Ethiopia’s Timeless Wonder

Rock-Hewn CHURCHES Of LALIBELA
The great days of Axum were followed in the early Middle Ages by the rise, in the Lasta mountains to the south, of King Lalibela, who excavated a dozen or more remarkable rock-hewn churches. They are mainly to be found at the settlement called after their founder, and have been ranked among the Wonders of the World. Rock-hewn churches, it may be noted, are not 'unique to Lalibela Or its neighbourhood, and may indeed have been first excavated within a century or so of the coming of Christianity in the early fourth century AD. Over hundred such churches have been described in the province of Tigray alone. Others can be seen all over the Ethiopian region, from Eritrea in the north, to Goba in Bale a thousand miles to the south At least four rock churches are known to have been excavated in recent years.
KING LALIBELA
The life of King Lalibela is shrouded in legend One holds that when he was born he was surrounded by a swarm of bees. Seeing this. his aother, reputedly cried out, The bees know that this child wel-be omsg! He was accordingly given the name lalibela it means 'The Bee Recognises his Sovereignty' Lalibela, whe* he gret drsaid to have been a remarkably handsome ehe cszla Lalibela, or Acts of Lalibela, a Ge'ez text written in is praise, claims that he was 'perfectly beautiful, without defect from head to foot; his cheeks were as red as the skin of the pomegranate, his eyes were like the morning star. Everyone who saw him admired his bearing and majesty, and foretold his royalty. The Almighty, we are told, was likewise assured of Lalibela's forthcoming sovereignty, and arranged for him to be taken to Heaven to see the churches there. The Lord then addressed him kindly saying: Have no fear as to your becoming King, for it is not for the passing glory of this world that will make you King, but that you may construct churches like those you have seen [in Heaven]. It is for this purpose that I will give you the unction of kings and place you, the anointed one, over my people until you have built sanctuaries.You are worthy of bringing them out of the bowels of the earth.
LALIBELA
Above: Solemn and serene, a priest emerges from one of Lalibela's spectacular rock-hewn churches.
THE CHURCHES
Lalibela duly established a capital at a place called Roha, where the red volcanic rock Was suitable for the excavation of churches. The locality was subsequently renamed after Lalibela.There he founded a remarkable group of churches, which made his capital a major place of pilgrimage. The Cadla Lalibela claims that visiting these churches was equivalent to seeing the face of Christ. Lalibela, or followers, attempted to model the settlement on the Holy City of Jerusalem. Several places were thus given Biblical names. Graves in the church of Madhanie Alam were described as those of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. A local hill was given the name of Calvary; and a nearby torrent bed was called after the Jordan river.
THE STORY Of LALIBELA'S CHURCH-BUILDINGS TOLO IN THE GADLA AS FOLLOWS:
Lalibela ordered the manufacture of a large number of iron tools of all kinds, some to cut the stone, others to hew it, as well as many others for the fashioning of a temple in the rock. From that moment Lalibela no longer thought of his, oela's led Roha,excavation,amed afterrches, whichThe Cadlaas equivalenthis followers,Holy City of Biblical namesdescribed aswas given was called AS FOLLOWS: Above: Oblivious to visitors, a devoted Lalibela monk continues with his daily prayers.own needs, or those of his wife, but fortified in everything by the Holy Spirit, dreamt each day of creating the churchesin the likeness those he had seen in Heaven. After having made the tools necessary for this work he ordered everyone to assemble, and spoke to them, saying: "You who are all gathered here, tell me what wages you want to help create these churches which God has ordered me to make; let every man, excavator of the soil, and stonecutter alike, tell me what wage he wants Speak up, all of you, and what you ask of me I will give you, for I do not want your labour to be without recompense, nor that you should murmur." 'The angels who were with the King made the measurements, indicating the required dimensions for all the churches. The land where the churches were to be built he purchased with gold, which was a great kindness on his part, for if he had wished to take it without payment who could have prevented him since he Wwas King?When he began to construct the churches, angels came to help him in each of the operations; there was thus company of angels at work, as well as a company of men, a for the angels joined the workers, the quarry men, the stone cutters, and the labourers. The angels worked with them by day, and by themselves by night. The men would do a cubit's work during the day, but would find a further three cubits completed on the morrow, for the angels worked throughout the night. Seeing this, the worker exclaimed: "How wonderful! We did a cubit's work yesterday, but today we have four!" They doubted whether the work was being accomplished by angels because they could not see them, but Lalibela knew, because the angels, who understood his virtue, did not hide from him. The angels were his companions, and for that reason did not hide from his sight. churches were fashioned out of a single stone.'It was in this way the Gadla concludes, that the Secolarse was the early sixteenth-century Portuguese traveller, Francisco The first foreign observer to describe the Lalibela churches Alvares. Describimg on him, he concludes: we buildings, because it seems if I write more, and becaus-y igcrch written they may blame me for untrue rather by God, in Whose power I am, that al that truth, and there is much more than what I have Seen, I have left it that they may not taxst me falsehood.The town of Lalibela duly became one of prestigious pilgrims destinations. It was centuries by innumerable pilgrims from far congregated around its remarkable church festivals, as they indeed still do to this day. It is quite possible that foreign craftsı assisted in the decoration of some Lalibela churchs in the shape of the reverse swastika may for the influence of building craftsmen from Inog however, be emphasised that the principal features of Axumite churches and undeniably embody Ethiopian motifs that can betraced way to ancient Axum. An important feature of the Lalibela churche in the monkey heads' or symbolic epres projecting beams of wood around church doors This is an architectural-artistic feature which the principal obelisks at Axum, as well as on the, not returned from Rome. Some Axumite window clearly copied from ornamental design on the principal Axumite obelisks. Even though the soft red volcanic tuff excavation, rock-hewn churches is very different from the like stone out of which the obelisks werait cut, no denying that medieval Lalibela, from the and artistic point of view, was the child of ancient Above: Ornate design in the interior of one of Lalibela's rock-hewn churches.