The latest novel from #1 internationally best-selling author Paulo Coelho is a classic of inspiration and reflection, a meditation on life, love, and the significance of change. A novel of philosophical reflection set in Jerusalem during the time of the Crusades. Here a community of Christians, Arabs, and Jews who have long lived together harmoniously have been warned of an imminent attack and certain destruction. Contemplating their demise, the...

"In 2005, a group of construction workers in Jerusalem made an incredible discovery. Underneath the parking lot they were digging up lay an ancient city that was built in the tenth century! Three years later, gold coins from an even earlier century were found at the site. The city of Jerusalem is like a layer cake of history-more than five thousand years of complicated history-all of which author Ellen Morgan explains clearly and objectively in this...

"In 1187 Jerusalem, the holy city held by Christians for four generations and the prize of the First Crusade, fell to Saladin after a short siege. The Christians within were outnumbered ten to one, and yet the city held out long enough for favourable terms to be negotiated. The population was spared. The city was defended by a woman: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem. The Holy City had been lost, but the Christians maintained their footholds in the Middle...

"In 1863, a French politician and adventurer heard a rumor of biblical treasures beneath Jerusalem. At the time, Jerusalem was a venerable backwater, not the thriving religious center we think of today. Archaeology itself was in its infancy--more a pastime for treasure-hunting aristocrats than a legitimate scientific discipline. But when Louis-Felicien Joseph Caignart De Saulcy dug into the desert and discovered an ancient tomb, explorers from England,...