Jaffa, Looking South

This lithograph depicts Jaffa, which Roberts and his party explored between the 25th and 27th of March. John Kinnear, who was to travel on alone to Beirut on the 27th, described the town’s appearance as ‘exceedingly picturesque… situated on a hill which rises about 150 feet above the sea, and is surrounded by orange groves and gardens, separated by hedges of the prickly-pear.’

The town’s position and proximity to the sea is well represented in Roberts’s lithograph and he successfully makes reference to Jaffa’s importance as a centre for trade - it was celebrated for the manufacture of soap and its production of water-melons – by including a large group of both European and local figures in the foreground.