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Updated: July 15, 2025
The term asphalt has been applied to so many and various mixtures, that one scarcely associates it with natural mineral pitch which is found in some parts of the world. From time immemorial this compact, bituminous, resinous mineral has been discovered in masses on the shores of the Dead Sea, which has in consequence received the well-known title of Lake Asphaltites.
Is it not amazing that, notwithstanding the enterprise of modern science, the ancients were better acquainted with the properties, and even the dimensions of the Lake Asphaltites, than the most learned nations of Europe in our own times? It is described by Aristotle, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, Pliny, Tacitus, Solinus, Josephus, Galen, and Dioscorides.
From this horrible moment, the site of these ancient cities became converted into a lake, which, from its bituminous quality, is termed the lake Asphaltites, and sometimes the Dead Sea, from the idea that no creature can exist in its waters.
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