Archaeologist: Sodom and Gomorrah "appear to have been wiped out in a "heat event"

An archaeological dig appears to have confirmed the truth of the Biblical account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah:

"The sun was just rising over the earth as Lot arrived in Zoar; at the same time the Lord rained down sulphurous fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah.  He overthrew those cities and the whole Plain, together with the inhabitants of the cities and the produce of the soil." (Genesis 19: 23-25).

Another archaeologist, Werner Keller, in a fascinating work entitled "The Bible as History," which I first read back in 1984, writes, "The calamity which is the subject of this powerful Biblical story of divine punishment for incorrigible sin has probably in all ages made a deep impression on men's minds.  Sodom and Gomorrah have become synonymous with vice and godlessness.  When men have talked in terms of utter annihilation, again the fate of these cities has always sprung to their minds.  Their imaginations have constantly been kindled by this inexplicible and frightful disaster, as can well be seen from the many allusions to it in ancient times.  Remarkable and quite incredible things are said to have happened there by the Dead Sea, the 'Sea of Salt,' where according to the Bible the catastrophe must have happened.

During the siege of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 it is said that the Roman army commander Titus sentenced certain slaves to death.  He gave them short shrift, had them bound together by chains and thrown into the sea at the foot of the mountains of Moab.  But the condemned men did not drown.  No matter how often they were thrown into the sea they always drifted back to the shore like corks.  This inexplicable occurrence made such a deep impression upon Titus that he pardoned the unfortunate offenders.  Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian who lived latterly in Rome, repeatedly mentions a 'Lake of Asphalt.'  Greeks lay stress on the presence of poisonous gases, which are reported as rising from all parts of this sea.  The Arabs say that in olden times no bird was able to reach the opposite side.  The creatures, as they flew across the water, would suddenly drop dead into it..." (The Bible as History, p. 87).

Related reading here.