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[ Narrator I sodom and gomorrah-
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a tale of two cities incinerated
by a hail of fire and brimstone.
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Is this a fantastic fable...
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00:00:16,767 --> 00:00:21,727
Or could it be
a near apocalyptic disaster from space?
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Think about
your worst atomic nightmare...
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Striking at just the wrong time.
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00:00:28,403 --> 00:00:31,361
Newly discovered evidence
might hold the secrets...
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Fo one of the Bible's
greatest mysteries.
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If you find an artifact
that looks similar to trinitite...
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Then we know it has to be
an highly energetic event.
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00:00:43,001 --> 00:00:45,708
Science always said,
well, you can't test the Bible.
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No, you can test the Bible.
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00:00:48,465 --> 00:00:51,207
Could a natural disaster be responsible...
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For the destruction
of sodom and gomorrah?
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00:00:56,807 --> 00:01:01,551
Ancient mysteries
shrouded in the shadows of time.
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Now can they finally be solved
by looking fo the heavens?
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The truth is up there
hidden among the stars...
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In a place we call-
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Sodom and gomorrah-
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a chilling saga of the sin cities
in the ancient world.
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Sodom and gomorrah
is one of the most sensational stories...
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That tells us about sex, violence,
greed and divine wrath and punishment.
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According fo
the old testaments book of Genesis...
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The citizens of sodom and gomorrah
are said to be so wicked...
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That god destroys them
with fire and brimstone from the heavens.
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In ancient times, the skies were
where the heavens are, where the gods are.
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And so, in a sense,
these were messages from the gods...
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Of some impending doom
or disaster.
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[ Narrator I is this a biblical parable
about the price of sin...
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Or might the story be based
on a real-life disaster?
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A literal fire from the sky.
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The Bible tells of events...
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Where we are now realizing can be
matched up with historical events...
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That we can go back and verify.
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Archaeologists,
astronomers and biblical scholars...
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Have spent years trying to unaercover
any truth to this age-old tale.
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Now modern science reveals...
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That the story might have been
an actual asteroid impact event.
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If you were lucky enough,
or perhaps unlucky enough...
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To actually see a meteor
entering the atmosphere...
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Breaking into pieces...
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Perhaps causing a wave to sweep over you
of air as its pressure passes by...
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That is a story you would not forget.
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Ancient peoples may not have connected
it to our modern astronomical knowledge...
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The way we do
of a population of asteroids...
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But I think
the idea of rocks falling from the sky...
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Is probably something I'm sure the
ancient peoples must have been aware of.
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[ Narrator I asteroids are
chunks of rock, metals and dust...
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That are the leftover material
from the formation of the solar system.
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Many of them are no more
than a few feet across...
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But some are the size of moons.
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The majority of them
circulate around our sun...
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Between Mars and Jupiter.
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However, occasionally,
they're nudged out of their orbit...
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And head on a collision course with earth.
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A small fraction of the objects
that hit the earth...
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Are made out of iron and nickel metal-
very strong.
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Can actually make a pretty nice crater
on the surface of the earth.
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The most common asteroids that fall
on the earth are the stony asteroids.
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They literally have
the composition of stone...
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Like any rock you'd pick up here
on the surface of the earth.
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Some of these
very weak rocky objects...
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Never actually can make it
to the surface of the earth.
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Weaker stony asteroids often explode
when striking the earth's atmosphere...
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Creating a cosmic airburst.
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A cosmic airburst
is when an asteroid or a comet...
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Hits the atmosphere
and essentially disintegrates.
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It explodes, because the atmosphere
feels like a brick wall...
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To this rapidly oncoming asteroid or comet.
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The atmosphere itself
is enough of a block to explode this thing.
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How might one of these asteroids...
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Produce the destruction
of sodom and gomorrah...
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As described in the biblical texts?
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[ Reading I
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What sort of devastation
would an iron asteroid produce...
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As opposed fo a stony cosmic rock?
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To demonstrate that...
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We're going to actually use
two different firearms here...
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To examine the effects
of these types of impacts.
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I've got a rather powerful rifle here-
an m1 garand.
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And we're going to fire
a single intact projectile.
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That's going to represent
one of our larger, more strong asteroids.
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And then to talk
about a smaller, weaker asteroid...
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We've got a Remington 870 shotgun here...
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And a shotgun round
with the birdshot in the shell.
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And that's going to represent
one of the smaller, weaker asteroids...
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Which is fragmented in the atmosphere...
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And we're going to see the effects then
of what sort of blast that might create...
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In our pile of sand.
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The 30-caliber single projectile
is loaded info the rifle... and fired.
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That's a good crater.
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Next, the birdshot
is discharged from the shotgun.
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Okay, let's see what we have here.
This is perfect.
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We have our rifle shot here,
representing our large, strong asteroid...
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Which made it to the surface of the ground
to make an impact crater.
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We've dug out, just to show you here
the typical size of the impacter-
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the crater being several times larger
than the asteroid itself.
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To the side here,
we see the result from our shotgun blast.
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Our small, weak asteroid
which fragmented in the atmosphere.
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And the debris from the blast,
the heat pulse...
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That results in some destruction.
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And so it's a good illustration
of the two different types of impact.
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A large iron asteroid
could have flattened sodom and gomorrah...
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And left a crater...
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While a weaker sfony asteroid
would have shattered in the atmosphere...
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But might have generated enough
fiery debris to incinerate the sin cities.
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To figure out if one of these
cosmic impact scenarios is correct...
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Archaeologists first need fo prove...
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If and where the biblical sites
actually existed.
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Well, there's a very ancient belief...
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That there were once cities
down around the dead sea...
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That are no longer there...
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And that what happened to those cities
was something fell out of the sky...
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And smashed them.
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[ Narrator I
clues about sodom and gomorrah...
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First appear in the book of Genesis,
chapter 13.
