A beautiful and exhaustive work exploring several areas of the Levant, including territories of modern day Israel and Egypt, as well as parts of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.

The work was overseen and edited by Sir Colonel Charles William Wilson – a British military officer and geographer. He was 'assisted by the most eminent Palestine explorers' who include Major Claude Reignier Conder, Miss M.E. Rogers, Canon Tristram, Charles Warren, E.H. Palmer, Selah Merill and others.

In 1855 Colonel Wilson obtained a commission in the Royal Engineers and in 1864 first arrived in Palestine on their behalf to help in conducting the "Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem". He was later commissioned by the Palestine Exploration Fund to conduct a 'feasibility study' for a planned Survey of Western Palestine and to mark appropriate sites for further exploration. This was Wilson's second journey to Palestine, which began in Beirut in November 1865 and continued south, surveying throughout modern day Israel till April 1866, paying particular attention to the archaeology and ancient synagogues of the region. In 1867 he became a member of the Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.

In 1868, he volunteered to take part in the Ordnance Survey of Sinai, along with Capt. H.S. Palmer. The report of their work contains Wilson's chapters on the route of the Israelites and the prehistoric and Byzantine archaeology of the region. In recognition of Wilson's work in Jerusalem, he was awarded the Diploma of the International Geographical Congress in 1871.

In 1872, he was elected to the Council of the Society of British Archaeology and in 1874 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. On returning to England he became Director of the Topographical Department at the War Office and Assistant Quartermaster General in the Intelligence Department. He returned to the Middle East in the summer of 1882, taking part in Sir Garnet Wolseley's expedition to Egypt to suppress the rebellion of Colonel Arabi. Throughout his military career Wilson remained in touch with the Palestine Exploration Fund, serving as its Chairman during the period from 1901 to 1906.

First American edition; 2 volumes, 4to. (33 x 27 cm); 40 steel engraved plates including frontispieces and additional titles, 574 in-text wood engraving illustrations, 2 folding colour maps, discreet signatures to titles otherwise internally fine; publisher's full deep brown morocco, boards elaborately blind blocked with gilt titles to upper boards, spines lettered in gilt in five blind blocked compartments, gilt rolled board edges and turn-ins, all edges gilt, a little rubbing to extremities, otherwise a fine set; [2], x, 480; x, 476pp.