St George
Lalibela is Ethiopia’s prime tourist
attraction with it’s 10 rock strewn churches dating back to the 12 century
steeped in myth and legend. It is said King Lalibela dreamt up the churches and
wanted to create his own pilgrimage site rather than expecting Christians to
travel the journey to Jerusalem – a particularly bandit-infested route from Northern
Ethiopia.
All 10 projects were completed during his
life-time – somewhere between 25 – 40 years, and all their costruction projects
were successfully – although all are in varied states of erosion or
reconstruction due to varying sandstone contents in the soil.
a particularly fucked facade
It is generally believed the finest
architects, craftsman and masons were part of a team of 40,000 workers who gave
their time to celebrate and pay tribute King Lalibela, much as the pyramid
builders of Egypt were devoted to the pharaohs.
Their are two main cluster sites each side
of the aptly named River Jordan, and each are connected through a labyrinth of tunnels in each section. Most are spectacular from the outside and
disappointing on the inside, not least because large parts are curtained off
that are sacrosanct (not least because they each hold a direct replica of the
original arc of the covenant), and only high priests may enter.
All the churches have treasured art work - no flash photography is allowed. These were taken with my ISO set at its highest.
Entry prices for whites is now US$50, entry fees for
the surrounding monasteries are extra. Bring a torch and explore the tunnels.
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