Mount Sodom that was dragged along as it was squeezed up from the valley floor. It is approximately long, wide, and above the Dead Sea water level, yet below world mean sea level. Because of weathering, some portions have separated. One of these pillars is known as "Lot's wife", in reference to the Biblical account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Mount Sodom Mount Sodom (, "Har Sedom") or Jebel Usdum (, "Jabal(u) 'ssudūm") is a hill along the southwestern part of the Dead Sea in Israel, part of the Judean Desert Nature Reserve. Mount Sodom began its rise hundreds of
Operation Pillar of Defense had ended. According to Human Rights Watch, both sides violated the laws of war during the fighting. Although the official English name of the operation is "Pillar of Defense", the Hebrew name translates as "Pillar of Cloud". Eytan Buchman, head of the IDF's North American media desk, explained that this usage refers to the Pillar of Cloud in the Bible that protected the Israelites during the Exodus and guided them to the Promised Land (). The Hebrew Bible and the New Testament elaborate on the story, specifying that the Pillar of Cloud shielded the Israelites from the Egyptians' arrows and