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The biblical text tells the story of lot...
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A Shepherd and nephew of Abraham,
the patriarch of the Bible.
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Lot parts ways with his uncle
in search of more land for his sheep.
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Abraham and lot stand on a mountaintop
northwest of Jericho...
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And looked down
at the ancient land of canaan.
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Today, it's the region
surrounding the dead sea-
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the salt-laden lake
separating Israel and Jordan.
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When Abraham and lot
looked down to the east...
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Into the Jordan valley...
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They look into what is described
as the krkkar of the Jordan.
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Now, kitkkar is a Hebrew word
that can mean “a circular disk.”
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And certainly,
from a geographical standpoint...
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That area of the Jordan plain
just north of the dead sea...
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Does widen out into kind of a disk.
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The Bible says
that lot pitches his tent foward sodom-
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one of a cluster of five settlements
called 'the cities of the plain.”
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They include gomorrah, adman...
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Zeboim and zoar.
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And it said, in Genesis...
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That the plain of the Jordan
was well watered.
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And to this day,
that plain is still well watered.
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And so that pins it down geographically.
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That's to the north.
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Archaeologists scour
the region northeast of the dead sea.
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They discover the eerie remains
of 14 ancient sites.
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Tall El-hammam,
the largest of the ruins...
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Most closely fits
the biblical description of sodom.
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Covering nearly 100 acres...
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The city was once fortified
with 40-foot stone walls...
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Massive city gates...
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And a maze of streefs
lined with mud structures.
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Tall El-hammam is the
largest site in that entire area...
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Which would make one think
if it's sodom...
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Then being such a large site,
it would fit that.
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Tall El-hammam
was also most likely a wealthy city...
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Which ties it to the biblical story.
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According to Genesis...
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Two angels disguised as men come
fo warn lot of god's impending wrath.
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Lot invites them info his home
and feeds them.
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But the other men of the city
offer no hospitality...
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And instead demand
fo have sex with the visitors.
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The sin of sodom
is actually unknown in the Bible.
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The story has been interpreted
that it is the sin of sexuality.
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Most biblical scholars, however, say
this actual sin of sodom and gomorrah...
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Deals with hospitality
and the lack of hospitality.
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Typically,
nomads were much more hospitable...
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Than people that lived in the cities.
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The prophet Ezekiel,
writing later in the old testament-
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he says the people in sodom
had too much to eat...
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And they were heartless
and they didn't take care of poor people.
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That's what he says is wrong with them.
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Lot, the only hospitable man in sodom...
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Is allowed fo flee the city
along with his wife and daughters.
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But they're warned fo never look back.
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[ Wilson I
“don't look back,” he's saying.
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In other words,
“look, don't you understand?
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You got in trouble
by pitching your tents toward sodom.
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When you get out,
I don't want you looking toward sodom.”
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While lot and his family
head for the mountains...
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Fire and brimstone
rains down on sodom.
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Lot's wife disobeys
the forewarning.
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She stares back at the inferno
and turns into a pillar of salt.
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Is this passage
merely a moral metaphor?
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Or might it have a literal meaning...
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That helps connect the story
fo this location in the middle east?
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All along the shores of the dead sea...
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Are encrusted salt formations and
sculptures that actually look like people.
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There is a pillar that if you look up,
you can see the figure of a woman.
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This is one of the ideas for lot's wife
turning into a pillar of salt story.
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[ Narrator I so these salt pillars
provide further evidence...
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That sodom and gomorrah might
have been located near the dead sea.
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But can the asteroid impact theory...
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Explain how a person could appear
to turn into a pillar of salt?
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And if tall El-hammam is indeed
the biblical city of sodom...
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Do the sands of time conceal evidence
of a firestorm from space?
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Sodom and gomorrah-
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iwo biblical cities destroyed
by fire and brimstone.
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Is this a cautionary tale?
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00:14:19,108 --> 00:14:26,446
Or are these actual cities that fall victim
fo a cosmic disaster of biblical proportions?
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An asteroid impact.
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Science's job is supposed
to investigate reality and truth.
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00:14:38,127 --> 00:14:40,618
And they always said,
well, you can't test the Bible.
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No, you can test the Bible.
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[ Narrator I archaeologists dig for the
truth among the ruins of tall El-hammam...
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Located over eight miles
northeast of the dead sea.
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The ancient city appears fo fit
the biblical description of sodom.
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Excavaftors dig down
through the layers of dirt...
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Fo what some believe
is the approximate time period...
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Of Abraham and lof-
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00:15:11,828 --> 00:15:17,744
between 1750 and 1650 b.C.,
the middle bronze age.
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00:15:21,003 --> 00:15:25,463
A spade suddenly hits
a four-foot layer of spongy ash.
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It's evidence that the city experienced
some sort of sudden fiery catastrophe.
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The archaeologist who comes up
with a nice, sulfur-laden burn level...
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Is beginning to convince me
that he's dealing with the right place...
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If it's down in the area
where sodom and gomorrah might have been.
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Within the sooly layer...
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00:15:52,869 --> 00:15:55,861
Archaeologists unearth
a few human bones...
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Violently mixed
among smashed mud bricks and stones.
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There were a few bones.
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The bones were jumbled
and hyperextended and twisted.
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Looked kind of ghastly.
218
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And the bones were charred.
219
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The dramatic thing
is after its destruction...
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It's not reoccupied again until the
iron age which occurs 500 years later.
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[ Narrator I what could have caused
such a massive inferno...
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That rendered the city uninhabitable
for generations?
223
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Evidence of fire spawns new theories.
224
00:16:36,913 --> 00:16:40,576
Some think the city was destroyed
by a volcanic eruption.
225
00:16:41,918 --> 00:16:45,126
However, there's no evidence
of volcanism in the region.
226
00:16:46,672 --> 00:16:51,166
Others suspect a massive earthquake
might have triggered oll fires.
