The sheer time scope of the narrative is epic. Stories related to a patch of land cover almost 12.000 years. The past protagonists are fairly believable, while the "real time" characters of the tell diggers are not credible at all. They are just too stereotypical, but the narrative compensates for it. I enjoyed the Crusader bit the most. Defo worth a read if history is your thing.

I have spent almost the same amount of time googling for stuff I came across in the book as reading it. I thought of Jeremiah by Franz Werfel, Exodus by Leon Uris and some of the characters from I.B.Singer's novellas.