Mount Sodom is a hill along the southwestern part of the Dead Sea

Dead Sea

The Dead Sea , also called the Salt Sea, is a salt lake bordering Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west. Its surface and shores are below sea level, the lowest elevation on the Earth's surface. The Dead Sea is deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world...

 in Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

. It is most remarkable because it is made almost entirely of halite

Halite

Halite , commonly known as rock salt, is the mineral form of sodium chloride . Halite forms isometric crystals. The mineral is typically colorless or white, but may also be light blue, dark blue, purple, pink, red, orange, yellow or gray depending on the amount and type of impurities...

, or rock salt. It is approximately five miles (8 km) long, three miles (5 km) wide, 742 feet (226.2 m) above the Dead Sea water level, yet 557 feet (169.8 m) below sea level

Sea level

Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...

. Because of weathering, sometimes portions become separated. One of these separate pillars has been labeled "Lot's Wife", a reference to Lot's wife

Lot's wife

Lot's wife is a person mentioned in the Book of Genesis who was turned into a pillar of salt for failing to heed the orders of the angels of deliverance from the city of Sodom."Lot's wife" may further refer to:-Geography:...

 in the Biblical account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

Sodom and Gomorrah

Sodom and Gomorrah were cities mentioned in the Book of Genesis and later expounded upon throughout the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and Deuterocanonical sources....

.