the rule of Saladin,

an important Muslim hero who
reigned in the 12th Century.

- But the Nabi Musa site
has one similar problem

to the one on Mount Nebo,
the lack of an actual body.

According to the
Islamic tradition,

this location was chosen

because God showed it
to Saladin in a dream,

but they weren't about to
dig down and disturb Moses

if he was actually down there.

Instead, they built an
empty tomb above the spot

and that's what remains
on display today.

- [Dennis] According
to both accounts,

there may be a reason

why we'll never find
the body of Moses.

- The Christian Bible as
well as Quran makes note

that God has purposely kept

where the body is buried
a mystery to people,

and it's likely because people
would idolize the sight.

They may idolize
Moses more than God.

- Judging by the thousands of
faithful who come every year

to Mount Nebo and Nabi Musa,

even if neither is
precisely where Moses died,

people are satisfied
with being close enough

to the beloved prophet.

- Although there are many
mysteries surrounding

the story of Jesus,

where it begins isn't
typically one of them,

but is it possible that place
isn't actually Bethlehem?

- Every Christmas
the faithful venerate

the birth of Jesus Christ.

Nativities decorate the
fronts of churches and homes,

and at the center of this
familiar joyful scene

is the baby Jesus
lying in a manger

in the little town of Bethlehem.

- It's one of the first things

that they teach
in Sunday school,

that's Mary Jesus's
soon to be mother

is betrothed to a
carpenter named Joseph,

but before the two of them
can consummate their marriage,

Mary gets pregnant,

which is surprising
because she's a virgin.

- An angel appears to marry
and later Joseph in a dream

and tells them not to worry,

this child was conceived
with the Spirit of God.

- [Dennis] Just before
their child is born,

Mary and Joseph are
forced to take a trip.

- According to the
Biblical account,

the Roman Emperor
Caesar Augustus decrees

that a census be
conducted of, quote,

"All the inhabited Earth."

- In the Gospel of Luke,
Joseph and a very pregnant Mary

have to leave their home in
Nazareth and go to Bethlehem.

This is where Joseph
is originally from,

and the rules of the census
are that you have to go back

to your hometown to register.

- When they arrive in Bethlehem,

there is no room in the inn,

and so Mary gives
birth in a manger.

- The gospels don't
agree on everything.

Part of the story, for example,

is that three wise
men arrive to praise

and give gifts to
the baby Jesus.

That's only in
Matthew's account,

but they do both state that
Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

- Bethlehem still stands today.

It's about five
miles from Jerusalem,

and within about 100
years of Jesus' death,

there is evidence that early
Christians began praying

at a site that they believed
to be the birthplace of Jesus.

- [Dennis] All that changes
in the early 2nd Century

when Roman emperor
Hadrian crushes

a Jewish revolt in 132 AD
leaving Bethlehem in ruins.

- Supposedly Hadrian
even builds a shrine

to the Roman God Adonis at
the site where Jesus was born.

- [Dennis] The site is
forgotten about for 200 years

until a famous ruler
takes up a new religion

in the 4th Century.

- In the year 312, Roman
emperor Constantine converts

to become the first
Christian emperor,

and in 326 his mother
Helena goes on a tour

of the Holy Land.

She's looking for Biblical
sites and for relics and

of course she visits Bethlehem,
the birthplace of Jesus.

- Helena wants her son
to rebuild the city

and construct a church to
commemorate Jesus' birth.

Locals show Helena

to a grotto beneath Hadrian's
ruin Temple of Adonis

and they tell her this is
where the nativity took place.

- The Church of the Nativity

still stands in this spot today,

right where Helena directed
Constantine to build it,

and it's where a majority

of the faithful
believe Jesus was born.

- [Dennis] But not
everyone is convinced

that this is the actual site.

- The church is on a spot
that Helena identifies

in erect city hundreds of years

after the birth of Christ.

- Two of the gospels
don't even say Jesus

was born in Bethlehem.

They just say Jesus
comes from Nazareth.

And so we have to ask, what
if Helena got it wrong?

- [Dennis] This
doubt inspires some

to consider other options,

among them an
Israeli archeologist

with an interesting theory.

- Aviram Oshri agrees that
Jesus was born in Bethlehem,

he just thinks that everyone
has the wrong Bethlehem.

- In the early 1990s,

Oshri is investigating
a small rural site

in a place called
Bethlehem of Galilee.

This isn't the Bethlehem
close to Jerusalem

where most people
believe Christ was born.

This is a different, smaller,
lesser known Bethlehem

that's farther north
located about halfway

between Nazareth and Haifa.

