David Roberts was born in Scotland in 1776. From an early age he sketched the castles and monuments of the Scottish landscape. After a seven year apprenticeship, Roberts started his artistic career as a scenery painter for the stage. He worked in many theatres across the country, including The Theatre Royal, Glasgow and Drury Lane, London.

In 1832, wanting to further his reputation as an artist, he traveled to Spain where he produced paintings from which a series of lithographs were made. This spurred Roberts on to plan an expedition that was one of the most ambitious artistic enterprises of the 19th Century. With a letter of introduction from the Foreign Office, Roberts headed off to Egypt to meet with Colonel Cambell, Consul General for Egypt. From here he planned to travel throughout Egypt and Nubia and then on to The Holy Land and Syria. Roberts' aim was to explore the major Biblical and Ancient monumental sites, documenting them through hundreds of incredibly detailed drawings and sketches.
When he returned to England he commisioned Francis Graham Moon to publish the work and enstrusted Mr Louis Haghe to create the lithographs. In order to finance the printing, Moon recruited private subscribers who would receive a hand coloured deluxe edition of the lithographs, which later became known as the 'subscribers edition'. The complete work, published between 1842 and 1849 consisted of six folio volumes comprising 247 lithographs. The work was a huge and immediate success and this magnificent achievement brought him lasting fame and respect.