227
00:16:52,094 --> 00:16:55,882
Or perhaps an enemy sacked the cily
and set it ablaze.
228
00:16:57,558 --> 00:17:01,517
We're talking about heat
that vaporizes things.
229
00:17:01,604 --> 00:17:05,722
The gas fire is not going to reach
the temperatures that we're talking about.
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While sifting through the sand...
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Archaeologists stumble
upon something else quite unexpected
232
00:17:15,576 --> 00:17:20,320
pottery shards bearing a mysterious layer
of greenish glaze.
233
00:17:21,457 --> 00:17:23,743
The discovery is baffling.
234
00:17:24,544 --> 00:17:26,705
The glazing of pottery isn't invented...
235
00:17:26,796 --> 00:17:31,381
Until over 800 years
after the alleged time period of sodom.
236
00:17:32,635 --> 00:17:35,092
I've looked at pottery
from tall El-hammam...
237
00:17:35,179 --> 00:17:38,717
That had a coating
of greenish glaze on it...
238
00:17:38,808 --> 00:17:42,721
Despite the fact that glazing
as a surface treatment...
239
00:17:42,812 --> 00:17:46,805
Was not common
in that region until the middle ages.
240
00:17:46,899 --> 00:17:49,641
So being
on such an early piece of pottery...
241
00:17:49,735 --> 00:17:54,274
The feeling was is
that it has to come from some other cause.
242
00:17:56,909 --> 00:17:58,991
The glaze on the pottery shards...
243
00:17:59,078 --> 00:18:02,241
Appears to have been produced
by extreme heat...
244
00:18:02,331 --> 00:18:07,246
At over 3,000 degrees fahrenheit
and then quickly cooled.
245
00:18:08,754 --> 00:18:11,541
The whole point is that it has to be
a very high temperature burning.
246
00:18:11,632 --> 00:18:14,999
Not just a normal fire burning
but something stronger than that.
247
00:18:19,557 --> 00:18:21,157
The glazing on the poftery...
248
00:18:21,225 --> 00:18:25,343
Bears a striking resemblance fo trinitite-
249
00:18:26,230 --> 00:18:29,097
the glass produced
by the first atomic bomb tests...
250
00:18:29,191 --> 00:18:33,275
At the Trinity site in new Mexico in 1945.
251
00:18:37,491 --> 00:18:40,358
In an airburst event, what happens is...
252
00:18:40,453 --> 00:18:43,695
You get a fireball
that makes a big bubble.
253
00:18:44,832 --> 00:18:50,418
This bubble then collapses upon itself,
and that's how you get the stem.
254
00:18:50,504 --> 00:18:52,415
And what happens is
that all the material...
255
00:18:52,506 --> 00:18:54,918
All the dirt that's thrown
up into that stem...
256
00:18:55,009 --> 00:18:57,796
Then gets entrapped into the fireball.
257
00:18:57,887 --> 00:19:02,677
And that material just simply melts
as droplets and falls back down.
258
00:19:02,767 --> 00:19:05,224
And that's how you got the trinitite.
259
00:19:06,729 --> 00:19:10,563
These are examples of rocks
we found down at Trinity site.
260
00:19:10,650 --> 00:19:15,940
Here's a standard piece of trinitite
that has the nice, shiny surface on top.
261
00:19:16,656 --> 00:19:19,443
And in this particular case,
it has the beaded bottom.
262
00:19:19,533 --> 00:19:23,196
So all these little beads
dropped out of the sky first...
263
00:19:23,287 --> 00:19:28,327
And the shiny top here is an agglomeration
of all the beads that were still melted.
264
00:19:29,627 --> 00:19:33,461
[ Narrator I similar glass has been found
in the Sahara desert in Libya.
265
00:19:34,965 --> 00:19:40,961
But its formation predates the atomic age
by almost 30 million years.
266
00:19:42,264 --> 00:19:45,472
Here's a natural example
of a type of glass...
267
00:19:45,559 --> 00:19:50,269
That was formed in the Libyan desert
during an airburst event, we think-
268
00:19:50,356 --> 00:19:52,517
some 30 million years ago.
269
00:19:52,608 --> 00:19:57,602
Think of the intense heating it took to
turn desert sand into this glassy material.
270
00:19:59,407 --> 00:20:01,318
There were no nuclear bombs then.
271
00:20:01,409 --> 00:20:05,197
So the only conclusion that can produce
that kind of power and more...
272
00:20:05,287 --> 00:20:07,278
Is a cosmic impact.
273
00:20:10,292 --> 00:20:14,706
No impact crater is found
in the entire region of the middle east.
274
00:20:16,173 --> 00:20:20,917
So the only other thing that could produce
such staggeringly high temperatures...
275
00:20:21,011 --> 00:20:25,129
Would be an asteroid
that explodes in the earth's atmosphere.
276
00:20:27,101 --> 00:20:28,966
A cosmic airburst.
277
00:20:32,857 --> 00:20:35,627
The temperatures inside
the center of one of these airbursts...
278
00:20:35,651 --> 00:20:37,482
Are incredibly high...
279
00:20:37,570 --> 00:20:41,404
Much more immense than, for example,
the temperature of a volcano...
280
00:20:41,490 --> 00:20:43,572
Or even like an oil fire...
281
00:20:43,659 --> 00:20:46,492
Which may only reach
a few thousand degrees.
282
00:20:58,716 --> 00:21:02,083
Let's demonstrate
the power of an airburst event...
283
00:21:02,178 --> 00:21:05,420
With a simple homemade experiment here.
284
00:21:05,514 --> 00:21:06,970
I just made a little vortex Cannon.
285
00:21:07,057 --> 00:21:10,094
It's just a plastic bucket
with a hole in the end here...
286
00:21:10,186 --> 00:21:11,676
To blast some air out of.
