Roberts spent the next six weeks in and around Cairo, renting a
house from which to explore this city of nearly 30,000. The
architecture of the Arab world was at the time far less well
known than that of the ancient pharaonic temples, and was set in
the midst of the city's teeming throngs as opposed to the
splendid isolation of the Nile monuments. This produced a
totally different type of lithograph, full of urban life and
detail. Roberts' images of Arabs and of ancient and modern
Islamic architecture were the first window into this exotic
world for many Europeans. Roberts produced approximately thirty
images of Cairo and its environs, again encompassing some of his
most famous and desired prints. (View the lithographs of Cairo.)
Modern scenes throughout Egypt can still be found which are
little changed from those depicted by Roberts over 150 years
ago.Roberts now began preparations for the next phase of his
journey, an overland trek across the barren Sinai Peninsula and
on to Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Rob