In their passage through the Sinai, the group's principal destination was the ancient Monastery of St. Catherine, located beneath Mt. Horeb. It was here that Queen Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, had determined the location of Biblical story of the Burning Bush, which describes an angel appearing to Moses at this spot. The caravan approached the fortified community at night, and the travelers were hauled up through a trap door by a rope around their waists. In the morning Roberts sketched the Greek Orthodox monks who manned the desolate site, which contained not only a chapel, but a mosque - a rare combination of the two faiths. (View the lithographs of the Convent of St. Catherine)

As Roberts entered this portion of his journey, the absence of dramatic monuments caused him to focus his drawings ever more on the landscape around him, his traveling companions, and the people he encountered along the way. The Holy Land prints thus take on a more personal air, with larger figures more in the foreground. From St. Catherine's Monastery, Roberts traveled northward to the Nabatean ruins of Petra, located in the south part of modern Jordan