Beautiful Mountains - Rainbow Mountains, China (1000 pcs)

In this breathtaking photograph, a mountain range is striped with broad bands of color running from deep red to orange, coral pink, and ochre yellow, beneath a mauve and pink sky that hints at sunrise or sunset. Ridges shaped by millions of years seem to ripple like waves, as if hand-painted along the hillsides. Down in the valley, a pale, winding path snakes between the colorful slopes, like a silver thread leading the eye toward the hazy horizon. This striking scene captures the famous Rainbow Mountains of Zhangye, in China's Gansu province, where the landscape looks straight out of a painter's palette.

This remarkable landform has a name: Danxia. About 55 million years ago, the collision between the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates folded ancient layers of sandstone and siltstone that had once settled flat, lifting them into colorful waves. Over time, wind and water erosion exposed these mineral-rich layers: iron oxide gives them their red and orange hues, iron hydroxide adds yellow tones, while calcium carbonate and chlorite create the white and greenish bands. The result is a landscape so colorful it is often called the Earth's paint palette.

This puzzle is part of the Beautiful Mountains series by Ravensburger, which invites fans to piece together other equally impressive peaks, such as Mount Fitz Roy in Patagonia, the Serra de Tramuntana in Majorca, or the Three Peaks of the Dolomites. It's a lovely way to travel from one summit to the next, puzzle after puzzle.

Dimensions: 70 x 50 cm once completed.