Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

590 EXPLORATIONS IS BIBLE LANDS
hitherto really known of this section of the land, how scarcely
a single one of the characteristic, deep-cut valleys was correctly
indicated on the maps, and how the whole traditional
view of a " barren and desolate " Judea was entirely erroneous.
On his last journey, in
the year 1865, Tobler, then nearly
sixty years of age, intended to explore Nazareth in
the same
thorough manner, but cholera interfered with his journey
to that place. Nevertheless he succeeded, by means of
numerous inquiries, in informing himself so extensively that
his book on Nazareth is
not inferior to his other works.
Besides what he observed and found in the land itself,
we must not forget what he accomplished at home in investigating
the old descriptions of travels. One of his favorite
wishes was to publish all
descriptions of travels from the
third to the fifteenth century in the most carefully edited
form possible. This project he could, however, carry out
onlv in a fragmentary way, and mostly at his own expense.
His excellent annotations made a number of the old
writings for the first time really serviceable. To him belongs
the honor of being to this day unsurpassed, so far as'
knowledge of the Palestine of the Middle Ages and modern
times is
concerned.
If, after reading the great mass of early Palestinian literature,
one turns to the works of Robinson and Tobler,
he gets the impression that these two men had really been
the first to discover the land. As remarked above, only a
very small part of the many hundred names of places was
previously known. Through these investigators it was also
first discovered that something was to be seen and learned
in the Holy Land besides the sacred places which the monks
pointed out to pilgrims ; that in addition to the Christian
Church and the monasteries it was also worth while to concern
oneself about the customs and manners of the people,
the nature of the soil and climate, and many other things.