287
00:21:11,771 --> 00:21:14,833
We're going to use this plastic diaphragm
on the back to actually move the air.
288
00:21:14,857 --> 00:21:18,645
And this is going to basically show us
the power of moving air.
289
00:21:18,736 --> 00:21:22,354
To make this a little easier to see, we're
going to fill this with a bit of smoke.
290
00:21:25,701 --> 00:21:27,157
Okay. There we go.
291
00:21:27,244 --> 00:21:30,202
Okay, let's see if we can blow down
our wall of cups here.
292
00:21:36,712 --> 00:21:38,202
Excellent.
293
00:21:39,590 --> 00:21:41,706
So when I pop
the back diaphragm here...
294
00:21:43,219 --> 00:21:46,677
We can actually move a lot of air
out of the hole.
295
00:21:47,598 --> 00:21:49,884
So that shows the power
of moving air.
296
00:21:50,976 --> 00:21:53,342
Imagine now an actual airburst event...
297
00:21:53,437 --> 00:21:56,520
Where you've got megatons
worth of blast energy going on...
298
00:21:56,607 --> 00:21:59,474
And instead of blowing down
a wall of paper cups...
299
00:21:59,568 --> 00:22:03,186
We can blow down
an actual wall of mud bricks-
300
00:22:03,280 --> 00:22:05,396
the walls on a fortified city.
301
00:22:05,491 --> 00:22:10,326
And so real airburst events coupled
with the intense heat from the fireball...
302
00:22:10,412 --> 00:22:13,154
And from the hot, turbulent gases
near the surface...
303
00:22:13,249 --> 00:22:16,537
Might well be capable
of firing pottery.
304
00:22:18,379 --> 00:22:21,496
In addition to glazed pottery shards...
305
00:22:21,590 --> 00:22:25,583
Glassy material
resembling actual trinitite...
306
00:22:25,678 --> 00:22:29,512
Has also been discovered
at the site of tall El-hammam.
307
00:22:30,766 --> 00:22:34,350
The pieces need fo be
scientifically analyzed.
308
00:22:34,436 --> 00:22:40,056
But could they confirm that the city
was destroyed by a cosmic airburst event?
309
00:22:43,279 --> 00:22:47,693
If you were looking anywhere in the world
for either a cosmic impact or airburst...
310
00:22:49,618 --> 00:22:53,952
You would look for material
that looks similar to this-the trinitite.
311
00:22:55,124 --> 00:22:59,663
This is a very nice piece that shows
the really nice, deep green structure.
312
00:23:02,298 --> 00:23:05,415
These are examples
of what I call Taffy-like material...
313
00:23:05,509 --> 00:23:08,421
Thrown out immediately
from the blast.
314
00:23:08,512 --> 00:23:11,629
So all trinitite does not look the same.
315
00:23:13,058 --> 00:23:17,927
If you find an artifact that has material
on it that looks similar to trinitite...
316
00:23:18,022 --> 00:23:22,766
Then we know it has to be
an highly energetic event like an asteroid.
317
00:23:27,448 --> 00:23:31,566
[ Narrator I the atomic bomb
tests of 1945 demonstrate...
318
00:23:31,660 --> 00:23:37,656
That an asteroid airburst has the capability
of generating tremendous heat and energy.
319
00:23:42,087 --> 00:23:46,000
But is there any real proof
that this type of cosmic event...
320
00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:50,839
Produced the devastation described
in the story of sodom and gomorrah?
321
00:23:56,936 --> 00:24:02,772
The answer fo this mystery lies
in one of the most remote places on earth.
322
00:24:08,322 --> 00:24:10,608
Sodom and gomorrah.
323
00:24:10,699 --> 00:24:14,817
Did these ancient cities
suffer the wrath of god...
324
00:24:16,205 --> 00:24:18,662
Or a cosmic cataclysm?
325
00:24:25,714 --> 00:24:31,254
Archaeological evidence points fo 14
ruin cities northeast of the dead sea.
326
00:24:32,888 --> 00:24:35,675
One of the sites, tall El-hammam...
327
00:24:35,766 --> 00:24:40,180
Bears the unmistakable signs
of a thermal catastrophe-
328
00:24:41,105 --> 00:24:43,687
a thick ash layer...
329
00:24:43,774 --> 00:24:46,811
Charred human bones...
330
00:24:46,902 --> 00:24:49,234
And possibly trinitite-
331
00:24:49,321 --> 00:24:53,655
a glassy material only produced
by extremely high temperatures...
332
00:24:53,742 --> 00:24:56,734
Such as a nuclear blast...
333
00:24:56,829 --> 00:24:59,741
Or an asteroid
that explodes in the atmosphere.
334
00:25:02,209 --> 00:25:06,999
The airburst is basically
like exploding a bomb up in the air...
335
00:25:07,089 --> 00:25:10,707
And have a shock wave
that propagates with huge speeds...
336
00:25:10,801 --> 00:25:12,837
And that can be extremely devastating.
337
00:25:16,557 --> 00:25:20,766
[ Narrator I but what are the odds
that this could happen on earth?
338
00:25:23,856 --> 00:25:26,518
Over the last 100 years...
339
00:25:26,608 --> 00:25:30,772
Earth experiences
iwo major cosmic airburst events.
340
00:25:32,698 --> 00:25:39,194
In 1908, a 200-foot-wide asteroid
explodes in the sky...
341
00:25:39,288 --> 00:25:41,404
Above Siberia's tunguska wilderness.
342
00:25:42,916 --> 00:25:45,103
You got to think these things
are coming into the atmosphere...
343
00:25:45,127 --> 00:25:47,368
Like something like mach 60, right?
344
00:25:47,463 --> 00:25:51,456
And that pressure was too much
for that object to take.
345
00:25:52,593 --> 00:25:55,881
And it detonated in the atmosphere
with an explosive energy...
