JORDAN GROUP TOURS - Key Persons
The Abbot Daniel visited "Sigor" in the early years of the 12th century. About Lot and his cave he writes: Lot s sepulchre and that of his two daughters are to be seen there; they are two separate sepulchres. In this mountain there is a large cavern, in which Lot took refuge with his daughters (Pilgrimage of the Russian Abbot Daniel in the Holy Land 56; Wilson 1895: 47). In the area of Sigor, that is, Zoar, Abbot Daniel claims to have visited Lot s cave and the two tombs in which Lot and his two daughters were interred. The cave is said to be located in mountainous terrain. Abbot Daniel goes on to say that towards the south there is a stone column that is Lot s wife. His visit reflects a tradition of venerating Lot in this area well into medieval times.
The Abbot Daniel visited "Sigor" in the early years of the 12th century but did not go farther south, because he feared the people of the area (Pilgrimage of the Russian Abbot Daniel in the Holy Land 56; Wilson 1895: 47). A number of explorers have searched for the remains of Zoar in the vicinity of the modern town of as-Safi. As a re sult, most locate it at Khirbat Sheikh Isa, on the present south bank of Wadi al-Hasa, and the modern town of as-Safi. Early Bronze, Roman, Nabataean, Byzantine, and Islamic period sherds have been collected at the site (MacDonald et al. 1992). There seems to be little doubt that Khirbat Sheikh Isa was Byzantine Early Islamic Zoar/Zughar/Sughar. Recent surveys and excavations at Khirbat Sheikh Isa revealed part of a large structure, which could be the one depicted on the Madaba Mosaic Map. Nearby, 700 inscribed funerary stelae have been found; most have come from illicit digging. More than 400 of these stelae have been recorded (Meimaris and Kritikakou- Nikolaropoulou 2005) and date to the fourth-sixth centuries AD. Around 9° percent are in Greek, while the remainder are in Jewish-Aramaic. This find provides more evidence for the presence of a Byzantine settlement at Zoar. A hermitage is located just north of Khirbat Sheikh Isa, at the mouth of the Wadi al-Hasa gorge and on its north bank. A Greek inscription scratched on a wall of the hermitage reads: "O Lord God of this holy place, come to the help of your servant" (Saller and Bagatti 1949: 195). This hermitage was at one time identified with "The (place) of Saint Lot" of the Madaba Mosaic Map. However, with the 1986 discovery of the site of Saint Lot at Dayr Ayn Abara, the place is now regarded as a hermitage that could have been associated with Lot s Cave. There are other hermitages and church/monastery sites in the area, for example, those on the Lisan Peninsula to the northwest of Lot s Cave (Holmgren and Kaliff 1997; 2005).
ELI AH whose name means "my God is YAH (WEH) ," is one of the greatest Israelite prophets after Moses. He is frequently associated with the area of Transjordan and specifically the mountainous region of Ajloun to the north of the modern capital city of Amman. However, his ministry takes place, for the most part, in northern Israel and the area of what is now generally referred to as Samaria on the west bank of the Jordan River.
In October 1917, as part of a general effort to divert Ottoman military resources away from the British advance before the Third Battle of Gaza, a revolt of Arabs in Petra was led by British Army officer T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) against the Ottoman regime. The Bedouin women living in the vicinity of Petra and under the leadership of Sheik Khallil s wife were gathered to fight in the revolt of the city. The rebellions, with the support of British military, were able to devastate the Ottoman forces.