This is an illustrated guide to the culture, history, archaeology, architecture and social life of Israel and its diverse and multi-ethnic population. The traditions of Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews, Muslims, Druzes and Christians are depicted against a landscape of great beauty and variety. Israel, a tiny strip along the coast of the eastern Mediterranean, offers a wide range of sights and issues - antiquity and modernity; Judaism, Christianity and Islam; mosques, synagogues and churches; peace and conflict; beaches and deserts - all jostling together to form a social, political and cultural environment encompassing energy, nervous tension, creativity and beauty.

Photographs by: Tom Krausz