Prior to going to Israel last November and whilst there, I bought several books about the country and its history. Over the next month I plan to review these books starting with, The Holy Land : the Land of Jesus.
It is not stated who wrote, The Holy Land so perhaps there were several authors. The text is a brief overview of the towns and important historical places in Israel but the real highlight is the photographs which are abundant and well chosen. They add realism to the text. The photographs alone are worth the purchase price of the book.
The book seems to cover every site in Israel and gives the historical importance of the place whether that is Biblical history or archaeological history or more recent history. A downside of the book is that it includes quite a bit of material based on tradition with little regard to its historical accuracy.
The book starts in Nazareth and the surrounding area but there doesn’t seem to be any chronological or alphabetical arrangement of the material which is a little disconcerting. Fortunately there is an index at the end. There is also a large map of modern Israel with a satellite map on the back.
I found the book a good reminder of my visit as the photographs are indeed wonderful. The book makes me realize there were a lot of sites I didn’t see. It also makes me realize there is a lot of history crammed into a small geographical area.
The book is intended more for tourists than for serious students.
