Following the sample of his friend David Wilkie and supported by Richard Ford, Lewis travelled in Spain from 1832 to 1834 with 'orders for young ladies' albums and from ........ booksellers, who are illustrating Lord Byron'. After his return to England two volumes of lithographs based on his drawings were pbulised, Sketches and Drawings of the Alhambra, 1835, and Sketches of Spain and Spanish Character, 1836. Lewis spent the summers of 1832 and 1837 in Granada, staying most of the time at the Villa Sanchez, a house rented by the Fords.

The Alcázar (later Casa Real), on the hill of the the Alhambra, was built by the Moors in the 16th Century. the Hall of the Ambassadors occupies the main floor of a tower at the northern end of Patio de los Arrayanes. In this watercolour one is looking out of the double window on the east, along the outer walls of the palace with a gallery and arcaded tower. The Hall was originally the audience chamber of the Moorish Kings and later, according to a later inscription on the back of this watercolour, was the cite of a meeting between Isabella of Castille and her husband Ferdinand of Aragon and Torquemada when it was decided that the Jews in Spain must convert to Christianity or go into exile.

A watercolour, similar in size and medium and signed and dated 1833, showing The Door of the Hall of Ambassadors was presumably in the collection of Sir william Russell Flint, R.A.