In the 19th century, America and the Occident had quite an obsession and amazement towards the Orient that was partly due to the presence of the Holy Land in that region. Scholars and travellers would visit it and write about their travels as well as paint the Orient as a very mystical and magical location that was to be acquired by the West. As Obenzinger explains in his descriptive and in depth text on Holy Land mania “American Palestine”, it created a religion-national myth and an imperialist mentality within Westerners that made them desire Jerusalem’s Holy Land.