Journey Through Arabia Petraea, To Mount Sinai, And The Excavated City Of Petra, The Edom Of The Prophecies (1838)

Bought this as background reading for a planned trip to Jordan next year. I was more interested in the pictures than the text to be fair, as I was conscious that much may have changed since de Laborde's travels in the 1820's and I was interested to compare what he saw with what could be seen today. Unfortunately the illustrations were all greatly reduced in order to produce this version. I was unaware that the original book was a huge tome, which probably explains the fact that good first editions are offered by rare book dealers for US$19,000 or more!