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From the fourth through the sixth centuries, people across the Mediterranean world flocked to the Roman province of Palestine. They were drawn by a new Christian understanding of the historical and spiritual significance of the region. The church father Jerome described his friend Paula's response when she arrived in Jerusalem from Rome: "Before the Cross she threw herself down in adoration as though she beheld the Lord hanging upon it: and when she entered the tomb which was the scene of the Resurrection she kissed the stone which the angel had rolled away from the door of the sepulchre. Indeed so ardent was her faith that she even licked with her mouth the very spot on which the Lord's body had lain, like one athirst for the river which he has longed for." Many foreign visitors settled in Palestine, embracing the monastic life of prayer.

The Christian Holy Land of this era can be seen most clearly through the eyes of a fourth-century woman named Egeria, a nun from Spain who traveled to the East and recorded what she witnessed for her monastic sisters back home. Not all of her account survives and little is known about her, but what has been preserved shows us how Christians responded to the land of the Bible and celebrated Christ's resurrection in Jerusalem.

Egeria's account is unusual for the time because a woman wrote it, but her activities were not out of the ordinary. There is ample evidence that wealthy Western women, often widows, traveled to the Holy Land and Egypt and gave generous donations to monasteries they visited. They were motivated by a desire to see the places where Jesus had lived, to visit the sites associated with the Old Testament prophets and patriarchs, and to meet holy men and women practicing monasticism in this region. Such travelers considered wandering so far from home to be a form of spiritual discipline, like prayer, fasting, and celibacy. They acted out the spiritual reality that Christians are only sojourners on earth whose citizenship is in heaven.

Travelers faced real hardships, from the threat of shipwreck and pirates aboard cargo vessels, to the lack of fresh water in arid climates. Inns were physically and spiritually dangerous, filled with thieves and prostitutes. Monasteries fulfilled their call to hospitality by building guesthouses for pilgrims. Some travelers, such as the Bordeaux Pilgrim and the Piacenza Pilgrim, wrote itineraries that not only inspired other pilgrims but also offered practical guidance for the unfamiliar terrain (something like a Byzantine Lonely Planet guide!) In the midst of his accounts of the holy men and women he encountered, the Piacenza Pilgrim constantly noted the availability of drinking water. At the tomb of Rachel between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, for example, each traveler could draw seven pints of fresh water—a generous ration for one who had crossed a desert by camel with only two pints a day.

Egeria usually traveled by foot, although sometimes she hired mules. She had ample financial resources for her traveling party, which probably included servants and, in dangerous regions, imperial guards. Egeria was certainly in charge of her itinerary, deciding how long to stay in each location and choosing new destinations. Her journey lasted at least three years. Local monks and clergy served as her guides to the holy places and celebrated the Eucharist with her and her companions.

The beginning and end of Egeria's travelogue are missing, but we can outline large portions of her route once she reached the East. After arriving from Constantinople, she explored biblical sites surrounding Jerusalem. She made longer trips to Egypt, Galilee, Mt. Sinai, and Mt. Nebo. After celebrating Easter in Jerusalem, Egeria traveled to Antioch and east to the Syrian city of Edessa to pray at the shrine of the apostle Thomas. The bishop of Edessa graciously welcomed her, articulating her motive and that of other Christian visitors: "My daughter, I see that you have taken on yourself, because of your piety, the great task of journeying from very distant lands to these places. Therefore … we will show you whatever places there and here that Christians like to see."

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