Petra - The Pink City

It was a cold winter day and snow had fallen on the mountains around Wadi Musa. I jumped off the truck which brought me down to the Wadi floor and it was time for a walk. Perfect to warm up my body and I left the guys with the horses who tried to convince me for a ride behind me. There were no other people around, just some creatures who were deeply covered in their coats living in the caves above the narrow path towards Petra. The entry to the Siq, how the narrow gorge was called ever since, was dramatic. Steep cliffs towering towards the sky and only the small path found its way through to the Treasury. A dramatically beautiful building hewn in the rock by the Nabataeans 200 BC. Camel drivers were warming their hands with a cup of mint tea and only the shivering cold let me to continue my way down another canyon, on which end the scenery opened to hundreds of tombs. Women were sitting around a camp fire and men took shelter from the ice cold wind in a cave. I climbed up the steep steps to the High Place of Sacrifice, from where the view of the city lying below me was stunning. While counting the numerous tombs and caves the sun slightly broke through the clouds and let the sandstone turn pink. A magnificent reminder why Petra is called the Pink City since 2500 years.