The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia
The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia is a travelogue of 19th-century Palestine and the magnum opus of Scottish painter David Roberts. It contains 250 lithographs by Louis Haghe of Roberts's watercolor sketches. It was first published by subscription between 1842 and 1849, in two separate publications: "The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea and Arabia" and "Egypt and Nubia". William Brockedon and George Croly wrote much of the text, Croly writing the historical, and Brockedon the descriptive portions. Described as "one of the art-publishing sensations of the  mid-Victorian period", it exceeded all other earlier lithographic projects in scale, and was one of the most expensive publications of the nineteenth century. Haghe has been described by the Metropolitan Museum of Art as "the best and most prolific lithographer of the time" According to Professor Annabel Wharton, it has "proved to be the most pervasive and enduring of the nineteenth-century renderings of the East circulated in the West." Roberts's travels and publication. Roberts began his travel to the region in August 1838. He landed at Alexandria, and spent the rest of 1838 in Cairo. In February  1839 he traveled to Palestine via Suez, Mount Sinai and Petra. From Gaza he traveled to Jerusalem, and around the rest of the region. He returned to England at the end of 1839 after falling ill, having spent 11 months in the region. A total of 272 watercolour sketches were shared with the publisher F.G. Moon in 1840 who paid Roberts £3,000 for copyright to the sketches. Reaction. Famed Victorian art critic John Ruskin wrote the work was a "true portraiture of scenes of historical and religious interest. They are faithful and laborious beyond any outlines from nature I  have ever seen." Art historian John Roland Abbey wrote in his "Travel in Aquatint and Lithography, 1770-1860" that "Robert's Holy Land was one of the most important and elaborate ventures of nineteenth-century publishing, and it was the apotheosis of the tinted lithograph". John James Moscrop noted in a recent work on nineteenth century knowledge of Palestine: "The best known of the illustrators was David Roberts. If Robinson produced the nineteenth century's historical geography of the Holy Land, it fell to a Scottish painter, David Roberts, to illustrate it." Criticism as orientalism. The images have been widely  criticized as providing an orientalist perspective on the region. Uzi Baram wrote: "From Said's critique of Orientalism, it is clear that Roberts created picturesque landscapes that embodied British concerns and imagery, landscapes that were translated for the Western gaze. Roberts did not simply capture the landscapes of Palestine; similar to the other Orientalists, he fashioned an image of the Holy Land rather than representing all that he saw." Meyers states that Roberts was "orientalizing the picturesque ideal in a Levantine setting", and Proctor writes that the images were not an accurate representation but rather a figment of the Western  imagination. Bendiner proposed multiple influences underlying Roberts's orientalist style, including his social conscience, opulent taste, self-confidence, sense of history, contemporary international rivalries, and the religious questions of the day. List of lithographs. Volume 3. 88. Title page. Temple of El-Khasne, Petra. Volume 4. <poem> 126. Frontispiece. View under the Grand Portico, Philoe. 127. Tile page. Entrance to the Great Temple of Aboo-Simbel, Nubia. 128. Pyramids of Gizeh, from the Nile. 129. View looking towards the Pyramids of Dashour and Sacara - Slave boat on the Nile. 130. Pompey's Pillar, Alexandria. 131. Ruins of the  Temple of Kom-Ombo, Upper Egypt. 132. Temple of Tafa, in Nubia. 