In 1838, the Scottish painter David Roberts was already well-known for his views and landscapes of France and the Low Countries, but especially for his picturesque sketches of Spain. During that year he set sail for Alexandria to travel Egypt, Nubia and the Middle East. The many sketches and drawings he did during the trip were published as lithographs in six lavishly illustrated volumes upon his return to England. The success of this work earned him lifelong fame and recognition. David Roberts On the way to Abu Simbel, Roberts visited Debod on November 2, 1838 and took sketches of the complex and the façade. He used the former one to paint a scene with slaves based on another sketch taken in a Cairo marketplace, showing the temple and its three pylons in the distance. David Roberts illustration The second sketch shows the façade with remarkable precision, although it appears slightly oversized and includes a non-existent interior colonnade, perhaps out of confusion with another sketch of the Kalabsha Temple taken from a similar angle. Roberts did a third sketch of the area around Debod on his way back from Abu Simbel, on November 16. The temple is not included in the scene, which shows several crocodiles at sunset on the eastern bank of the Nile. D. Roberts illustration(Debod) D. Roberts illustration (el Nilo)