It's only about five miles

from Joseph and Mary's
home in Nazareth,

- And while Oshri is working
in this other Bethlehem,

he hears locals talking about
this being the real site

of Jesus' birth and he's
intrigued with the idea

for a few reasons.

- He believes that the
distances just don't add up

with the Church of
the Nativity site.

That cradle that Helena
found in the other Bethlehem

is around 90 miles away

from where Joseph and
Mary lived in Nazareth.

In that day and
age, best estimates

it would've taken roughly
a week to get there.

- Given the fact that Mary

was nine months
pregnant at the time,

it seems unlikely to Oshri

that she would've undertaken
such a long, difficult journey.

It makes much more sense
that the trip was to a place

that's five miles away
instead of 90 miles.

- [Dennis] To prove his point,

Oshri spends the next 11 years

excavating Bethlehem of Galilee

and what he finds
is astonishing.

- Oshri discovers an entire

previously unknown
Byzantine era church,

and under the apps of this
church is a hidden cave.

So, it strikes him as possible

that this church was built
specifically to contain the cave

and protect and commemorate it.

At the very least, he
thinks he's found proof

that people were
worshiping at this site

in the early days
of Christianity.

- Oshri finds artifacts
suggesting

that Bethlehem of Galilee

was an important Jewish
City of craftspeople

at the time of Jesus' birth.

- Joseph and Jesus were
craftspeople themselves.

There were carpenters
in Nazareth,

which is right down the road,

so perhaps this entire region

was a hub for skilled builders.

- Oshri claims that the
other more famous Bethlehem

has produced very few artifacts
from Jesus' time period.

He believes that be Bethlehem

might not even have been
inhabited when Jesus was born.

- Believers will continue
to follow the tradition

and he's okay with that,

but it's not going to stop
him from looking for the truth

wherever and whatever it may be.

[dramatic music]

- While the birthplace
of Jesus continues

to inspire fresh debate,

another key location in his life

has also fascinated
researchers for centuries.

This one is believed to be
the site of a famous miracle.

- Jesus and his disciples
are out one day in Jerusalem

and they come across a man
who's been blind since birth.

The disciples ask Jesus,
"What did this guy do

to deserve being blind?"

- Jesus replies, "The
man did nothing wrong.

The blind man is here

so that we can all marvel
at the power of God."

- Jesus then spits
on the ground,

picks up some clay that he's
made from the dirt and spit

and rubs it on the man's eyes.

He then tells the man
to go wash it off.

- So, the man does
what he's told

and incredibly when he
washes his eyes out,

he can miraculously see.

- Now, at this point
in Jesus' story,

he's already performed
a few other miracles,

but the story of the blind
man is particularly important

because unlike most
of his miracles,

this one happens at a
place with a specific name,

the Pool of Siloam.

- [Dennis] Unfortunately,
the Pool of Siloam

is destroyed and lost to history

after Roman troops sack
Jerusalem in 70 AD.

- For centuries, archeologists
and experts have wondered

if the pool could
be rediscovered,

and if it was rediscovered,

what might it tell us
about this miracle?

- There are reasons beyond
the story of the blind man

to believe that the
pool was a real site.

It's mentioned in
the Bible's second book of Kings

as a place that dates
back to the time

of the Jewish king Hezekiah

in the 7th or 8th Century BC.

- Experts believe that Hezekiah
built this system of tunnels

and the pool itself to provide
fresh water for Jerusalem.

Basically it's part of
the city's water system.

- [Dennis] A pool
is also mentioned

by the Roman historian
Josephus in the 1st Century AD,

although he doesn't
give it a specific name.

- Josephus actually
provides a clear description

of where the pool is located.

He places it at the end
of the Tyropoeon Valley

just beyond the city walls

where the wall has an
eastward bend in it.

- Problem is that
during Josephus' time,

pretty much all the places
he writes about in Jerusalem

are destroyed, including
the Pool of Siloam.

- It's the site of
an important miracle,

so people keep looking for it,

but it remains
lost for centuries.

- [Dennis] Then in 1880 there's
a surprising breakthrough.

- According to the story,

two boys are playing at an
abandoned ancient water tunnel

on the eastern
outskirts of Jerusalem.

One of the kids
slips and falls in,

and when he is
pulling himself out,

he notices the writing
on the wall literally.

- It details how the
tunnel was built,

but more importantly
it's written

in the ancient Hebrew
style of script

that was used around the
time of King Hezekiah.

This could mean they
found the waterway

that the Bible
says Hezekiah built

to supply the Pool of Siloam.

- Then in the 1890s,

two other archeologists
are working close

to where the water
tunnel was found.