133. Colossal figures in front of the Great Temple of Aboo-Simbel. 134. Excavated Temple of Gyrshe, Nubia. 135. Portico of the Temple of Edfou, Upper Egypt. 136. Statues of Memnon, on the plain of Goorna, at Thebes. 137. Thebes. The colossal statues of Amenoph III. 138. The Sanctuary of the Great Temple of Aboo-Simbel, Nubia. 139. Interior of the Great Temple of Aboo-Simbel, Nubia. 140. Ruins of Luxor from the S.W. 141. General view of the ruins of Luxor, from the Nile. 142. Side view  of the Great Sphinx. 143. Head of the Great Sphnix, Pyramids of Egypt. 144. Temple of Dakke, Nubia. 145. Central Avenue of the Great Hall of Columns at Karnac. 146. Cleopatra's Needle. 147. Obelisk of Luxor. 148. Ruins of Maharaka, Nubia. 149. Interior of the Temple of Esne, Upper Egypt. 150. Temple of Wady Kardassy, Nubia. 151. General view of the Island of Philoe, Nubia. 152. Abyssinian Slaves at Korth. 153. Portico of the Temple of Kalabshe, Nubia. 154. View at Luxor, Thebes. 155. Libyan Chain of Mountains, from the Temple of Luxor. 156. Approach to the Temple of  Wady Saboua, Nubia. 157. View from under the Portico of the Temple of Edfou, Upper Egypt. 158. Colossal statue at the entrance to the Temple of Luxor. 159. Temple of Edfou: Ancient Apollinopolis, Upper Egypt. 160. Gateway at Dendera. 161. Portico of the Temple of Dendera. 162. Siout. 163. General view of the ruins of Karnac, from the West. 164. Nubian Women at Korti. 165. Grand Portico of the Temple of Philoe, Nubia. 166. Entrance to the Caves at Beni-Hassan. 167. Grand approach to the Temple of Philoe, Nubia. 168. Temple of Wady Saboua, Nubia. </poem> Volume  5. <poem> 169. Frontispiece. Front elevation of the Great Temple of Aboo-Simbel. 170. Tile page. Great Gateway, leading to the Temple of Karnac, Thebes. 171. Group of Nubians at Wady Kardassy. 172. Fragment of the Great Colossus at the Memnonium, Thebes. 173. Fortress of Ibrim, Nubia. 174. Approach to the Fortress of Ibrim. 175. Colossi at Wady Saboua. 176. Ruins of the Memnonium, Thebes. 177. Persian Water-Wheel, used for irrigating Nubia. 178. A group at the entrance of the Temple of Amun, at Goorna, Thebes. 179. The Island of Philoe, by sunset. 180. Hadjar Silsilis, or  the Rock of the Chain. 181. Part of the Hall of Columns at Karnac, seen from without. 182. View looking across the Hall of Columns, Karnac. 183. Part of the ruins of a temple on the Island of Bigge, Nubia. 184. The Dromos, or First Court of the Temple of Karnac. 185. Ruins of the Temple of Medamout, near Thebes. 186. Ruins of a Christian Church in the Grand Court of the Temple of Medinet Abou. 187. Temple of A'Mada at Hassaia, Nubia. 188. Medinet Abou, Thebes. 189. Temple of Dandour, Nubia. 190. The Hypaethral Temple at Philae, called The  Bed of Pharoah. 191. Temple of Isis, on the roof of the Great Temple of Dendera. 193. Lateral view of the Typhonaeum at Dendera. 194. View from under the Portico of the Temple of Dendera. 195. Temple of Wady Kardassy, Nubia. 196. Asouan and the Island of Elephantine. 197. Obelisk of On. 198. Oblique view of the Hall of Columns, Karnac. 199. Temple of Wady Dabod, Nubia. 200. General view of Karnac, looking towards Biban-el-Malook. 201. View from under the Portico of Dayr-el-Medineh, Thebes. 202. Entrance to the Tombs of the Kings, Biban-el-Malook. 203 . The Temples of Aboo-Simbel from the Nile. 204. Colossal statues in the plain of Thebes, during the inundation of the Nile. 205. Scene on the Nile, near Wady Dabod, with Crocodiles. 206. Grand entrance to the Temple of Luxor. 207. General view of Kalabshe, formerly Tolmis, Nubia. 208. Façade of the Pronaos of the Temple of Edfou. 209. Ruins of Erment, ancient Hermontis, Upper Egypt. 210. Ruins of Kom-Ombo. 211. Island of Philoe, looking over the Nile. 212. [Map] Illustrating the Sketches of David Roberts Esq., in Egypt and Nubia, 1849. </poem> The Holy Land, Syria