From the Holy Mountain: A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium (Text Only)

Well researched and explained

When From the Holy Mountain was published in 1997 (20 years ago!), I had just embarked on my first overseas holiday to Egypt. I spent two weeks travelling between Cairo-Luxor-Aswan (and back again) with my tour group - had I read this tale back then, I would probably have wanted to spend much longer and venture much further afield.Following in the footsteps of two 6th century monks, William Dalrymple takes us on his five month pilgrimage from Mt Athos in Greece, through Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Israel, to the Great Kharga Oasis in Upper Egypt. He writes vividly about the distinct landscapes and people he encounters along the way and includes many reference points and stories from the historic journey of the monks (John Mochos and Sophronius) that inspired him. These sit easily alongside Dalrymple's own impressions, discussions and reflections and in this way he creates a wonderful sense of camraderie, a feeling of being alongside him as he travels.An Observer review on the back cover of the book describes it as "compulsively readable" and I could not have said it any better myself. Wonderfully rich and definitely unputdownable.

This is a wonderful book in which the author, William Dalrymple, recounts his travels throughout the middle east in the mid 1990's. Following the path of the journey of a 6th century monk the author's travels take in Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and Egypt where he meets Orthodox Christians living as minorities in each country. The reduction of the middle eastern Christian population over the last 1500 years since the heyday of Byzantium is a recurrent theme, as is the acceleration of that reduction in the last 100 years.ironically, given current events, Syria is described as the best of the countries for Christian minorities at the time of the author's travels, but with signs of the still to come islamic revolution in Egypt apparent with hindsightI enjoyed this book very much. The atmosphere of the middle east, and of the lost world of Byzantium is beautifully evoked, as are the fascinating tales and faiths of the many monks, priests, nuns and lay people the author meets on his travels.The author's clearly values tolerance, and does not dismiss or mock the beliefs of those he meets, even when those beliefs are rather extreme, allowing them to put their views in their own words.Recommended - informative and enjoyable travel writing

William Dalrymple's account of his travels in the footsteps of a sixth/seventh century monk is fascinating. Starting in Greece, he visits Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Israel including the occupied West Bank territories of Jordan, ending in Egypt.After a short section on a monastery on Mount Athos, most of the first 100 pages cover Turkey and give very illuminating material on the country's treatment of Kurds, Christians and other minorities throughout the 20th century. After all the discrimination and oppression that is described, Syria (approximately the next 50 pages) seems to have a positively enlightened régime of religious tolerance.I found the sections on Lebanon and Israel (including the West Bank territories) extremely informative, and - for totally different reasons - neither country comes out well. Israel's policy seems to be that if it uncovers the remains of Christian buildings it either reburies them (leaving no indication of their presence) or removes them to "secure storage" that is generally inaccessible to the general public, whereas if it uncovers the remains of Jewish buildings (or buildings that it believes that it can claim to have been Jewish), it protects them from the weather, provides guards and guides, adds them to maps and tourist guides, and encourages visitors to see the evidence for continuous Jewish occupation over the past 3,000 years. In contrast, evidence of Christian presence is virtually "edited out of history", to use a phrase by Dalrymple.The author gives good insights into the lives of ordinary people, especially monks (where found) and other Christians, with plenty of anecdotes, and regularly compares the situation in the mid 1990s, when he was there, with that of the Christians who had been there 1,500 years earlier. This includes humour at some points. He definitely does not seem to be promoting any particular political or religious agenda, other than a concern for those who are exploited by others in whatever country he visited.The one-star ratings (on Amazon.com) from American supporters of either Jewish settlements in the West Bank or from people who appear to be fundamentalist Christians are not surprising, but in my opinion not justified. Why have I only given the book four stars? In my opinion, some sections are too long and would have benefited from editing. But the book contains many "five-star" sections.Recommended to those seeking an introduction to the Byzantine church or to the position of Christians in the Middle East -- although the situation for the latter must inevitably have changed substantially since Dalrymple's visit to the region.

Fabulous - a book that manages to be funny, horrifying and fascinating. If you want to understand why the region is so turbulent then this book goes some way towards that.It details a five month journey around the Middle East following in the footsteps of the Byzantine monk John Moschos, through the Aegean, the Levant, and the Nile Valley. What is the book reveals are the links and threads that bind the three Abrahamic faiths together yet simultaneously lead them to perpetrate the most horrifying atrocities on each other. At the same time there are some fabulous human stories from the faded glories of Alexandria to the tour of Jerusalem in the company of an Armenian Bishop. It should be noted that this book was originally published in 1998 and many recent events in the region from the fall of Mubarak to the horrors of Syria are foreshadowed in this book.

It was read for the book club but needed a lot of research and references to glossary .It proved that nothing has changed since 500bcMan cannot get along with man over centuries the same conflicts reoccur .I thought he was thoroughly selfish putting others in danger .I hate the ‘woman as temptress ‘ negating men’s responsibility entirely . A hard read .