346
00:25:55,971 --> 00:25:57,962
Of something like two or three megatons.
347
00:26:03,729 --> 00:26:08,018
[ Narrator I most of the rock disintegrates
upon entering the earth's atmosphere.
348
00:26:08,108 --> 00:26:10,394
So it doesn't leave a crater.
349
00:26:12,279 --> 00:26:15,066
But if releases heat and shock waves...
350
00:26:16,116 --> 00:26:21,076
Which fopple 80 million trees
over an 800-square-mile region.
351
00:26:22,706 --> 00:26:26,995
The tunguska event is
a great example of a devastating airburst.
352
00:26:28,003 --> 00:26:31,291
Something like that traveling
at tens of thousands of miles per hour-
353
00:26:31,381 --> 00:26:34,418
when it explodes,
it creates this big shock wave.
354
00:26:36,053 --> 00:26:39,341
In the case of the tunguska,
it happened over a forest...
355
00:26:39,431 --> 00:26:45,677
And you see this tremendous impact wave that
flatten these trees like little toothpicks.
356
00:26:50,776 --> 00:26:54,815
[ Narrator I no one is killed or injured
as a result of the tunguska event...
357
00:26:54,905 --> 00:26:57,692
Because if occurs over a desolate forest
358
00:26:59,034 --> 00:27:04,654
but this isn't the case the next ime
Russia experiences a cosmic attack.
359
00:27:09,044 --> 00:27:12,332
On February 15, 2013...
360
00:27:12,422 --> 00:27:17,587
A 50-foot asteroid explodes
over the city of chelyabinsk...
361
00:27:17,678 --> 00:27:22,718
With almost 30 times the energy released
from the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
362
00:27:25,561 --> 00:27:27,539
The amazing thing
about the chelyabinsk event...
363
00:27:27,563 --> 00:27:30,305
Is that it was
so beautifully documented.
364
00:27:30,399 --> 00:27:36,816
There were hundreds of video cameras,
dash cams, photographs, cell phones.
365
00:27:36,905 --> 00:27:41,569
So we were able to really analyze
how destructive it truly was.
366
00:27:42,744 --> 00:27:46,362
Almost two minutes
after the actual sighting...
367
00:27:46,456 --> 00:27:49,323
A huge Sonic boom was unleashed...
368
00:27:49,418 --> 00:27:53,661
And broke windows,
injured about 1,500 people...
369
00:27:53,755 --> 00:27:55,586
Primarily from broken glass.
370
00:27:56,425 --> 00:27:58,962
It was just very damaging.
371
00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:07,883
The events in tunguska and chelyabinsk...
372
00:28:07,978 --> 00:28:09,684
Are tangible eviaence...
373
00:28:09,771 --> 00:28:14,481
That a cosmic airburst could have
decimated sodom and gomorrah.
374
00:28:16,320 --> 00:28:19,858
A tunguska event
occurring over a mud and stick city...
375
00:28:19,948 --> 00:28:22,405
In the second millennium b.C...
376
00:28:22,492 --> 00:28:24,699
Would have completely annihilated it.
377
00:28:24,786 --> 00:28:27,869
The buildings back then
weren't very strong.
378
00:28:27,956 --> 00:28:29,992
They could easily fall apart.
379
00:28:30,083 --> 00:28:33,291
All kinds of fires could erupt
from the heat generated.
380
00:28:34,046 --> 00:28:35,752
There would be nothing left.
381
00:28:43,639 --> 00:28:47,552
Such a cosmic event
can even explain the fire and brimstone...
382
00:28:47,643 --> 00:28:49,759
Mentioned in the biblical story.
383
00:28:52,397 --> 00:28:56,265
Now, the translation
that brings us “brimstone”...
384
00:28:56,360 --> 00:29:00,273
Simply meant
“yellow fire,” “yellow light.”
385
00:29:01,156 --> 00:29:05,069
So really, at the very minimum,
what we can interpret about this...
386
00:29:05,160 --> 00:29:10,530
Is that a bright, yellow fire
rained down upon sodom.
387
00:29:10,624 --> 00:29:15,288
That could easily be a meteor
passing through the atmosphere...
388
00:29:15,379 --> 00:29:19,588
Leaving behind a trail
of smoke and fire in its wake.
389
00:29:23,011 --> 00:29:26,219
When this raining-down effect occurs...
390
00:29:26,306 --> 00:29:31,016
Then you see all these particles
that are just beet red from the heat...
391
00:29:31,103 --> 00:29:34,937
Until they finally coalesce
and land on the ground.
392
00:29:35,607 --> 00:29:38,440
From somebody way back in time
seeing this...
393
00:29:38,527 --> 00:29:40,813
They would think
that would be an act of god.
394
00:29:41,488 --> 00:29:45,982
We know today that that's probably
an asteroid impact or something like that.
395
00:29:48,870 --> 00:29:53,330
If a cosmic airburst
destroyed sodom and gomorrah...
396
00:29:55,127 --> 00:29:59,166
It might also explain another curious line
from the biblical text...
397
00:29:59,256 --> 00:30:01,542
Which says-
398
00:30:01,633 --> 00:30:03,624
[ reading I
399
00:30:07,556 --> 00:30:10,013
as far as the sodom and gomorrah story...
400
00:30:10,100 --> 00:30:16,221
It's entirely plausible that what they saw
was essentially a mushroom cloud...
401
00:30:16,315 --> 00:30:20,149
And that mushroom cloud
would have looked like a big smokestack...
402
00:30:20,235 --> 00:30:23,398
Much like what the nuclear bombs look like
when they go off.
403
00:30:24,531 --> 00:30:27,864
A lot of energy gets deposited
in a very short amount of time.
404
00:30:27,951 --> 00:30:30,408
That lifts debris from the ground.
405
00:30:30,495 --> 00:30:34,989
Moreover, everything catches on fire,
creating more smoke and ash.
