In my guidebook re: Lalibela, the author quotes Francisco Alvares: “I am weary of writing more about these buildings, because it seems to me that I shall not be believed if I write more… but I swear by God in Whose power I am, that all that is written is the truth, and there is much more than what I have written…” (Lonely Planet: Ethiopia, 156) I hate to bite from the guidebook, but any discussion of Lalibela, really ought to be prefaced with precisely those words. Lalibela, named after the King of Ethiopia’s original dynastic capital, historically referred to as “the new Jerusalem,” is renowned for its 12th century rock hewn churches, some of which were carved tirelessly into the earth with rudimentary hand tools by the hands of thousands of men, others, the overnight
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