By DeadSea.com Editorial
Last reviewed: 27 October 2026
On the west side of Route 90, south of the Ein Bokek hotels, the ridge of Mount Sodom breaks into white cliffs and dark seams. One column stands a little apart from the rest. From some angles it reads as a figure in a long dress, leaning forward. It is the kind of shape that makes drivers look twice, and it raises the question travelers have asked here for a very long time: is that really her?
Genesis 19 says Lot’s wife looked back as her family fled the destruction of Sodom and became a pillar of salt. The verse gives no road number and no mountain name. What you can visit today is a natural salt formation on the eastern face of Mount Sodom, named by tradition after that line of text. Geologists have a precise account of how the column formed. Travelers have been matching the story to salt pillars beside the Dead Sea for nearly two thousand years. Both of those facts can be true at once.
The story people bring with them
In Genesis 19, two visitors warn Lot to take his family out of Sodom and not look back. Fire falls on the cities of the plain. Verse 26 is short: Lot’s wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. The Hebrew Bible never gives her a name. Luke 17:32 later compresses the episode into three words of warning: “Remember Lot’s wife.”
Treat that as text and tradition. The landscape around the southern Dead Sea, a salt mountain above a salt sea, made the image easy to place on a real cliff. For how the wider Sodom debate sits with archaeology, see Sodom and Gomorrah.
Who claimed to see her
The first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus retells the Genesis account in Antiquities of the Jews and adds a personal note. Lot’s wife, he writes, was changed into a pillar of salt; “for I have seen it, and it remains at this day.” He does not give a map reference. He does show that by his lifetime, people already expected a salt pillar in this region to match the story.
In April 1848, Lieutenant William Francis Lynch of the United States Navy led the first modern boat survey of the Dead Sea. Near the salt mountain of Usdum (Mount Sodom), his party pulled ashore to examine what he called a lofty, round pillar of solid salt, standing apart at the head of a deep chasm. He and the expedition’s geologist, Dr. Anderson, climbed to it. Lynch described the upper, rounded part as about forty feet high, capped with carbonate of lime, cylindrical in front and pyramidal behind, resting on an oval pedestal, connected to the mountain by a prop or buttress. He took specimens. He noted that Josephus had mentioned a similar pillar. He did not claim laboratory proof that it was the Genesis figure. He recorded a striking salt column where local talk and Scripture already pointed.
That chain matters more than a single “gotcha” photo. For centuries, people arriving at the southern Dead Sea have looked for a woman of salt and found a mountain that keeps making candidates.
What the pillar actually is
Mount Sodom is the exposed top of a salt diapir: rock salt rising through denser rock. Israel Nature and Parks Authority describes a ridge on the order of ten kilometers long, standing about 150 meters above the Dead Sea. Rain is rare here, yet fresh water dissolves salt quickly. Channels, shafts, and caves open and fail on human timescales.
The column visitors call Lot’s Wife belongs to that system. Amos Frumkin of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem studied a roughly 20-meter-high salt pillar on Mount Sedom and published the results in 2009 in the GSA Bulletin. Earlier ideas treated the shape as something rain had carved on an open face. Frumkin’s field evidence pointed elsewhere. Solution notches and the shape of the neighboring chasm match the remnant wall of a karstic salt cave that lost its roof. Six radiocarbon dates on wood washed into the highest cave level show an underground stream still ran there about 4,000 years ago. He argues that the collapse that isolated the pillar was probably triggered by a strong earthquake. A less soluble caprock on top helps the remnant survive. The feature sits on an actively rising diapir; he reported uplift of 9.3 ± 3.5 millimeters per year at the pillar.
In plain terms: a cave in salt collapsed, left a tall wall standing, and tradition named the wall after Lot’s wife. It is rock salt and caprock, not a human body preserved in mineral. Surfaces keep changing after rain and rockfall. Older photographs are not a fixed monument catalog.
Frumkin’s model also answers a quieter question: is this Josephus’s pillar, or Lynch’s? We cannot say. Salt features on this ridge form and fail. Lynch’s 1848 column was round, about forty feet in its upper part, with a buttress to the mountain. Today’s roadside silhouette is a different description of a different day on an evolving cliff. Continuity of tradition is clear. Continuity of one crystal of salt is not.
Across the water: Lot’s Cave
On the Jordan side of the southern basin, a separate tradition centers on Lot’s Cave (Deir Ain Abata) above Ghor Al Safi. Excavation documented a Byzantine monastic complex around a natural cave, with mosaic inscriptions invoking Saint Lot and dated floors from 606 and 691 CE. That sanctuary is pilgrimage history and archaeology. It is not a survey pin for Genesis 19, and it is not the Route 90 pillar. Plan it as its own southern Jordan day: Lot’s Cave in Jordan.
How to see it yourself
Lonely Planet places the column about 11 kilometers south of the southern end of Ein Bokek, on the west side of Route 90. This site’s Mount Sodom guide treats it as a prominent salt pillar beside the highway and tells visitors to view it from a safe stopping place, not to treat nearby openings as cave entrances.
- Drive Route 90 south from Ein Bokek or north from the Neot HaKikar / factories area.
- Stop only where a legal pull-off or signed parking keeps the carriageway clear.
- Stay behind barriers and on firm roadside ground. Do not scramble to the cliff base or enter shafts.
- Look up at the eastern face. Walk a few meters along the stop if you need another angle. The “figure” appears and disappears with viewpoint and light.
