I fear that even now, after so much has been written, the facts are not always well known--certainly they have often been misrepresented. It is my desire, as far as possible, in these pages to summarise those facts which seem most important, while giving a sketch of the mode of research whereby they were brought to light.
_Note._--The maps illustrating this volume have been revised by Major Conder, who is more especially responsible for those of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and of Modern Palestine. The geological sketch-map embodies Major Conder’s researches, as also the important explorations of Dr. K. Diener in the Lebanon.--ED.
INDEX OF OLD TESTAMENT SITES IDENTIFIED IN PALESTINE 252
INDEX OF NEW TESTAMENT SITES IDENTIFIED IN PALESTINE 262
1. A Pictorial Map of Jerusalem and the Holy Land for the use of Pilgrims (_from a MS. of the 13th Century in the Burgundian Library at Brussels_) _Frontispiece_
2. The Plain of Jericho, as seen from Ai _to face page_ 35
3. The Dead Sea (view S.E. of Taiyibeh) " 43
Portrait of Dr. Robinson (_from a photograph_) _page_ 16
Portrait of Sir C. Wilson (_from a photograph by Maull & Fox_) " 17
Portrait of Sir C. Warren (_from a photograph_) " 18
Krak des Chevaliers (Kala’t el Hosn) " 108
Moab Mountains from the Plain of Shittim " 142
I. General Map of Palestine _facing page_ 1
IV. Palestine as divided among the Twelve Tribes "
VI. The Kingdom of Jerusalem, showing the Fiefs, about 1187 A.D. "
VII. Modern Palestine, showing the Turkish Provinces "
Palestine and Syria according to Ptolemy, _c._ 100 A.D. _page_ 2
Marin Sanuto’s Map of the Holy Land, 1321 " 12
The Holy Land, from the Atlas of Ortelius, _c._ 1591 " 14
The long narrow strip of country on the east shore of the Mediterranean, which in a manner was the centre of the ancient world, has in all ages been a land of pilgrimage. For five hundred miles it stretches from the deserts of Sinai to the rugged Taurus, and its width, shut in between the Syrian deserts and the sea, is rarely more than fifty miles. It can never be quite the same to us as other lands, bound up as it is with our earliest memories, with the Bible and the story of the faith; and it is to the credit of our native land that we have been the first to gather that complete account of the country, of its ancient remains, and of its present inhabitants, which (if we except India) does not exist in equal exactness for any other Eastern land.