ABSTRACT
Medieval pilgrimage to the 'Holy Land', to the countryside of Syria, Palestine and Egypt, is a well-known subject today; numerous academic studies have been made, numerous books have been written about the history of religion and migration, social history and 'daily life'. This chapter presents the considerations in great detail in order to reveal the continuing importance of Byzantine pilgrimage to the Holy Land even in times when Constantinople, the centre of the east Roman empire, was growing and flourishing. The most important destination for any Christian pilgrimage is the 'holy city' of Jerusalem, which in the middle ages could be reached from Jaffa through Lydda-Diospolis, the place where St. George was made a martyr, and Nikopolis, one of the three villages connected with the biblical Emmaus. A proskynetarion composed in the last days of the Byzantine empire, the so-called Anonymus Allatii, mentions 60 sacred places on Mount Sinai.
