Nineteenth-century historical geographies of the Holy Land

The amount of publications on the Holy Land by nineteenth-century Western writers is enormous. This body of literature contains also some research works attempting to tackle issues pertaining to the historical geography of the Holy Land. A critical analysis of the structure and content of these books reveals their historical-geographical approach. This paper includes the main following subjects: the historical biblical approach-the "Holy Land", territory and boundaries; physical background: division into geographical regions; the historical-geographical uniqueness of the Holy Land; land and people in the nineteenth century; summary and conclusions-a retrospective view.