商品簡介
Every mile must be negotiated from horseback: uncertain roads, difficult terrain, changing weather, scarce lodging and the persistent need for reliable guides and guards. Told in the first person, this overland travel narrative follows a traveller through Palestine and Syria, capturing the practical demands of movement across valleys, mountain routes and communities governed under Ottoman administration. The journey becomes an adventure shaped not by invention alone, but by the immediate problems of distance, security and endurance. Ancient history continually presses against contemporary life. Villages, agriculture, trade and local customs are observed alongside temples, bridges, tombs, baths and other remains from biblical, classical, Roman and medieval worlds. Rather than treating the landscape as a backdrop, the narrator reads roads, rivers and ruins as evidence of successive civilisations, while recording the arrangements and encounters required to continue travelling. Historical and religious commentary grows directly from places seen and obstacles faced. Mount Hermon provides the narrative's most demanding episode: a strenuous ascent marked by hazards, a cave, summit temples and far-reaching views. Here the book's blend of physical exploration and historical enquiry is especially vivid, as the traveller confronts the mountain while examining traces left upon it. Practical travel writing, cultural encounter and historical memory remain closely intertwined, preserving both the hardships of horseback travel and detailed observations of a region where antiquity and nineteenth-century life coexist. This book was out of print for decades and is now republished by Alpha Editions. It has been restored for today's and future generations. This edition is not just a reprint - it's a collector's item and a cultural treasure.
