The Land and the Book

An account of 19th century Palestine and Syria, drawing heavily on biblical references.

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Thirty years as a missionary in Palestine and Syria in the mid-nineteenth century gave Dr Thomson, the author of this work, an encyclopaedic knowledge of the land and its people. Although at the time of its original publication (1877), the book was promoted as a guide to the Holy Land based upon biblical references, this description falls far short of what the work, in fact, contains. There is hardly any topic on which the author does not touch; no town, village or site of interest which escapes his scrutiny, and which does not elicit some illuminating commentary or historic parallel. Almost every facet of the geographical and historical nature of the Holy Land is covered and, notwithstanding that a century has passed since its original publication, the work remains eminently readable. thus, for the modern reader, the book contains two elements: first, it may be satisfactorily considered as an historical documentary source; second, it retains a great deal of information of value per se, thus remaining a useful work of general reference.