Bab edh-Dhra

Bab edh - Dhra is the modern name of an archaeological site at the southeast end of the Dead Sea in present-day Jordan, near the Lisan Peninsula. The place may have been the starting point for the creation of legends about the biblical city of Sodom.

In the excavation of 1924 under the direction of William Foxwell Albright traces of settlement dating from the 3rd millennium were discovered BC. Regular excavations took place 1965-67 under Paul Lapp. Another was made by W. Rast and Schaub T. 1973. Both dug 1975-1981 in four other local campaigns.

The place was inhabited since the Early Bronze Age and had at that time by the position of the output of the Wadi Kerak Kerak which leads down a permanent water supply. Also remains of a fortification could be found. Not far from the village there are several large cemeteries with approximately 20,000 shaft graves, of which only a few have been investigated archaeologically. Thousands further - to a large extent deprived - tombs lie to the southwest in the plane.