David Roberts RA (1796-1864) was a Scottish painter. He is especially known for a prolific series of detailed prints of Egypt and the Near East that he produced during the 1840s from sketches he made during long tours of the region (1838-1840). This work; and his large oil paintings of similar subjects; made him a prominent Orientalist painter.

At the time of Roberts' visit to Palestine; the country was briefly under Egyptian rule (1831鈥?1) after Mohammed Ali had seized the Levant (Palestine; Syria; Jordan and Lebanon) from the Turkish Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans administered Palestine from Constantinople from 1516 to 1917.