Lalibela

Lalibela
Turning through rock hewn corridors, I came across one of the most marvelous sights I have ever seen. Free standing and pillared, the church of…. Seemed to blot out the sun. It almost appeared out of nowhere as we twisted. This rock hewn church, carved supposedly by angels during the reign of king Lalibela. Some of these churches are over 15m high. With 11 churches in the city alone and over 600 ordained priests in the area, the town of Lalibela breathes religion in and out. Yet, this has somehow remained unknown and uncommercialized. While you encounter quite a few tourist shops, there certainly is not the ubiquitous groups of youth hawking their religious wares that is ever present in Axum.
Just as spectacular as the works of man in and around the country, is also the work of God: mountain upon mountain, carved away by rain, hill, valley and canyon interlacing each other. Flying over land to reach the town, I sat with my eyes glued to the window in disbelief at the extensive, finely molded Ethiopian highlands.
The remoteness of this ancient town, hidden away in this geographic fortress only adds to the magic of this place.
King Lalibela reigned in the 12 century. He is reported to have built all 11 churches within a span of 11 years. Regardless of names and dates, the skill involved in the carving of these churches and the determination to construct these monolithic churches is quite impressive.
Highlights of the churches include a pillar in bet Maryam that has remained covered since the 16th century. It supposedly is covered with engravings that describe how the entire complex was built. It supposedly glowed at that time as well, until the priests deemed it too dangerous to look at, and it was covered. Most of the churches of Lalibela are carved directly out of the rock. There are trenches and tunnels that connect everyone of them.
Bet Giyorgis is the famous cross church of Lalibela, measuring close to 15m high. It is the only church not covered by scaffolding.
I attended palm Sunday starting at 4:30 am in Bet Medhane Alem, the largest monolithic church in the world (800 m squared). This is the first time that I have heard drums in an orthodox church, as the entire time that I have been here has been lent, a period of fasting and symbolic mourning.
On palm Sunday I also made my way to two churches outside of the city. These were Yemrehana Chistos and Bibilla Chirkos. Yemrehana christos is an Axumite style church built in a cave. I slept through most of the hour and a half journey to get there, as I was quite exhausted from the previous nights tej (local brew) tasting and early morning church.
Upon hearing that there was a monastery in the area, I convinced my Belgian touring companions to join me up the hill. We never came across the monastery (in fact, it no longer exists), but we did meet a large grop of people at the top of the hill, all sitting around a smaller group of people with colorfully dressed horses. It took me some time and some terrible Amharic exchanges (2 months have left barely a dent on my primitive language skills), but I finally realized that it was a funeral I was watching. Scolding the boy who kept asking me for money during the funeral, I moved to the side to express my condolences to those around me and to observe the funeral. It was quite unlike anything I have ever seen. The ceremony that I had a chance to witness involved the mourning family circling around with the horses while wailing. A man leading the donkeys would intermittently blow a horn. Spotting the group were also other various church liturgical items like drums, robes and liturgical umbrellas. I wish I could have stayed for the whole thing, but driver and Belgians were waiting.
Our next stop was some local lunch and bibillia chirkos, another ancient semi-monolithic church with a very pleasant priest and a beautiful painting of Mary on the pillars…..


I will try to post some photos soon enough, but a Google search of Lalibela should be promising.