For thousands of years, people have undertaken journeys of faith, usually to shrines or other places of significance in their religious tradition. Pilgrims’ motivations are as varied as the number of pilgrims themselves. Since the middle ages, one of the most well-known–and popular–Christian pilgrimages has been the Camino de Santiago (the “Way of Saint James”).
The journey ends at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela which tradition holds to be the final resting place of the body of Saint James the Apostle. While some begin their pilgrimage from various places throughout Europe, the most popular route, and Ghassan’s route, begins just over the French border in the Pyrenees mountains and continues for approximately 800 km across northern Spain.