All visitors first view Petra through a 16-foot gap in the mountain gorge that concealed this ancient Nabataean city for 1200 years. I made this image from the seat of a horse-drawn carriage as it bounced its way along an original cobblestone road. The road was filled with tour groups, and I used members of one of them to good advantage here. As one man raised his hand to his head, he seems to be awe-struck. He and his friends are seen in silhouette, becoming abstractions that allow us to put ourselves in their place. We see only half of the iconic “Treasury” building that gives Petra its identity. By also abstracting this building, I allow the viewer’s imagination to picture the rest of it. The slice of red rocks that runs down the right half of the image takes on an unearthly glow, contrasting to the abstract shadowy wall that towers more than 600 feet overhead. It was almost impossible to stabilize the camera – the motion of the carriage was throwing it in two directions at once. However, my 1/500th of a second shutter speed was able to catch the moment I wanted – the first sight of a mysterious and fabled place.