406
00:30:35,083 --> 00:30:38,917
Yeah, you would have had
a huge pillar rising from these cities.
407
00:30:40,505 --> 00:30:44,919
[ Narrator I a cosmic airburst event
could have destroyed tall El-hammam...
408
00:30:45,010 --> 00:30:47,968
And the other sites
northeast of the dead sea.
409
00:30:50,182 --> 00:30:54,846
But is this the actual location
of sodom and gomorrah?
410
00:31:00,650 --> 00:31:04,108
The fiery apocalypse
of sodom and gomorrah.
411
00:31:05,447 --> 00:31:10,111
Fiction or factual account
of a natural disaster from space?
412
00:31:12,454 --> 00:31:19,041
The charred ruins of an ancient city over
eight miles northeast of the dead sea...
413
00:31:19,127 --> 00:31:22,711
Fit the geographical
and physical description of sodom.
414
00:31:24,508 --> 00:31:28,046
The discovery of strange glazed pottery
and desert glass...
415
00:31:30,097 --> 00:31:34,636
Indicates that an asteroid
might have destroyed the ancient site.
416
00:31:35,769 --> 00:31:37,789
It would have been
absolutely devastating...
417
00:31:37,813 --> 00:31:41,601
And certainly the stories of the destruction
like that propagate through time...
418
00:31:41,691 --> 00:31:43,522
Even to modern times today.
419
00:31:44,861 --> 00:31:47,728
According to the biblical story...
420
00:31:47,823 --> 00:31:51,236
As fire and brimstone
rains down on sodom...
421
00:31:52,494 --> 00:31:55,657
Lot and his family flee
fo the mountains near zoar-
422
00:31:56,206 --> 00:32:01,496
one of the five cities of the plain
that is spared god's divine destruction.
423
00:32:03,839 --> 00:32:07,252
According to the biblical narrative,
zoar was not destroyed.
424
00:32:07,342 --> 00:32:11,255
In fact,
lot escapes to that city as a refuge...
425
00:32:11,346 --> 00:32:16,340
Which would indicate that the city would have
to be somewhere in close proximity to sodom.
426
00:32:18,395 --> 00:32:22,604
[ Narrator I zoar should be a relatively
short distance from tall El-hammam-
427
00:32:22,691 --> 00:32:25,683
the alleged site of sodom.
428
00:32:27,237 --> 00:32:32,106
However, on the floor of a byzantine church
in madaba, Jordan...
429
00:32:32,200 --> 00:32:36,443
Is a sixth-century mosaic map
written in Greek.
430
00:32:36,538 --> 00:32:40,622
It's the oldest surviving depiction
of the holy land.
431
00:32:40,709 --> 00:32:43,166
What's fascinating about this map...
432
00:32:43,253 --> 00:32:48,623
Is it gives us the geographical locations
of major Christian pilgrimage cities.
433
00:32:49,551 --> 00:32:53,885
So we can take the map as being
an accurate map of the ancient near east.
434
00:32:56,641 --> 00:33:00,634
By comparing the mosaic map
fo the modern-day landscape...
435
00:33:00,729 --> 00:33:06,269
It places Jerusalem and Jericho in the
precise locations that they are today.
436
00:33:07,527 --> 00:33:12,738
Sodom and gomorrah
are oddly missing from the eroded mosaic.
437
00:33:15,202 --> 00:33:20,367
However, zoar is found on the map near
the southeast region of the dead sea...
438
00:33:21,625 --> 00:33:25,334
And over 30 miles
from the site of tall El-hammam.
439
00:33:26,755 --> 00:33:29,497
The location of the
city of zoar on the madaba map...
440
00:33:29,591 --> 00:33:33,630
It is not exactly a smoking gun
to tell us where the other cities are...
441
00:33:33,720 --> 00:33:37,588
But it gives us
a general locale in which to look.
442
00:33:39,559 --> 00:33:42,175
And the mystery deepens.
443
00:33:42,270 --> 00:33:44,477
On the mosaic map near zoar...
444
00:33:44,564 --> 00:33:48,773
Are the Greek words
'sanctuary of Saint l.”
445
00:33:49,611 --> 00:33:51,693
The rest of the word is missing.
446
00:33:51,780 --> 00:33:56,615
But many scholars interpret it
as the “sanctuary of Saint lot.”
447
00:33:59,955 --> 00:34:02,367
By following the mosaic map...
448
00:34:02,457 --> 00:34:07,542
Archaeologists find the sanctuary of
Saint lot perched on a mountainside.
449
00:34:08,505 --> 00:34:12,373
Hidden behind the monastery is a cave.
450
00:34:12,467 --> 00:34:17,882
Could this be the place where lot and his
family took refuge during the firestorm?
451
00:34:19,099 --> 00:34:21,010
In the cave behind the church...
452
00:34:21,101 --> 00:34:23,592
That is associated with Saint lot...
453
00:34:23,687 --> 00:34:26,599
They found bronze age pottery.
454
00:34:26,690 --> 00:34:29,147
However, there's nothing evident...
455
00:34:29,234 --> 00:34:31,771
That says this is the place
where lot and his daughters stayed.
456
00:34:31,861 --> 00:34:35,353
But we do have evidence of them
living there at a certain time period...
457
00:34:35,448 --> 00:34:38,110
That correlates with the story of lot.
458
00:34:40,370 --> 00:34:45,581
[ Narrator I the discovery leads many to
believe the real sodom must exist nearby.
459
00:34:48,837 --> 00:34:52,500
Less than 10 miles
from the sanctuary of Saint lot...
460
00:34:53,592 --> 00:34:57,255
Archaeologists discover
the ruins of bab edh-dhra-
461
00:34:57,345 --> 00:35:02,840
a fortified early bronze age city
once occupied by a thousand inhabitants.
