Measuring Jerusalem: The Palestine Exploration Fund and British Interests in the Holy Land

Founded in 1865, the Palestine Exploration Fund was, for its first 25 years, both the principal British exploration society in the Holy Land and a surveying body which was heavily dependent on the Royal Engineers and the War Office. Survey work was closely linked to military interests as well as to biblical, historical and archaeological research. Famous names involved with the work of the Fund included Charles Wilson, the man instrumental in establishing an organized British military intelligence system, Charles Warren, destined to become Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Claude Conder, Lord Kitchener, arhaeologists Sir William Flinders Petrie, Frederick Jones Bliss, R.A. McAlistair and Duncan MacKenzie, Charles Leonard Woolley and T.E. Lawrence. This book presents a history of the Fund, covering the period from 1800 to 1914. Use is made of the Fund's own records to illustrate its work and to show the involvement of the War Office. An overview of British interests in the Holy Land is also included.