a journey of believers to what are called holy places, undertaken in the hope of receiving “supernatural aid.” In antiquity, pilgrimage centers included the temples of Amon in Egyptian Thebes, Osiris in Abydos, and Apollo in Delphi. In the fourth century, Christians began making pilgrimages to Palestine, from which they usually brought back a palm branch. The pilgrimage aspect played an important role in the preparation for the Crusades, with religious motives often serving to conceal commercial and expansionist aims