The Holy Land: Yesterday and Today

During the first months of 1839, David Roberts toured the Sinai Peninsula, Petra, Jerusalem, Palestine, the coasts of Lebanon, and Baalbec, returning to England to produce a series of moving and delightful lithographs detailing the region’s splendors. As with the companion volume, Egypt: Yesterday and Today, this oversized, full-color volume contains the original plates of the first edition, arranged for the first time in chronological order, with commentary and extracts from Roberts’ journal. Each illustration by Roberts, moreover, is paired with a photograph that depicts the same subject and setting more than a century and a half later. The Holy Land offers an unforgettable taste of Roberts’ technical and artistic virtuosity. This is a stirring form of time travel, in search of new, yet ancient, discoveries in one of the most fascinating regions on the face of our planet.