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Published: November 4th 2008
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Welcome to lalibela
Coca Cola is everywhere Lalibela is certainly the most famous and the most visited place in Ethiopia. There were at least 30 tourists in the town…
It deserves to be that famous as it contains 11 absolutely amazing rock hewn churches within 10 minutes from each other. The churches were built on the order of King Lalibela which as the legend has it visited Jerusalem and on his return wanted to build a Jerusalem in Ethiopia. There is even a River Jordan ... carved out of solid rock!
Allegedly all churches were built in the early 13th century within 23 years by the King himself with a little help from Angels. Whoever did and however long it took they did a great job.
The churches are built into solid rock and in some cases that means 11m down. That together with all the tunnels a passage ways would be enough work but there is also the interior to be dug out and everything needs to be nicely decorated. Nothing was added after everything had to be carved and it had to be done right at the first try. One church even has two floors which are connected by a spiral staircase all hewn
Bet Giyorgis
One of the most famous and stunning churches in Ethiopia from solid rock!
There are three types of churches in Lalibela. Some are freestanding, some are semi attached and some build into the rock.
The largest church is 33m by 23 and 11m high. Imagine digging around that and then hollow it out. Not surprising to find out that this is the largest rock hewn church in the world.
There are two clusters and within the cluster all churches are connected by a system of passage ways (also hewn into the rock) and tunnels. It is truly amazing to walk through this and you can see why this is the second holiest place in Ethiopia after Aksum.
Each church has a couple of priests which double also as guardians and which are happy to show off the church crosses. There is a specific cross for Lalibela and then each church has a specific cross design for itself. It is quite amusing to see the priests don on their robe (which is older than time itself), pickup the cross and then put on some Nike sunglasses. The latter is done to prevent their eyes getting hurt when the tourists snap away using the flash.
We also visited
Bet Medhane Alem
Supposed to be the largest rock hewn church in the world. Would be hard to beat the 33m by 23 by 11m structure. Where do you find rocks that large?
I suppose the Australians could do something with Ayers Rock
the remote church of Yimrehane Kristos which was build of stone and wood inside a cave. It even predates the churches of Lalibela and is said to be the blue print for some of them. It is an amazingly beautiful (for Ethiopia) church and looks like a layer cake with its white stone layered with dark olive wood. The paintings inside and especially the drawings on the ceiling (including a Elephant) are worth the long drive over bad roads.
After Lalibela it was back to Addis for a last time. There we did what we do best and ate great meals and spoiled us (ok me) with a high tea at the local Sheraton. There was a staggering array of cakes and pastries to be had and for about three hours we stuffed our faces (gotta get some value out of the USD12 we had to pay 😉
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