Past Perfect: A Visit to the Holy Land

Ida Laura Pfeiffer was the daughter of a Viennese merchant who grew up with five brothers, a tomboy beginning she would never forget. After having three children and a failed marriage, she took her modest inheritance and shocked her Victorian friends by announcing that she was going to travel to the Middle East—alone.

Often dressing in men’s clothing, and usually only accompanied by a hired dragoman, Pfeiffer traveled through Palestine and Egypt in 1842. Her published account of her voyage, A Visit to the Holy Land, was published the following year. Below is an excerpt from her book in which she recounts a visit to Nazareth: