When in 1867, Lt. Charles Warren of the Royal Engineers was sent by the Palestine Exploration Fund to explore ancient Jerusalem, he stayed at the Mediterranean Hotel in Jerusalem - the best, and most important hotel, in the city. It served as his headquarters throughout that landmark expedition, and was the home base, too, of Mark Twain, when he visited the Holy Land. Everyone who was anyone who came to Jerusalem in the 19th century, in fact, used, in some way, the Mediterranean Hotel. This book offers a detailed history of this fabled place, and its three different locations - one of which it identifies, for the very first time. This "lost" location is revealed as central to Jerusalem's past, and vital to its present. It is the exact spot from which Phillips, for instance, took his well-known photographs of "Jews in Jerusalem" in 1867 - and is the home of Ariel Sharon. But more than an architectural study, here is original evidence the Hotel played an important role in the earliest history of Freemasonry in Jerusalem and, surprisingly, that Charles Warren and Mark Twain were both involved…

A groundbreaking work of scholarship, Tourists, Explorers and Freemasons in Nineteenth-Century Jerusalem: On Mark Twain and Charles Warren at the Mediterranean Hotel, is the first book to focus on a specific building, rather than an area, in Jerusalem. Comprised of ten chapters, they are, in brief:

I. Early Hotels in Nineteenth-Century Jerusalem
A fascinating description of the daunting conditions facing travelers to the Holy City is followed by a history of Jerusalem's first hostelries, with detailed descriptions of their locations, architecture, and ownership; contemporary accounts, lively and informative, are quoted at length.

II: The History of the Mediterranean Hotel at its First Location
The Mediterranean Hotel was situated at three locations in the Old City of Jerusalem during the course of the 19th century; its first incarnation - circa 1852-1866, between Patriarch Street (present-day Christian Street) and Hezekiah's Pool - is examined here. Using the words of visitors, the Hotel's exact location, surroundings, architecture, interior, its atmosphere and management are vividly described. Possible ancient underpinnings are discussed as well.

III. The History of the Mediterranean Hotel at its Third Location
From 1871 onwards, this Hotel has occupied a storied property at the beginning of David Street, the history of which - up to the present day - is fully documented. The Hotel's special relationship with the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine explorers is discussed, as are Conrad Schick's 1897 photographs of the Hotel and its environs.

IV. The Discovery of the Whereabouts of the Hotel at its Second Location
The second incarnation of the Hotel was, for well over a century, unknown - although both Warren and Twain, who stayed there, wrote extensively about it. Drawing upon original source material, aerial photography, GIS maps, and classic 19th century PEF surveys and travel literature, the authors first identify a distinctive element of the "missing" Hotel and then, document an unexpected discovery: a Schick drawing in the PEF's own archives confirms the location of the lost Hotel. Noted, too, are its many prominent guests who were Freemasons…

V. The Hotel as a Place for Masonic Meetings in Jerusalem
The history of Freemasonry in Jerusalem is traced from its dramatic beginning in an underground cave to the bustling Mediterranean Hotel at its second location. In this connection, the roles of Warren, Twain, Rolla Floyd, Prussian Counsel Henry Petermann, Turkish Governor Noureddin Effendi, American Robert Morris and Vice-Counsel Richard Beardsley, and the Hotel's management, are thoroughly detailed.

VI. Charles Warren at the Mediterranean Hotel
Warren stayed at the Hotel fifteen months, and wrote much about it; his sojourn, his work, and his writings are reviewed. The photographic work of his companion at the Hotel, Sergeant Henry Phillips, R.E., is also treated.

VII. Mark Twain at the Mediterranean Hotel
Twain's trip to the Holy Land was recounted in one of the most celebrated and influential travel books ever written about Europe and the Middle East by an American: The Innocents Aboard. Using both the published text and original source material, the authors brilliantly reconstruct Twain's visit, for which the Hotel served as base. His relationship to Freemasonry is also explored.

VIII. Beit Wittenberg
The history of the Mediterranean Hotel at second location is traced from 1871 to the present hour. Now known as Wittenberg House, it was most recently the home of the former Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon.

IX. A Description of the Building and its Stages of Construction
This topographical, structural and historical examination of the building virtually reconstructs the Hotel as it was in the mid-19th century - an extraordinary undertaking, by which means the Hotel of Warren, Twain, and Jerusalem's earliest Freemasons, lives again.

X. Conclusion
As much as has been written about Jerusalem's architectural, institutional, urban, and pilgrimage history, comprehensive scholarly research on individual buildings in the Old City has yet to be undertaken. This book, however, takes a step in that direction. It deals with the development of hotels and tourism in the 19th century and turn of 20th century, by looking specifically at the changing locations of the Mediterranean Hotel.