Background:

The informant is a good friend of mine who attends California State University, Northridge where she is studying to become an occupational therapist. She is a second generation American citizen who was born and raised in Burbank, California. Her parents came to the United States from Egypt shortly before she was born. She is a Muslim and can read, write, and speak Arabic fluently.

Informant: 

So there is a story about the Dead Seat that caused it to be looked upon as a cursed land. So basically there was a tribe who lived there called “Qawm Lut”. They were considered sinners for homosexuality. So a message was sent with a prophet that if they didn’t stop they would be wiped out. After, the prophet was then sent an angel to warn him and his family to leave the tribe with his wife and daughters and not look back for if they look back they would also be punished. As they left his wife looked back and was then turned to stone. The tribe is said to have been flipped upside down and buried beneath the Dead Sea. Making the dead sea a cursed land. Locals and Jordanians avoid the area after dark… If one were to go there after dark they would experience extreme misfortune and also risk the chance of being turned into stone.

Analysis:

In some ways, this narrative reminds me of Cleopatra. Which shows some multiplicity and variation. They said that if you looked her in the eyes you would turn into stone. The story doesn’t sound entirely believable, but my informant stressed to me how serious residents take this over there. It is pretty much forbidden to go to this land at night in fear of something terrible happening to them. It is a fearful superstition that no one really wants to put to the test.