A longer visit belongs on marked Mount Sodom trails, not on the pillar itself. The Fish Trail (Shvil HaDagim) is the main public surface route described by Israel Nature and Parks Authority, with access notes tied to Route 90 kilometer markers in the low 190s. This site’s Mount Sodom page lists the named Fish Trail at about 1.5 kilometers and roughly two hours; INPA’s Hebrew trip page lists a related outing of about 3 kilometers in 2 to 3 hours when approach segments are included. Use the timing for the route you walk. See also Flour Cave for that area’s current access limits, and Dead Sea safety before any desert stop.
Practical box: Lot’s Wife stop
| Topic | Guidance |
|---|---|
| Best season | Autumn, winter, and spring, matching INPA advice for Mount Sodom walking. Midsummer heat is harsh even for a short stop. |
| Best time of day | Early morning or late afternoon for softer light and lower heat. Midday glare on white salt can flatten the shape. |
| Time on site | 15 to 30 minutes for a careful roadside view. A Mount Sodom trail is a separate half-day plan. |
| Heat and water | Carry drinking water in the car. No reliable shade or water point at the pillar. |
| After rain | Cancel ridge walks when rain or flood warnings are active. Wet salt is slippery. Features can change after storms. |
| Footwear | Closed shoes with grip if you leave the vehicle. |
| Closures and rules | Stay on legal stops and marked trails. Do not enter caves or unmarked openings. Check current INPA notices before any hike. |
| Parking | Use a designated or clearly legal pull-off. Do not block Route 90. |
What to combine it with
- Mount Sodom trails: pair the roadside pillar with a cool-season Fish Trail walk when transport between the linear ends is arranged. Start from the Mount Sodom visitor guide.
- Ein Bokek beach: north of Mount Sodom on the managed southern pond shore. Use Ein Bokek Beach for a float after the geology stop.
- Neve Zohar / Hamei Zohar: a quieter base near the southern hotels. See Neve Zohar.
- Flour Cave / Nahal Perazim: only if current access on the Flour Cave page allows a walk.
- Jordan-side Lot tradition (separate trip): Lot’s Cave above Safi.
Frequently asked questions
Is Lot’s Wife still there today?
A natural salt pillar traditionally called Lot’s Wife still stands on Mount Sodom above Route 90 and is a common roadside stop. Salt features change. The column you photograph is not guaranteed to be the same mass of crystal Josephus or Lynch described.
Where is Lot’s Wife’s pillar of salt?
On the eastern face of Mount Sodom (Har Sedom), Israel, on the west side of Route 90 near the southwestern Dead Sea, roughly 11 km south of the southern end of Ein Bokek per Lonely Planet’s note. View from a legal pull-off.
How tall is the pillar?
Frumkin’s studied salt pillar is about 20 meters (about 65 feet) high. Lynch in 1848 described a different-looking column whose rounded upper part was about forty feet. Heights in guides refer to the modern roadside feature unless they quote a historical source.
Is it a real person turned to salt?
No. The pillar is rock salt and caprock shaped by cave collapse, dissolution, and erosion on a rising salt diapir. The name records a traditional reading of Genesis 19:26 onto the landscape.
Did Lot’s wife have a name?
Not in the Genesis text. The verse calls her only Lot’s wife, and the New Testament keeps it that way in Luke 17:32.
Why salt, in the story?
Genesis does not explain the choice of salt. Readers have long tied the image to the Salt Sea and the salt country around it. Geological salt pillars made the literary image easy to locate on a map. That is about landscape and tradition, not a medical or chemical claim.
Can you climb it or enter caves beside it?
No. View from a safe roadside stop. Do not climb the column or enter nearby shafts without specialist authorization. Dissolution holes can be far deeper than they look.
How does this relate to Lot’s Cave in Jordan?
Different places on opposite shores, linked by tradition. Lot’s Wife is the Mount Sodom pillar in Israel. Lot’s Cave at Deir Ain Abata preserves a Byzantine sanctuary associated with Lot. See Lot’s Cave in Jordan and Sodom and Gomorrah.
Sources
- Frumkin, A. (2009). “Formation and dating of a salt pillar in Mount Sedom diapir, Israel.” GSA Bulletin 121 (1-2): 286-293. https://doi.org/10.1130/B26376.1 (abstract via Hebrew University CRIS and GeoScienceWorld)
- Frumkin, A. “Salt Karst: Mount Sedom diapir.” Science Education Resource Center (Carleton) vignette. https://serc.carleton.edu/vignettes/collection/68516.html
- Genesis 19:17-26. Sefaria. https://www.sefaria.org/Genesis.19.17-26
- Josephus, Flavius. Antiquities of the Jews, Book 1, chapter 11 (Whiston): “for I have seen it, and it remains at this day.” https://www.biblestudytools.com/history/flavius-josephus/antiquities-jews/book-1/chapter-11.html
- Lynch, W. F. Narrative of the United States Expedition to the River Jordan and the Dead Sea (pillar of salt at Usdum, 26 April 1848). Secondary summary in Thom, J. C., “The American Navy and the Dead Sea,” Proceedings (USNI), Sept. 1926. https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1926/september/american-navy-and-dead-sea
- Israel Nature and Parks Authority. “Mount Sodom” trip page (Hebrew). https://www.parks.org.il/trip/mount-sodom/
- Lonely Planet. “Lot’s Wife” point of interest note (distance south of Ein Bokek). https://www.lonelyplanet.com/points-of-interest/lots-wife/1445578
- DeadSea.com pages on Mount Sodom, Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot’s Cave (Jordan), Dead Sea safety, Flour Cave, Ein Bokek and Neve Zohar.