Page 61 - Perished Nations
P. 61

An overhead view of
    the mountains around
         the Lake of Lut.



             The traces of Lut’s (as) people are visible… When one takes a rowing
          boat across the Lake of Lut to the southernmost point, if the sun is shining
          in the right direction, one sees something quite fantastic. Some distance
          from the shore and clearly visible under the surface of the water, there are
          the outlines of the forests which the extraordinarily high salt content of the
          Dead Sea preserved. The trunks and roots in the shimmering green water
          are very ancient. The Siddim valley, where these trees were once in blos-
          som green foliage covered their twigs and branches, was one of the most
          beautiful locations in the region.
             The mechanical aspect of the disaster that befell the people of Lut (as)
          is revealed by the researches of the geologists. These reveal that the earth-
          quake which destroyed the people of Lut (as) came about as a conse-
          quence of a fault line in the earth, along the 190-kilometre distance mak-
          ing up the bed of the River Sheri’at. River Sheri’at makes a fall of 180
          metres in total. Both this and the fact that the Lake of Lut is 400 metres
          below sea level are two important pieces of evidence showing that an


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