Siddim
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(plain) (Gen. 14:3, 8)—a broad plain in southeastern Palestine where Sodom, Gomorrah, and the neighboring cities stood and where the Dead Sea afterward formed. Before their destruction, despite its deposits of asphalt or bitumen, the valley was beautiful and fertile, “as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt.” Lot, Abraham’s nephew, lived there. The source presents the fiery rain of brimstone that destroyed its sinful inhabitants and cities as God’s judgment, after which the Dead Sea occupied the place.