Perhaps best known for his discovery of the Mayan ruins in the Yucatan, lawyer-turned-archaeologist John Lloyd Stephens (1805–1852) was the author of a number of highly praised travel books. The present volume, his first effort in the genre, received wide acclaim from reviewers, including Edgar Allan Poe, who found it "written with a freshness of manner evincing manliness of feeling." Conversational and unpretentious, the book is a delightful narrative of the author's year-long journey through the Middle East, incorporating detailed observations of such architectural marvels as the Pyramids, the temples of Karnak, the red-rock city of Petra and more, and offering charming accounts of a Turkish bath, how to catch a crocodile, the wardrobe of a Nubian damsel, a night in a tomb, the hospitality of the Arabs, desert horses, Easter in Jerusalem, and much more. Enhanced by 38 superb illustrations by Frederick Catherwood and others, this Stephens volume will delight armchair travelers with the "easy, laughing, prose style which gives his books their charm."