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Laurence Oliphant, Haifa: Or, Life In The Holy Land, 1882–1885

British author and traveler Sir Laurence Oiphant made several trips to the Holy Land with his wife, Alice, during the late 19th century in an attempt to set up Jewish colonies in Palestine. His account of a visit to Deir Aziz in December 1885 is the earliest extant record of the site by a Westerner. Although his sanity was questionable, Oliphant’s detailed descriptions have been helpful to modern scholars, and the measurements he took were quite accurate.