Ruins of the Temple, Kom Ombos, Upper Nile, Egypt

Roberts's Ruins of the Temple at Kom Ombos on the Upper Nile from around 1842 documents one of the most spectacular ancient Egyptian sites—a double temple dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek and the falcon god Horus that stands directly on the Nile bank. Roberts traveled up the Nile to Nubia and the First Cataract in 1838-39, making drawings of sites that European travelers had rarely visited and that would become widely known through his celebrated series of lithographs published between 1842 and 1849. The Upper Egyptian temples—Edfu, Kom Ombos, Philae, Abu Simbel—were among the most visually dramatic subjects available to any painter, and Roberts's documentation combined architectural precision with the atmospheric rendering of light and dust that gave his Egyptian works their distinctive quality.

The temple ruins are rendered with archaeological precision within the dramatic Nile landscape. Roberts's handling of the harsh Egyptian light creates stark contrasts that emphasize the monumental scale of the ancient architecture.