Zoara

Zoara, called Zoar/Tzoar[1][a] or Bela[b] in the Hebrew Bible,[2] Segor[c] in the Septuagint, and Zughar[d] by medieval Arabs,[3] was an ancient city located in the Dead Sea basin in the Transjordan.

The biblical narrative shows the city being spared the "brimstone and fire" which destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah in order to provide a refuge for Lot and his daughters.

The Catholic Encyclopedia, writing about the time preceding the Crusades, called it "a flourishing oasis where the balsam, indigo, and date trees bloom luxuriantly".

[3] Zoar, meaning "small" or "insignificance" in Hebrew (a "little one" as Lot called it), was a city east of Jordan in the vale of Siddim, near the Dead Sea.

[13] The Notitia Dignitatum, 72, probably reflecting the reality of the late 4th century, places at Zoara, as a garrison, the resident equites sagitarii indigenae (native unit of cavalry archers); Stephen of Byzantium (fl.

[15] Istakhri and Ibn Haukal, two Arab geographers of the 10th century, highly praise the sweetness of Zughar's dates, but are less impressed by the quality of the indigo produced there.

According to the 14th-century travelogue The Travels Of Sir John Mandeville:"Zoar, by the prayer of Lot, was saved and kept a great while, for it was set upon a hill; and yet sheweth thereof some part above the water, and men may see the walls when it is fair weather and clear.

Researchers who have studied ancient texts portray Zoara as a town erected in the middle of a flourishing oasis, watered by rivers flowing down from the high Moab Mountains in the east.

[citation needed] Ruins of a basilical church that were discovered in the site of Deir 'Ain 'Abata ("Monastery at the Abata Spring" in Arabic), were identified as the Sanctuary of Agios (Saint) Lot.