Hunt visited the city of Damietta, in northern Egypt, in May 1854, on his way to Jaffa in the company of Thomas Seddon (1821-1856). Hunt drew two studies of houses in the city, intrigued by the way they opened out onto the water of the harbour (Bronkhurst, op. cit., nos. D97 & D98). Bronkhurst has identified the subject as the Mosque al-'Abbasi, to the west of the city, a building which was in disrepair when Hunt drew it, but has now been rebuilt.