UNEXPLORED SYRIA. Visits to The Libanus, the Tul?l el Saf?, The Anti-Libanus, the Northern Libanus, and the 'Al?h

2 volumes. First edition. In a rare unrecorded state of the cloth binding. With the large folding map, 27 plates (11 folding), and 28 illustrations in the text. 8vo, mustard cloth with ruled and decorated in black and blind on spine and covers, spines lettered in black. [xx], 360; [viii], 400. A unusually nice and bright set, hinges tight and strong with much less than the usual wear to the original cloth bindings. Half title in Volume I cut.

Edizione: very scarce work in the burton ovuere and this copy in a binding variant unknown to penzer. penzer notes three states of the binding, but none match the binding on this copy, which has a ruled border and fancy border on the upper covers in black, on the lower covers in blind, and no lettering on the covers. a miscellany of information about unknown regions of syria compiled during several months wanderings in the deserts. burton and his wife were station at damascus; charles tyrwhitt-drake and edward henry palmer, who were working under the auspices of the palestinian exploration fund, did a bit of exploring on their own and happened to meet up with burton in damascus. edward rice, in his biography of burton, strongly suspects that the meeting was not just happenstance, and that the pair, if not the three, were following some secret anti-turkish mission. palmer and drake departed damascus in 1870, though drake remained in the middle east, travelling, exploring, and mapping. shortly thereafter he returned to blud?n to collaborate with burton on this book. <br>complete copies are scarce, and needless to say copies in original cloth are especially scarce as well.