Excerpt from A Hundred Days in the East, 1865: A Diary of a Journey to Egypt, Palestine, Turkey in Europe, Greece, the Isles of the Archipelago, and Italy Palestine, though occasionally Visited since early in the fourth century by travellers and pilgrims, remained till of late almost a term, incognita. Its geographical limits and position were an unsolved problem, its physical character a hypothesis, whilst its ruined cities and holy shrines were as much enveloped in mystery as its population were misunderstood. A change has, however, taken place within these few years. Syria is now traversed from Sinai to Lebanon, by men of science, artists, antiquaries, and latterly by photographers, whose writings, portfolios, and views have familiarised, to a considerable extent, the reading world with the sacred moun tains, bituminous lakes, fruitful valleys, and marvellous ruins of the Holy Land. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.