After spending six years in Jerusalem and learning the local language, Reverend Lees traveled through eastern Palestine and Syria. He acknowledges that other travel memoirs covering the ground he visited have been published, except for his trip across Southern Bashan. Lees published parts of this book in the magazines The Boy's Own Paper, Travel, and in the journal of the Royal Geographic Society. Lees also analyzes some of the places he visited with respect to scripture. Lees provides an index of Biblical references he uses in the text.