Our Ethiopian odyssey (8): rock churches of Lalibela
Day 6 (Thursday) saw the departure from Axum of nine of the group. The woman who was the first to be ill had chosen to fly home, while the second woman to be unwell had decided to press on with the trip.
We left the hotel at 9 am and were soon at the airport where our luggage was checked twice for our second internal flight. This involved two new experiences for Vee & Roger at least: we flew In a Bombandier Q400 twin-turboprop aircraft (a first) and we left early (another first). The flight to Lalibela was only 30 minutes and the mini bus journey to our hotel in the town took as long and drove us further uphill. We were now in Amhara province and the town – which is even smaller than Axum with a population of just 40,000 – is situated at a height of 2,600 metres.
Our hotel was something of a surprise. The Maribela Hotel only opened a year or so ago and is situated overlooking a low mountain range. The rooms were clean and spacious but all sorts of finishing touches were still necessary. We had lunch straightaway so that we could leave for our afternoon excursion at 2.30 pm.
As the Kingdom of Axum fragmented, in the 12th century this highland territory was created as the ‘new Jerusalem’ by King Lalibela, who reigned from 1180-1220, allegedly with ‘the help of angels’. The location was originally called Roha but renamed after the king (his name means ‘the bees’ and his mother gave him the name when she found a swarm of bees around his crib which she regarded as a fortuitous sign).
The area is divided by a gorge that would once have had a river running through it, a representation of the River Jordan in the original Holy Land. On the north-west side is a recreation of the physical, terrestrial Holy Land with its churches; on the south-east side, we have the celestial, spiritual Holy Land with its own churches.
It is estimated that the churches took some 40,000 workers around 24 years to construct and, for the kingdom to have kept such a large work force engaged in economically unproductive labour for so long, means that it must have been very wealthy.
There are 11 rock-hewn churches which have been in continuous use by Orthodox priests since 12th and 13th centuries when the town was the capital of the important Zagwe Dynasty. Ten were made or at lest remodelled by King Lalibela and an eleventh (St George) was created by his widow as a memorial to the king after his death in about 1220.
Each building is unique in size, shape and execution and the purpose of each church is still unclear to historians. All are below grown level and they are ringed by courtyards and trenches that interconnect.
The churches – all called Bet (House or Place ) something – are located in two clusters. This afternoon, we visited the north west cluster which comprises seven churches. In order, we viewed:
Bet Medhane Alem (House of Jesus) – This is the biggest church in Lalibela, indeed the largest rock-hewn church in the world: 33 metres by 23 metres and 10 metres high. Also it is the home of the famous 900-year old Lalibela Cross – said to be made of solid gold and given to the king by God himself – which is only displayed in public once at year at a special ceremony.
Bet Meskel (House of the Cross) – This is the smallest of the Lalibela churches but it is quite special in that the Ethiopians claim to have half of the True Cross (although not here in Lalibela).
Bet Maryam (House of Mary) – This was the first of the Lalibela churches to be built and it was said to be the King’s favourite.
Bet Danaghel (House of the Virgins) – This church, which was never finished, commemorates a massacre of young women some eight centuries before it was built.
Bet Mikael (House of Michael) – This church is one of only two in Lalibela with cruciform pillars.
Bet Golgitha (House of Golgotha) – No women are allowed in this particular church. It is said that King Lalibela himself is buried here but nobody can see the tomb which is alledgedly in the Selassie Chapel. The church is noted for its cruciform pillars and some of the best early examples of Ethiopian Christian art.
Bet Giyorgis (House of George) – This was the last of the Lalibela churches to be built and it is in the best condition. Also it is the best known internationally, featuring in many photographs and television programmes. The roof is level with the ground around it and one can walk all the way around before taking the tunnel down to the church entrance far below
Although access to the cluster of churches is through a modern entrance, climbing down rocks to visit each church and across more rocks to move from church to church is not straightforward as the rocks are very uneven and sometimes steep. One of our group – a guy of almost 86 – found that he needed both of his sticks and some human support as well as staying outside some chambers.
For all of us, there was the matter of taking off shoes and putting them back on every time we went into a new church and we were assigned a local “shoe manager” for this endeavour. Viewing these churches for around two and a half hours, one is simply astounded at the effort and skill that must have been involved in taking this volcanic ash rock and hewing out such large and grand structures that have survived so well for around seven centuries.
In the evening, our hotel meal was enlivened by a performance of traditional music and dancing by a troupe of five. Especially distinctive was a kind of one-string violin known as ‘masengo’.