Picturesque Palestine, Sinai and Egypt

Picturesque Palestine, Sinai, and Egypt was a lavishly illustrated set of books published by D. Appleton & Co. in the early 1880s based on their phenomenally successful Picturesque America and Picturesque Europe series. It was edited by Charles William Wilson. The Appleton series was issued as "two volumes or four divisions"; it was reprinted in London by J.S. Virtue & Co., simply published as four volumes.

It was followed in 1884 by Stanley Lane-Poole's Social Life in Egypt, a kind of sequel that billed itself as "a supplement to Picturesque Palestine". It is sometimes treated as a "fifth volume" of the series, but did not use Fenn or Woodward for its art.

Charles Wilson, a Royal Engineer, had attempted to improve British military intelligence in an age when spying was seen as "ungentlemanly" or "work of a low order", even successfully reducing his own role in order to get a general involved who would be able to defend the interests of the intelligence service. Never a spy as such, he simply "went in openly", scouting and studying areas of military interest. Throughout the 19th century, the Holy Land became increasingly important as a route between Europe and the Indian Ocean: important to Britain as a faster route to India and to other powers as way around the British-held choke point at Gibraltar. He had visited Jerusalem in 1864, spending ten months mapping the city with the help of local workers and even the Prussian consul. He mixed research in Biblical archaeology with military and civilian intelligence about water courses and lines of defense. In addition to grants from the Treasury, the detailed maps and photographs produced sold very well, earning a profit on the endeavor in their own right. He then joined the Palestine Exploration Fund and directed the Survey of Western Palestine, which also acted as a "cover for military mapping".

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