Excerpt from Bible Maps, or a Historical and Descriptive Atlas of Scripture Geography Authorities Are Verified and Corrected From the Information of Travellers and Writers, Up to the Present Time This progressive increase in the amount of geographical information is not more perceptible in reference to countries which have become known, or of which the inhabitants have attained to civilisation, within a recent period, than in regard to some of those which have long occupied a conspicuous place in the world's history, and to none more than palestine and other parts of Syria and Western Asia Syria has, since the earliest records of man, been the scene of events of the deepest interest to humanity; the banners of the nations of the East and the West, of ancient and modern times, have floated over its plains, and the arms of the countless thousands of their warriors glittered upon its hills; it has been successively under the dominion of the Assyrian, the Persian, the Greek, the Roman, the Turk, and the Egyptian it contains the Promised Land of the Jews, and the Holy Land of the Christian princes have bent the knee at its shrines, and pilgrims from all parts of the earth hastened, in spite of danger and suffering, to kiss its consecrated ground the eyes of the civilised world are at present directed towards it; and still every day makes us the more sensible how little we really know, not merely of its natural productions, and of its inha bitants, but even of the actual configuration of its surface, of that which forms the basis of its past and present geography. The little knowledge which we do possess of the Geography of Palestine has been almost solely acquired during the present century, and is now happily constantly increasing in extent and value. The greater facilities which recent times have presented for the passage of Europeans through the country have enabled travellers of ability to apply their powers of research in parts of it which had lain concealed and almost unknown for centuries, and to disinter from among the accumulated dust and ruins of ages the mouldering remains of former greatness and prosperity. 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.