Four thousand years of history and archaeology in the Levant - from the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages - are presented in this volume. Uncovering buried history, a team of French archaeologists follows the significant cultural developments and their impact on the gate between the Orient and the Occident: relics of the first cities in the Bronze Age, traces of the Phoenician conquests in the Mediterranean, characteristics of the fusion of cultures in the Greco-Roman era, monuments to the kingdoms of the Nabataens and their mythical capitol Petra, evidence of the golden age of oriental Christianity, and finally the manifestation of Islamic conquest as a battle for power during the crusades....