In the later 1970s and up to 1982, Michael E. Stone conducted a number of expeditions to the Sinai peninsula, searching for ancient inscriptions and Armenian pilgrimage routes. The book describes the process of his search, crowned by the discovery of the most ancient Armenian inscriptions known. However, the focus of his interest and travel was much broader, and the book is replete with information about the Sinai, its denizens, its past and present, its human inhabitants, its flora and fauna, and its history.