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Jerusalem Travel Guide BooksDuring my frequent visits to Jerusalem, for making this site, I used few travel guide books, that lead me through these enchanted Jerusalem holy places. The books allow me to understand the history of places, and importance for each major religion; Jewish, Christian and Muslims. Understanding it as a photographer, gives me better view of the places, resulting better images, with greater value  is a great book to learn more about various ancient sites than the typical tour guide can offer.In addition to its being informative, I found the personality of its author evident and engaging. Although, I'm visiting Jerusalem often, well I'm only living 50 minutes away, my visits would have been much poorer without it. The strength of the book is its description of most ancient site of interest in Israel, with many details about Jerusalem, including line maps, operation hours, historical descriptions of sites, and even quotes from ancient historians and medieval pilgrims as well as citations to the Bible. It is most recommend for archeology minded traveler, with wealth of information that wont be found in regular guidebooks.There are parts talking about the history of different peoples of the holy land, both historical and present day, like Philistines, Samaritans, Druze and more. The author gives good attention to changes over time on how the appearance of each site evolved over the years, and even compare the condition of sites between present day to ancient texts, like Josephus' "The Jewish War" and the Bible itself. That been said, this book has some minor drawbacks, like the drawings and maps are not as detailed as they could be. Few pictures are black & white of poor quality. If you aren't a native english speaker, the language may be a little difficult to interpret. In case you are going to spend less days in Jerusalem and more in other places in Israel, so take in mind that other places in Israel receive less attention. This book is not for getting practical information on hotels, buses, etc. But it will give you all the hidden facts and insight views of Holy places in Jerusalem and Israel.  If you will travel your own in Jerusalem, I found this map pretty good. I like the fact it's laminated and folds, so water won't effect it and you can pack it in your bag without worry. It includes even small street and I found it's not hard to read. It has a helpful index of cultural sites, hotels, gardens, points of interest, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim sites, and other stuff.
 Although it's not a travel book, but as a photographer, I see it as book of traveling Israel's history through memorable images, of David Rubinger, Israel's preeminent photojournalist. A winner of the Israel Prize for services to the media and a fixture on the masthead of Time, he is the only photographer whose work is on permanent display at the Knesset, Israel's legislature.David reports his own stories and memories, which in many ways reflects the history of Israel that he has recorded through his camera's lens. He photographed all of Israel's leaders, that have allowed him to access their lives; Ariel Sharon said, "I trust Rubinger even though I know he doesn't vote for me." This book includes a forward by Shimon Peres, Israel's president (2008) David's remarkable images accompanied by even better writing, interesting stories about working as a Time photographer in the Mid East. Through his images and writing you will not only relives the history of Israel in the 20th century but also the very simple joy of being a photojournalist and getting the good shot. Hammond Atlas of the Bible Lands Bottom line, if you are interested in understanding the history and relations between, Jerusalem's holy places, Christianity and Jesus, this is a great book with an affordable price.
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: as Jerusalem has lots of holy Christian places, I looked for a book to get some in-depth view of that places.The Hammond 'Atlas of the Bible Lands' can please every one who would like to receive more knowledge about Jerusalem's early history.The maps are especially useful and easy to read. The book includes historical maps from latest period, and matches between Bible's events to real historical locations through the travels of Jesus' apostles.Then, like every other major atlas, it includes a wide range of maps like climate, economic centers and even the old Roman Empire map.
