"An airburst from the explosion of a comet or meteor likely caused the instant destruction of a thriving Bronze Age city of 8,000 people in the Middle East, according to a recent paper co-authored by a University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist.

The researchers presented evidence that a cosmic airburst with energy approximately 5,000 times that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb destroyed the walled city of Tall el-Hammam in the southern Jordan Valley, northeast of the Dead Sea, about 3,600 years ago. It left the area unworkable for agriculture for 300 to 600 years due to an influx of salt — a fact that has caused some to argue that the site is the biblical city of Sodom in the book of Genesis."

https://www.uaf.edu/news/uaf-researcher-helps-unravel-cause-of-ancient-citys-destruction.php

View of Bethlehem at Night
Josef Langl

Germany hands over to Lebanon the “ancient head of Eshmun” (stolen in 1981)!

During the civil war, more than 2000 artifacts from Sidon were moved to the Byblos castle. In 1981, the depot in Byblos was looted and around 600 objects were smuggled out of Lebanon.

Eshmun (𐤀𐤔𐤌𐤍) was the tutelary god of Sidon (from 500 BC) and the Phoenician god of healing. A 6th-century story by Damascius recounts the myth that Eshmun, a young man from Beirut, was hunting in the woods when Astarte saw him and was stricken by his beauty. She harassed him until he eventually emasculated himself with an axe and died. The grieving goddess revived him and made him into a god in the heavens.

The Eshmun Temple sits on the southern bank of the modern Awali river. Ritual lustral ablutions, pertaining to purification and healing, were performed in its sacred basins. Citrus groves, known as Bustan el-Sheikh, occupy its ancient “sacred forests”.

Group of horsemen in the snow between Hesban and Madeba (Amman).