Background

Early in 2011 my father was given a copy of 'East of the Jordan' by Selah Merrill published in 1881. Chapter 27 is entitled 'An Underground City', and in this describes Merrill's visit (which references J. G. Wetzstein's visit) to a remarkable underground labyrinthine city (village?) close to Dra'a. Shortly after reading these accounts, the troubles in Syria started precluding local investigation of these accounts further.

More recently my father has found a book entitled 'The Giant Cities of Bashan and Syria's Holy Places' by J. L. Porter, which describes towns constructed of rock in th in the area.

Is there any more recent academic corroboration of the evidence given in these accounts, and if so can we be pointed to these sources, even if it is just confirm the existence of the underground city.

Each of the books suggests that the cities in the area were governed by King Og, who was defeated by the Israelites, though each text was likely heavily influenced by each other. It is also worth noting that each of the authors was attempting to place biblical events in geographical context as the purpose of their travels.

I realize this may not be the most appropriate sub, for what may be considered an archeological question, or that it may be too esoteric to get an answer, but my father has been researching this for some time, and appears to have hit a dead end. It is possible that current events may make further research of this topic impossible.

Thanks for listening,

TFL

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Thank you for your time!

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