Mount Sodom, a hill along the southwestern part of the Dead Sea in Israel, is made almost entirely of halite (rock salt). It is about 5 miles long, 3 miles wide, 742 feet above the Dead Sea water level, and yet 557 feet below sea level. Weathering separated sometimes portions of rock formations. One such separate pillar is known as ‘Lot's Wife’, because the pillar resembles a woman wearing a cloak, with reference to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, as mentioned in the Bible.
The story of Lot is in chapters 11-14 and 19 of the Book of Genesis in the Bible. In Genesis 19, when God plans to destroy the five cities, he sends angels to the city of Sodom where they meet Lot, the nephew of Abraham, and the son of Abraham's brother Haran (Genesis 11:27). Lot prays to the angels to spend the night in his house, against their wish to spend the night in the city street, and they agree to stay with Lot. By now all the men of Sodom surround Lot's house to ‘know’ (traditionally, carnal knowledge) the angels. Lot offers the men his daughters instead, who, he claims, are virgins, but the men are not interested in Lot’s daughters.
The angels forewarn Lot of the disaster about to happen and ask Lot, his wife, sons-in-law, and daughters to escape from the place. The sons-in-law ignore the warning. So, the angels forcibly take Lot, his wife, and his daughters out of their house, saying, "Save yourselves with all haste. Look not behind you. Get as fast as you are able to the mountain, unless you be involved in the calamity of the city." Lot entreats the angels, who consent that he might retire to Zoar, which was one of the five doomed cities but was spared because of Lot’s desire to seek refuge there. His wife, looked back on Sodom, and she was turned into a pillar of salt, which is purported to be Lot's Wife, as you see in the picture above.