They uncover an ancient
square pool surrounded

by an arched Colonnade.

- This site is dated to
somewhere in the Roman period,

so it's not anywhere near
as old as the tunnel.

- This would not have
been the actual pool

where Jesus performed
his miracle.

It's not old enough,

but maybe it's the unnamed
pool referenced by Josephus.

- [Dennis] Investigation
at the site stalls

for the next 100 years until
a routine repair in 2004.

- In one of these great stories

of accidental
archeological finds,

a work crew is fixing
a broken sewer pipe

near the water tunnel
and the Roman Pool,

when they uncover two
ancient stone steps.

- The Israel
Antiquities Authority

is immediately
called to the site.

Archeologists uncover
three groups of five steps

each separated by
narrow landings.

These steps surround a huge
pool, some 225 feet long.

- One of the archeologists, Eli
Shukron, is quoted as saying

that they are 100% sure that
it's the Pool of Siloam.

It predates the Roman Pool

and it's fed by King
Hezekiah's tunnel.

And so this would've been
the exact Pool of Siloam

as it existed in
the time of Jesus.

The sight of a potential
miracle has been found.

- It appears as
though the Roman Pool

was added later above the
original Pool of Siloam.

Today, this site is not
completely excavated,

but in 2022, the Israel
Antiquities Authority announces

that they will be
restoring the entire site.

- Whether experts
can unearth any more

about the famous miracle
that the New Testament says

took place here
remains to be seen,

but for now,
archeologists are thrilled

to have found this
important lost sight.

[dramatic music]

- Not every lost sacred site

is the result of
mankind's destruction.

Sometimes God himself wipes

a location off the map.

- The God depicted
in the Old Testament

is not the kind of
God you want to test.

If you make him angry,
his justice is swift,

his authority is absolute,
and his wrath is destructive.

That's precisely what
happens to the people

of the lost cities of
Sodom and Gomorrah.

- The very names of the two
cities, Sodom and Gomorrah,

have literally come
to mean sin and evil.

They're still a part of
our modern language today,

despite the fact
that the Bible says

that they ceased to exist
several thousand years ago.

- The story starts in Genesis 18

with a very famous Biblical
patriarch named Abraham.

Those that consider
him to be a real person

tend to date his life

to sometime between
2000 and 1500 BC.

- God flanked by two
angels in human form

appears to Abraham.

God tells him,

"I've heard that there
are these two cities

right next to each other,
Sodom and Gomorrah.

The people there are
supposedly committing

some really grave sins
and I need to find out

if this is true."

- In the next chapter,
the two angels visit Sodom

to see what's really going on.

They meet a local
resident named Lot

who happens to be
Abraham's nephew.

Lot invites the
angels to his house

and he insists that
they stay for the night.

- According to the
story that evening,

a mob of men from the
city surround Lot's house

and demand that he
sends out the angels

because they plan
to do unspeakable

and awful things to them.

- Lot tries to talk the mob
out of attacking the angels.

He even offers them his two
virgin daughters in their place,

but the townspeople won't listen

and they try to
break down the door.

So, the angels then strike
the mob with blindness

to keep them at bay.

- The angels urge Lot
to gather his family,

leave the city, run for the
hills and don't look back,

because now that God has proof

of how sinful these people are,

he's going to destroy
both Sodom and Gomorrah.

They don't specifically
visit Gomorrah in the Bible,

just Sodom, but apparently
the wickedness applies

to both places.

- Lot tells the angels

that there is a small
town nearby called Zoar,

and that he can get
to it pretty quickly.

He asks the angels,
if he goes there,

will they spare
him and that town?

The angels say yes.

- [Dennis] Once lot
makes it safely to Zoar,

God sticks to his word.

- As retribution for
their wicked ways,

the Bible says God doesn't
just burn down the two cities,

He actually destroys,
quote, "All the plain,

all the inhabitants
of the cities

and what grew on the ground."

We're talking about
these two cities

being leveled completely into
nothing, but dead dry earth.

Biblical equivalent
of an atomic bomb.

- It's a very powerful
lesson about the might of God

and the terrible consequences
of behaving badly.

- [Dennis] But is this
just a cautionary tale,

or were Sodom and
Gomorrah actual places?

- Ancient Greek
philosopher Strabo states

that there are locals
living near the Dead Sea

who claim Sodom
used to be nearby.

He writes this account
around the same time

as the birth of Christ.

- The Bible implies
that God's punishment

might have hit more than just
the two most famous cities.

It says that Sodom and Gomorrah

are part of what's
referred to as, quote,

"Five Cities of the Plain."

