In the mid-19th century, far from being the revered hub of three world religions and the site of pilgrimage and tourism that it is today, Jerusalem was, in author Andrew Lawler’s words, “a typical midsize Middle Eastern town of its day.” As it became easier and safer to access, especially to Westerners, this changed
dramatically, and excavators soon made their way to the city in search of its buried secrets. Under Jerusalem is the story of their explorations over the last 150 years.
Beginning with a French senator appointed by Napoleon III, through British military officers and surveyors who often doubled as spies, to the trained archeologists of the last century, many of whom are now natives of the land where they work, Lawler traces their quests. Some were serious and some (for the Ark of the Covenant or the Masonic connection with Solomon’s Temple) quixotic, some driven to prove a theory and others to follow the science where it led. Virtually all of their interactions, whether with the residents or with officials of the various governments who controlled the area, were at some point fraught with religious and political rivalries and at times changed the history of their own times as well as our own. Under Jerusalem is an eye-opening look at the past and present of, as Lawler describes it, “the world’s most contested city.”
Under Jerusalem can be obtained through the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library system.
Leslie Jaszczak