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About this Site

Purpose of HolyLandPhotos.org

The purpose of HolyLandPhotos.org is to make images from the lands of the Bible available free to the general public. Our emphasis is upon the images. The text accompanying the image is meant to be helpful in identifying what one is looking at in the image and to comment briefly about the significance of the image, but the text is not intended to be exhaustive. The interested person should pursue avenues of interest in relevant dictionaries and encyclopedias.

The site has been conceived, developed, and maintained on a volunteer basis by Dr. Carl Rasmussen and Jesse Gavin (see below). Carl Rasmussen provides all photos unless otherwise noted.

Please note — this is a GROWING site. Images are being added to it weekly.

Use of the Web Site

Classroom  — For those with classroom connections to the internet, you can merely log on to www.HolyLandPhotos.org and click away to show images to your class.  You are invited to include references/links to the web site in your syllabai and web pages that you maintain - so that your students can access the site for study purposes.

Bible Study  — HolyLandPhotos.org can be used by those studying the Bible. As you become interested in various places check HolyLandPhotos.org to see if images of the place or area that you are studying are available in the digital database. This can be done by checking the site list, using the search feature, or browsing by country and region.

Digital Presentations — The images in the HolyLandPhotos.org are not just for viewing, but are available for you to download and use in your digital presentations: in the classroom, in churches, in synagogues, in religious schools, etc. For downloading permission click here.

Current and Anticipated Coverage of HolyLandPhotos.org

The current coverage of this web site includes archaeological sites and views in Israel, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Malta, Jordan, and Lebanon. About 10–15 images are being added weekly.  You are invited to register here for occasional announcements on image additions.

The Images

The images in the database are JPEG format.  It has not been possible to be entirely consistent with image size or quality. We will be entering our best quality images, and will be upgrading images as better ones become available.  Look in the upper rightt portion of the page to click to download the best available version of an image.

Carl Rasmussen

Dr. Rasmussen is Professor Emeritis of Biblical Studies at Bethel College (MN). Prior to coming to Bethel in 1980 he was Dean of the Institute of Holy Land Studies in Jerusalem for seven years. He has been teaching and guiding academic groups in the Middle East since 1973. For the past forty years he has been guiding and teaching academic groups in Israel, Jordan, Turkey, Greece, Italy, and Malta for about two months each year. During these trips he has been constantly adding to his digital archive, and those images form the basis of this site.

He has his Ph.D. in Ancient Near Eastern Studies, and also Th.M., B.D., and B.A. degrees. He is the author of the award-winning Zondervan Atlas of the Bible and the history, archaeology, and geography editor for the new, revised, version of Halley's Bible Handbook.

Dr. Rasmussen provides both the textual and photographic content of the web site.

Jesse Gavin

Jesse Gavin is a 2001 graduate of Bethel College (MN). He has creatively developed and continues to maintain the web site on a volunteer basis! He currently works as a Senior Software Developer at Dow Jones. His creative and technical abilities have made this site into a joy to use.

Invitation to Submit Your Images

If you posses digital images of sites not included in HolyLandPhotos.org we would invite you to submit them for possible inclusion in the database. This would be a great way to increase our coverage and to make your best images available to the public.

If you have some images that you would like to submit, feel free to contact Dr. Rasmussen. There is no remuneration for this, but we would of course credit you as the provider of the image.

For a sample of an image provided by a "contributor to the site" click here.

Special thanks

To the Bethel Alumni Association for a series of grants to help defray some of the costs involved in the construction of this site.

To the Regents of Bethel College and Seminary for providing the faculty with time for sabbatical learning and growth.

To the Jerusalem University College for maintaining a fine academic institution in Jerusalem.

The images in this collection, and the text, were produced by Dr. Carl Rasmussen - Professor of Biblical Studies at Bethel College. These Web pages were designed, and are maintained, by Jesse Gavin