This paper explores the gray area that exists between the semantic differentiation of the terms pilgrim and tourist. Understanding all travel in light of Graburn’s “sacred journey”, the importance of this semantic difference is diminished. I use original Roman itineraria (travelogues) to trace travel to the Holy Land spanning nearly 1600 years. I…[Read more]

This paper explores the intersection of empirical archaeological knowledge and historical tradition at sites in the Galilee. Tracing the accounts of the earliest pilgrims to the Holy Land, I examine how some sites in the Galilee came to be associated with Biblical events and how those associations, combined with modern archaeology, affect…[Read more]

Tourist sites are amalgams of competing and complimentary narratives that dialectically circulate and imbue places with meaning. Widely held tourism narratives, known as tourist imaginaries, are manifestations of ‘shared mental life’ (Leite 2014, 268) by tourists, would-be tourists, and not-yet tourists prior to, during, and after the tourism exp…[Read more]