- In Deuteronomy 29:15,

we get a little
more information,

basically in a warning about
what happens if you upset God.

There's a passage that says,
it'll be like the destruction

of Sodom and Gomorrah,
Admah, and Zeboiim.

- So, there is a suggestion
that at least two more cities

were destroyed alongside
Sodom and Gomorrah.

That would be four of the five

so-called "Cities of the
Plain," the fifth being Zoar,

which we know was spared

because Lot and his
family escaped there,

and we also know that
Zoar was close to Sodom

because Lot was able
to get there quickly.

- So, if some were looking
for whatever is left

of Sodom and Gomorrah,

the best place to
look would be the city

that didn't get destroyed, Zoar.

- Because it
survives destruction,

there are later references
to Zoar in the Old Testament.

Isaiah 15:5 places it in Moab,

which today is an area just
east of the Dead Sea in Jordan.

- This lines up with Strabo.

So, it's not surprising

that when archeologists
start properly investigating

the possibility of the
Sodom and Gomorrah are real,

the area around the Dead Sea

is one of the first
places that they look.

- According to
the Old Testament,

God lays waste to the wicked
cities of Sodom and Gomorrah

in a moment of Biblical rage.

It's an infamous story,

but did the two
cities ever exist?

[dramatic music]

- Scholars have
taken opposing views

towards Sodom and Gomorrah.

On the one hand, some think
it's just a made up story,

kind of like a
Biblical scared strait

to keep you from
living a life of sin

lest you be destroyed by God.

But others believe it could
have a historical basis.

- Think of the original
writings of the Book of Genesis.

Most of it was written
by Jewish authors

for Jewish people who
lived in the region

around the Dead Sea, that
would be the intended audience.

What would be the point
of coming up with a story

that happened here with
completely made up places?

So, it's much more likely
that the authors were inspired

by actual locations that
readers would've heard of.

- [Dennis] For centuries,
researchers searched

for the sites, but find nothing.

Then in 1973,

an American team discovers
something incredible.

- Archeologists Walter
Rast and Thomas Schaub

are excavating just
southeast of the Dead Sea

at an early Bronze Age
settlement called Bab edh-Dhra.

And while they're
exploring the area,

they find something
pretty amazing.

They uncover four additional
cities or large settlements,

so there are a total of five
cities here on this plain.

They didn't set out to look
for Sodom and Gomorrah,

but when they see something
that fits the story,

they pay attention.

- Here we have the
combination of one,

the Bronze Age timeframe,
two, the location being close

to where the Bible places
Sodom and Gomorrah,

and now three,

the fact that there are five
cities pretty close together.

The discovery makes alarm
bells go off for these guys

- [Dennis] As they investigate
further, more clues line up.

- As it turns out,
the Bab edh-Dhra site

and another settlement
close by called Numeira

both came to catastrophic ends.

- In Bab edh-Dhra,
there is evidence

that a massive fire
ravaged much of the city,

and there are also large
piles of bricks everywhere,

possibly suggesting that the
city crumbled to the ground.

- In Numeira the second city,

archeologists find
similar destruction,

and they also find skeletons
in some of the ash and ruins

that have been buried when
the city crumbled around them.

It sounds a lot like serious
Biblical destruction.

- The team's research
convinces many

that this could be the
former Sodom and Gomorrah,

or at least an
inspiration for the story

that was eventually
written about them.

- [Dennis] As for the
source of their destruction,

that remains unknown.

- Obviously, the
faithful beliefs

that these two cities
were taken down

by the awesome power of God.

The scientific
community, however,

points more towards geology.

- In 2020, Professor Shmuel
Marco from Tel Aviv University

publishes a research paper.

He says that roughly every
1,300 to 1,400 years,

the Dead Sea area has an
earthquake registering 7.5

on the Richter scale or higher.

So, maybe this
awesome act of God

was really a massive earthquake.

[dramatic music]

- Some archeologists
point to the fact

that the Bible mentions that
there are tar pits in the area,

so maybe an earthquake combined
with a tar pit explosion

could account for
the Biblical tale

of how fire rained
down on the city.

- Can we definitively say

that this location is the lost
site of Sodom and Gomorrah,

and that it most
certainly was destroyed

by a natural disaster?

We may never know for sure,

but more often than not,

our most iconic stories
from religion or mythology

have at their heart
a kernel of truth.

This site makes a
pretty compelling case

for inspiring the legend.

- Though many of these sacred
places remain lost to time,

the search for them
is far from over.

I'm Dennis Quaid, thanks for
watching, "Holy Marvels."