The Pool of Bethesda 

David Roberts created this print, "The Pool of Bethesda," after a visit to the Middle East during the 1830s. Roberts built his career by representing exotic locations, making him a key figure in British Orientalism. Jerusalem had long been a symbolic location in the West, especially in Britain with its strong links to the Crusades and to Christian evangelism in the Middle East. Roberts's image is significant because it offers an image of a real place, and so seems to offer viewers real access to a place that they knew only as an idea. At the same time, the very act of representing the scene involves a complex set of political choices. How much attention, for example, does Roberts pay to the contemporary inhabitants of the city, and how does he choose to represent them? Exploring such questions allows us to understand the print in relation to the history of British involvement in the Middle East, something that we can pursue through sources such as travel writing, missionary reports, and diplomatic correspondence.