The difficulties and expense of Palestine travel, however, render such a journey impossible for the majority of Bible students. Fortunately, the marvellous development of that most valuable aid to modern education, the stereoscope and the stereograph, make it possible for every one at a comparatively small expense to visit Palestine and to gain under expert guidance in many ways a clearer and more exact knowledge of the background of biblical history and literature than he would through months of travel. Through the courtesy of my publishers and the co-operation of the well-known firm of Underwood & Underwood, of New York and London, I have been able to realize an ideal that I have long cherished, and to place at the disposal of the readers of this volume one hundred and forty stereographs (or, if preferred for class and lecture use, stereopticon slides) that illustrate the most important events of biblical geography and history. They have been selected from over five hundred views taken especially for this purpose, and enable the student to gain, as he alone can through the stereoscope, the distinct state of consciousness of being in scores of historic places rarely visited even by the most venturesome travellers. Numbers referring to these stereographs (or stereopticon slides) have been inserted in the body of the text. In Appendix II the titles corresponding to each number are given. The large debt that I owe to the valiant army of pioneers and explorers who have penetrated every part of the biblical world and given us the results of their observations and study is suggested by the selected bibliography in Appendix I. I am under especial obligations to the officers of the Palestine Exploration Fund, who kindly placed their library and maps in London at my service and have also permitted me to use in reduced form their Photo-Relief Map of Palestine. C. F. K. YALE UNIVERSITY, _January, 1911_. CONTENTS PART I--PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY PAGE I. THE GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLICAL WORLD 3 Extent of the Biblical World.--Conditions Favorable to Early Civilizations.--Egypt's Climate and Resources.--Its Isolation and Limitations.--Conditions in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley.--Forces Developing Its Civilization.--Civilization of Arabia.--Physical Characteristics of Syria and Palestine.--Their Central Position and Lack of Unity.--Asia Minor.--Mycenæ.--Greece.--Italy.--Situation of Rome.--Reason Why Rome Went Forth to Conquer.--_Résumé._ II. THE GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PALESTINE 13