The entrance to the Golden Horn was one of the finest natural harbours in the world. In it Preziosi shows examples of the type of craft then plying the waters of the Bosphorus: on the left a light kayik used to ferry passengers short distances between the Asiatic and the European shores, but easily overturned in rough weather; the heavy barge in the centre could transport people to and from the villages further up the Bosphorus; behind this at anchor is a trading galley. The oarsmen or kayakcilar row with the strange local form of oar with bulbous handles. In the background some of the principal features of the city can be made out, including on the left Saray Burnu (Seraglio Point), with the gardens and pavilions of Topkapi spreading up the hillside, and on the right Pera and Galata (Beyoglu) with the Galata fire-tower on the skyline and the buildings of Tophane on the shore.

Preziosi was of noble Maltese birth, but against the wishes of his family rejected their chosen profession of the law to become an artist. From 1842 until his death forty years later, he lived and worked in Constantinople, renowned for his evocative images of the cosmopolitan peoples and interesting places of the city. He also became known in western Europe because many travellers (including in 1869 the Prince of Wales) took his pictures home as souvenirs of their visit. Demand for his work prompted the publication in Paris in 1858 of a series of lithographs, Stamboul Recollections of Eastern Life.