David Roberts, the Scottish watercolourist and engraver/etcher (1796-1864), was a tireless traveller who set a trend and who magnificently portrayed the ancient Egypt with its ruins just before the looting perpetrated by the crowds of archaeologists and tourists. Nowadays we are aware that he added non-exiting details or sites on purpose;
he invented the shades or tampered with the scale by placing some tiny Bedouins next to the temples or close to the statues. Nevertheless, his works have undoubtedly an inestimable documentary value and are still reminiscent of the ancient times. In the 1832-33 period he also travelled through Spain and made that ‘grand tour’ that led so many romantic artists to Andalusia and Morocco.