Giant Cities of Bashan

Bashan was the ancient name for that part of Palestine now in southern Syria. It was the legendary home of the tribe giants, Rephaim, of which Goliath was a surviving member. Here too great cities grew up, many of them known from biblical times.At the time of the author's travels in the mid-nineteenth century, most of these ancient sites were already in ruins, and the importance of his writings lie in the detailed descriptions of the cities, their buildings and features, now forever lost. The learned journey continues through the Old and New Testament and Roman sites of Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, and back to Damascus, with an account of the 1860 massacre there. The author's enthusiasm, coupled with his ability as a guide (he wrote Murray's Handbook for the region), makes this a work of lasting value both to the scholar and general reader alike. The book was first published in 1876 and is here republished in facsimile.