462
00:35:05,645 --> 00:35:08,261
A short distance from bab edh-dhra...
463
00:35:08,356 --> 00:35:11,814
Archaeologists uncover
the remains of four settlements...
464
00:35:11,901 --> 00:35:15,644
Which could be
the other lost cities of the plain.
465
00:35:16,364 --> 00:35:19,697
In the early bronze age,
the third millennium b.C...
466
00:35:19,784 --> 00:35:24,778
Precisely in this area
you have five cities...
467
00:35:24,873 --> 00:35:30,368
Whereas tall El-hammam is located in a
cluster of middle bronze age settlements...
468
00:35:30,462 --> 00:35:33,329
Of which there are
many more than five.
469
00:35:33,423 --> 00:35:37,257
So if we're speaking
of five cities of the plain...
470
00:35:37,344 --> 00:35:41,508
Then bab edh-dhra and the associated
four cities towards the south...
471
00:35:41,598 --> 00:35:43,554
Would really fit that very well.
472
00:35:45,727 --> 00:35:48,343
[ Narrator I
like the ruins at tall El-hammam...
473
00:35:48,438 --> 00:35:52,852
A thick layer of ash
covers much of bab edh-dhra.
474
00:35:54,402 --> 00:35:59,112
It suggests the ancient cily
also suffered a violent end.
475
00:36:01,910 --> 00:36:07,997
Eight miles fo the south of bab edh-dhra,
archaeologists find the ruins of numeira...
476
00:36:08,083 --> 00:36:10,870
Which is thought fo be its sister city.
477
00:36:11,419 --> 00:36:13,705
They find a substantial ash layer...
478
00:36:13,797 --> 00:36:17,836
And skeletal remains of humans
who suffered severe trauma.
479
00:36:19,260 --> 00:36:24,630
Could bab edh-dhra and numeira
be sodom and gomorrah?
480
00:36:25,266 --> 00:36:26,722
The problem here...
481
00:36:26,810 --> 00:36:31,019
Is that both of the cities
were destroyed at different time periods-
482
00:36:31,106 --> 00:36:33,188
at least 300 years apart.
483
00:36:33,274 --> 00:36:40,191
The city of numeira was destroyed
in a great destruction very rapidly.
484
00:36:40,281 --> 00:36:42,863
We know that from an ash layer.
485
00:36:42,951 --> 00:36:49,868
As opposed to bab edh-dhra, the city
was destroyed over a hundred years or so.
486
00:36:49,958 --> 00:36:52,040
So the dates don't match up.
487
00:36:52,127 --> 00:36:54,209
In order to make the story work...
488
00:36:54,295 --> 00:36:57,879
They both have to be destroyed
in the same manner at the same time.
489
00:36:59,467 --> 00:37:00,986
There's not enough evidence...
490
00:37:01,010 --> 00:37:06,300
Lo prove that bab edh-dhra and numeira
are sodom and gomorrah.
491
00:37:08,143 --> 00:37:13,354
But what about tall El-hammam and
the other ruins northeast of the dead sea?
492
00:37:14,315 --> 00:37:17,899
Does the alleged location of zoar
on the mosaic map...
493
00:37:17,986 --> 00:37:20,272
Rule them out as the sin cities?
494
00:37:22,115 --> 00:37:25,824
People who make maps
have to make decisions...
495
00:37:25,910 --> 00:37:29,698
When sometimes the archaeological
or historical evidence...
496
00:37:29,789 --> 00:37:31,245
Is hot conclusive.
497
00:37:31,332 --> 00:37:36,417
So they did a lot of guessing, frankly.
498
00:37:36,504 --> 00:37:39,712
You're not going to find a sign
that says, “this is zoar”...
499
00:37:39,799 --> 00:37:41,915
Or “welcome to zoar.”
500
00:37:45,221 --> 00:37:50,011
There's still much debate about
the actual location of sodom and gomorrah.
501
00:37:51,561 --> 00:37:54,849
But science can now provide
a terrifying picture...
502
00:37:54,939 --> 00:37:58,852
Of what might have actually happened
fo the jll-fated cities.
503
00:37:59,569 --> 00:38:05,940
It can even decode the mystery behind
lot's wife turning into a pillar of salt.
504
00:38:11,331 --> 00:38:13,322
Sodom and gomorrah-
505
00:38:14,167 --> 00:38:18,035
myth or astronomical mega disaster?
506
00:38:21,216 --> 00:38:23,127
In the search for the truth...
507
00:38:23,218 --> 00:38:26,676
Archaeologists discover
a cluster of ruins...
508
00:38:26,763 --> 00:38:30,722
In two different locations
along the eastern side of the dead sea.
509
00:38:31,684 --> 00:38:34,221
They've even found
unaeniable evidence...
510
00:38:34,312 --> 00:38:39,773
That a fiery catastrophe destroyed most
of the ancient cities in both locations.
511
00:38:41,069 --> 00:38:45,859
But is either of these sites
home fo the real sodom and gomorrah?
512
00:38:49,244 --> 00:38:52,361
All along the shores of the dead sea...
513
00:38:52,455 --> 00:38:56,073
There is a possibility
that there are a number of sites...
514
00:38:56,167 --> 00:38:57,657
That we have not yet found.
515
00:38:58,670 --> 00:39:01,912
Sodom and gomorrah
could be anywhere.
516
00:39:03,174 --> 00:39:06,416
Some people say
the cities are under the dead sea.
517
00:39:07,554 --> 00:39:10,512
Though we don't have
any solid archaeological evidence...
518
00:39:10,598 --> 00:39:12,429
Of sodom and gomorrah...
519
00:39:12,517 --> 00:39:14,553
It had to be an important event.
520
00:39:18,773 --> 00:39:23,267
Twenly-first-century astronomy,
combined with the biblical accounits...
521
00:39:23,361 --> 00:39:26,194
Now offer a scientific explanation...
