You’re getting into some serious study if you tackle this book. But as the old saying goes, you get what you read for. The walls of Jerusalem’s Old City have moved dramatically throughout the centuries, and this is the only book I’ve found that will quickly bring some extremely detailed information to you in a glance. One value?

Some visitors to Jerusalem are quick to realize that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (the traditional site of the crucifixion) are inside the walls of today’s Old City. Executions would not have happened inside the city walls, and thus the argument is made that the old church is built over the wrong place. The maps, photographs and articles in this massive work will show you why the rocky hill underneath the ancient church was, indeed, outside the walls when Jesus died.

From “David’s City” to Hezekiah’s Broad Wall, from the Cardo of Roman Times to the expansion of the Temple Mount itself, if you want to make sense of the architectural puzzle that is Jerusalem, this book is a must.