Lot is the son of Haran, the brother of the Prophet Abraham, and he accompanied his uncle on his travels to Mesopotamia, Canaan and Egypt, and it was mentioned in Genesis (11: 31, 12: 5 and 13: 1), and he collected a lot of livestock like his uncle, but because of the conflict between Lot's shepherds and the shepherds of his uncle, Abraham asked him to separate and go to another land, so he dwelt in the land of Sodom without knowing the nature of its people. When Chador Laomer invaded Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot fell captive to them, but his uncle Abraham saved him from captivity.

After the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot headed to Zoar, which is the city mentioned in the pilgrimage to Egeria to Jordan, where it was mentioned that it was the only city left of the five burnt cities. Lot and his two daughters hid in a hillside cave after the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and it was located near the Dead Sea. The city of Zoar is located to the south of the Dead Sea, or to the southeast of it, as mentioned by Arab travelers and foreign explorers in addition to the historian Josephus and Eusebius, as well as the texts of the Bible.

As for the cave in which Lot and his daughters hid, a church on the basilica plan was found near it, with a building likely to be a place of residence for Christian pilgrims. The scholar Politus Constantius points out that the church was dedicated to the prophet Lot. Through the mosaic map of the Madaba Church, the traditional location of the Cave of Lot is clearly visible at the top of the hills of the city of Zoar.

It came in the Book of Genesis: "Behold, this city is near to flee to, and it is small, so let me escape to it - isn't it small? - And my soul shall live. And he said to him: Behold, I have honored your face in this matter also, that I may not overthrow the city which I mentioned. Hurry to escape there. For I cannot do anything until you are there. That is why the city was called Zoar. And when the sun rose on the earth, Lot entered Zoar. And the Lord rained sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the heavens, and overthrew those cities and all the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities and the plants of the earth. Lot was behind it, and it became a pitcher of salt. So Abraham rose early to the place where he stood before the Lord, and looked toward the direction of Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain and looked, and behold, the smoke of the land rose like the smoke of a furnace. And when God destroyed the cities of the plain, God remembered Abraham, so He pulled Lot out of the midst of the disaster, He overthrew the cities in which Lot was residing. Lot went up from Zoar and dwelt in the mountain with him and his two daughters, because he was afraid to reside in Zoar. So, he dwelt in a cave, with his two daughters" (19: 20-30).