522
00:39:26,281 --> 00:39:30,615
For what might have happened
fo the cities in their final hours.
523
00:39:37,458 --> 00:39:41,246
Between 2300 and 1700 b.C...
524
00:39:44,841 --> 00:39:48,049
An asteroid barrels down from space.
525
00:39:50,972 --> 00:39:53,588
It strikes the earth's atmosphere...
526
00:39:54,976 --> 00:39:57,968
And explodes
above the ancient land of canaan.
527
00:40:00,481 --> 00:40:06,647
The force is over 200 times more powerful
than the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
528
00:40:07,655 --> 00:40:11,523
For the airburst hypothesis
for the destruction of sodom...
529
00:40:11,618 --> 00:40:14,325
We're talking
dozens of megatons of energy.
530
00:40:16,915 --> 00:40:19,577
In modern context,
we have an understanding of that.
531
00:40:19,667 --> 00:40:23,159
But in ancient times, that would have
been literally a biblical event.
532
00:40:25,048 --> 00:40:28,006
The energy from the airburst
reaches the ground...
533
00:40:28,092 --> 00:40:31,425
Creating a mushroom cloud
of rock and dirt...
534
00:40:31,512 --> 00:40:33,673
That's ejected info the atmosphere.
535
00:40:37,185 --> 00:40:38,675
If it's an airburst...
536
00:40:38,770 --> 00:40:45,061
You're going to have possibly either
many pieces of the rock raining down.
537
00:40:45,151 --> 00:40:49,144
And so you'd imagine that those things
would cause tremendous devastation...
538
00:40:49,238 --> 00:40:51,604
And many fires on the ground.
539
00:40:54,077 --> 00:40:56,819
[ Narrator I
the citizens of sodom take cover...
540
00:40:56,913 --> 00:41:01,532
As flery rock or brimstone
rains down on their city.
541
00:41:03,127 --> 00:41:07,712
Ancient city walls made out of mud
bricks would easily have been blown flat.
542
00:41:07,799 --> 00:41:11,132
Straw or thatched wood
construction, charred...
543
00:41:11,219 --> 00:41:13,447
Literally brought to the point
of spontaneous ignition...
544
00:41:13,471 --> 00:41:15,632
By the heating of the event.
545
00:41:15,723 --> 00:41:20,308
The shock wave from the impact
would have flattened buildings.
546
00:41:20,395 --> 00:41:26,140
This could have led to huge destruction
of these ancient, poorly built cities.
547
00:41:27,068 --> 00:41:30,606
You could have vaporization of bodies.
548
00:41:30,697 --> 00:41:34,315
At the very least, they would be
incinerated. They would be cremated.
549
00:41:35,201 --> 00:41:38,159
So it would be
an absolutely terrifying event.
550
00:41:43,376 --> 00:41:46,664
Lot and his daughters
flee for the mountains.
551
00:41:47,547 --> 00:41:53,508
But his wife lags behind as she
stares back at the ferocious inferno.
552
00:41:54,846 --> 00:41:58,509
One of the most famous tales to
come out of the sodom and gomorrah story...
553
00:41:58,599 --> 00:42:01,716
Is the story of lot's wife
being turned into a pillar of salt.
554
00:42:04,272 --> 00:42:08,515
Could an airburst event, in any way,
be responsible for that?
555
00:42:08,609 --> 00:42:10,190
It's kind of gruesome to think about...
556
00:42:10,278 --> 00:42:16,399
But that might potentially be not salt
but maybe charred to ash.
557
00:42:18,619 --> 00:42:23,579
If lot's wife had been
unprotected, not in a cave or something...
558
00:42:23,666 --> 00:42:26,453
Then she could have
been charred to a crisp.
559
00:42:26,544 --> 00:42:30,753
So in a sense, metaphorically, she could
have become like a pillar of salt.
560
00:42:32,008 --> 00:42:34,420
It's kind of a gruesome idea.
561
00:42:34,510 --> 00:42:36,626
But she could have been incinerated.
562
00:42:38,765 --> 00:42:42,633
The cosmic disaster does more
than destroy sodom and gomorrah...
563
00:42:42,727 --> 00:42:45,309
And the other cities of the plain.
564
00:42:45,396 --> 00:42:47,728
It scorches the landscape...
565
00:42:47,815 --> 00:42:51,228
Making it uninhabitable
for hundreds of years.
566
00:42:56,532 --> 00:42:59,239
Was destroyed by, let's say, an asteroid...
567
00:42:59,327 --> 00:43:04,742
It would be left “ininhabited,”
perhaps as a superstition.
568
00:43:04,832 --> 00:43:06,413
But they couldn't possibly live there.
569
00:43:15,259 --> 00:43:17,420
[ Narrator I
the science of the universe...
570
00:43:17,512 --> 00:43:21,471
Gives us a new way
of looking at an ancient story.
571
00:43:23,017 --> 00:43:26,100
If we can demonstrate
historically and scientifically...
572
00:43:26,187 --> 00:43:29,805
That there really was a sodom
and that these events really took place...
573
00:43:29,899 --> 00:43:33,858
And therefore what the Bible describes
are real historical events...
574
00:43:33,945 --> 00:43:36,687
It gives us a greater sense
of security and certainty...
575
00:43:36,781 --> 00:43:39,318
That the rest of the Bible is valid.
576
00:43:39,408 --> 00:43:45,449
And so I think this also plays very much into
the modern interest in these two cities.
577
00:43:47,166 --> 00:43:48,906
We have enough science...
578
00:43:49,001 --> 00:43:54,291
To actually try to understand some
of the historical origins of our faiths.
579
00:43:54,382 --> 00:43:59,968
And this, to me, is only to enrich
our culture as a species...
580
00:44:00,054 --> 00:44:05,640
And our creativity
as the real core of our humanity.
53086
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