Zoar
צֹעַר
Where was biblical Zoar? At Ghor es-Safi, in Jordan, about 70 km southeast of Beersheba. I mark it probable.
Lot begged the angel not to send him up into the mountains. Let him flee to the town nearby, he pleaded, it was such a little one. The angel agreed, and the little town alone survived the fire that fell on the plain.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Ghor es-Safi, in Jordan
- How sure
- Probable The best case we have, with real alternatives.
- Other names
- Bela, Segor, Zoara, Zughar, Ghor es-Safi, Khirbet Sheikh 'Isa, Palmer, Paumier
- Location
- 30.9973° N, 35.4465° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
Tzo'ar means small, and the town kept that name ever after. Genesis also calls it Bela, one of the five cities of the plain.
Zoar survived, and so did its name. Josephus mentions Zoara. Eusebius describes a town with a Roman garrison and date palms by the Dead Sea. The Madaba Map draws it among palm trees at the southeast end of the sea, labeled "Balak, also Segor, now Zoora." Medieval Arab geographers knew it as Zughar, famous for its dates. Isaiah lists Zoar among the places of Moab, which is Moab's side of the sea. And from the top of Nebo, Moses saw the plain "as far as Zoar."
On the slope above Ghor es-Safi, excavators uncovered a Byzantine church and a cave honored as Lot's cave. That matches the next scene in Genesis. Lot was afraid to stay in Zoar and went up to live in a cave in the hills with his daughters.
How sure are we? The later town is secure. Whether Lot's Zoar stood on this same spot is less certain, because the Roman town was built on virgin soil.
Those who put Sodom north of the Dead Sea, at Tell el-Hammam, have to move Zoar north as well. The Madaba Map and the medieval geographers point here, to the south.
Visiting today
In Jordan, the Museum at the Lowest Place on Earth at Ghor es-Safi, with the excavated church and cave of Lot on the slope above the town.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Zoar on the interactive map →
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Get the print + free ebookNearby places
- Sodom 11 km northwest
- Tophel 24 km southeast
- Sela 28 km southeast
- Iye Abarim 32 km east
- Kir Moab (Kir Hareseth) 32 km northeast
- Punon 43 km south