So, before we start off, please keep your religious or anti-religious attitudes out of here, this is not the place for it.

Anyway, I got involved in a topic, which you can likely guess about judging by the title and Sodom and Gomorrah came up. Now, I like to read historical or archaeological things of religious significance (Not just Christian, but other faiths as well.) and it got me to wondering if there's ever been solid proof the two cities exist. Does anyone know beyond a doubt because all I've looked up and found seems fairly heavily based in speculation and I'm hoping for a more unbiased source.

This looks helpful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodom_and_Gomorrah#Historicity

Yeah, but even that is mostly full of speculations, doubts and what ifs. It is a good read though. Kind of disappointing given I like to read religious/archeological ties. (It's boring I know, but I find the two when intertwined to be fascinating.)

That's the thing with Myths and Legends, proving what they talk about ever existed or happened.

Back in those days, conquering armies would tend to obliterate a city, raze it to the ground, slaughter the population, salt the fields and poison the wells. This would keep others from setting the land again until all traces of the former population and culture were lost to time. It was not until the Romans that keeping most of the existing population and culture became a thing for conquering armies to do. Maybe they copied this from someone else, but Genghis Khan did not get the memo a few hundred years later.

So, even if these towns existed, it is entirely possible that they were buried in the sands long ago after they were destroyed and looted.

Yes, but they're guarded speculations, doubts, and what ifs, so in that context they're still facts of what we know.

Having read that section of the article myself, I'd just go with it and conclude that the existence of Sodom and Gomorrah, or at least their fate, is still pretty much up in the air.

Yeah, I've always thought it odd. I mean Babel still exists to an extent and so do other biblical locations, but there's no trace of Sodom or Gomorrah. I mean, even Pompeii exists but it was lost for a long time, but still. I dunno, I'm more baffled why we haven't found it, but the Middle East is old and has lots of buried history in its sands we have long forgotten.

They are not on the current list of sites.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Archaeology/archtoc.html

The names of the towns could have changed so many times over the millennium that we will never know if that city down the street is one of the historical cities or not. Most new cities just buried the old cities that were there, so even if they are in the same location, there is no history to gleam until they put in Subways and Sewers.

Plus, with the changes in Trade, entire routes were abandoned to the elements. For example, we don't trade in Pepper and Salt like we used to. Salt and spices used to be more expensive than gold. Camels gave way to boats, boats to ships, ships to sails etc. The old routes that civilization grew up on no longer exist, so those towns and cities are no more.

Aside from the texts within the Torah we have on it (and then the New Testament) I don't really think there is any. Which makes sense regardless of your perspective. Either it's a myth, or it was actually completely destroyed by God. Plus it's rare we have much concrete historical/empirical evidence on anything relating to cities that old anyway.

I know, I'm just a big 'preservation' guy. I like to preserve history in every aspect, both the good and the controversial. For me, it's hard to believe an entire city just vanishes, let alone two from existence to the foundations. Not saying you're wrong, I just want to believe it's there because it could allow us the potential to mine lots of historical data given how old Sodom and Gomorrah would have been

well remember, the city of Troy use to be a Myth and we came across it wouldn't be surprised if Sod and Gam weren't real as well, I watched/Read somewhere that there are a ass load of cities sunken in the Mediterranean as is.

I don't think there is evidence of the city, but there is evidence that there was an asteroid strike around the same time and area.

http://phys.org/news126183668.html

http://www.bris.ac.uk/news/2008/212017945233.html

http://www.universetoday.com/13560/evidence-of-asteroid-impact-for-sodom-and-gomorrah/

(totally didn't get those from cracked)

So it is likely that some asteroid obliterated the crap out of some city there.

I think it's safe to assume there were once two cities named Sodom and Gomorrah, respectively. The real question is - Do they live up to the myth? If not, do these cities hold any historical relevance?

Unfortunately, we've had very little luck finding much of anything substantial. Perhaps one day, we'll learn more of these city's day-to-day workings.

How is Austria near Isreal?

Babel? The Tower?

The asteroid flies over to Austria leaving a huge dust and ash cloud. The impact of the asteroid heats up the area so much that all of that dust and hair and clothing spontaneously combusts.

Nice save...NOT.

I've been defeated.

Sorry, I should have said Babylon. Babel is the Hebrew word for Babylon.

Pompeii, and Herculaneum, were buried in pyroclastic material, protecting them from the elements until they were excavated. Most ancient sites in the middle east were exposed to time and weather for thousands of years. Now, if they find one rock on top of another they have to try to flesh it out to explain what they found, what city was it, what happened to it, etc..

Pretty much this. The amount of history that gets lost over time is mind-blowing. Especially when you look at the amount of conflict, weathering, destruction of various measure etc that occurs within the Mediterranean area. The amount of guess-work that goes along with so much ancient archeology is also fairly unstable.

There are small pieces of pottery lending small credence to the cities, but beyond that I don't think there is solid proof, and the fact that there is evidence that the dead sea has risen over a few millenia and spread over land

I'm old enough to remember it was thought to be a myth and was thinking of posting that but got ninja'd by you.

So yeah, it's not really a huge stretch of the imagination that these cities may have existed. If they did, they may be found eventually, like Troy was.