Ethiopia VII: Lalibela

The rock-hewn churches of Lalibela are remote and spectacular.  We spent two days--August 30 and 31, 2019--exploring Lalibela, its churches, and its market.

We reached the churches through rock staircases, trenches, and tunnels.  We spent our first afternoon touring the northern cluster of churches—Bet Medhane Alem (House of the Savior of the World), Bet Maryam (Mary’s Church), Bet Meskel, and Bet Denagil.  We listened with awe to how these churches were “excavated,” rather than built from the ground up, and all 13 churches were built within 24 years.  There must have been superb architects, to envision what to cut out to create rooms, pillars, and decoration, including all manner of crosses—Maltese, Greek, Latin, Judaic.  We wandered through the churches for several hours, seeing baptismal pools, ceilings with carved crosses, frescos, and priests dressed in white carrying ornate silver crosses.  Electric lights flickered on and off in the churches and rain poured down outside.  We finally returned to the hotel, at nearly 6 p.m., looking forward to touring the rest of the churches on the next, hopefully drier, day.

The flight to Lalibela from Axum was just 45 minutes, but it took us to a different world.  Lalibela is 25 kilometers from the airport.  Our van traveled up and up and up along a (thankfully) paved road, with gorgeous green valleys stretching below us as far as we could see.  I remember Mother taking Kent, Scott, and me on a trip to Lalibela when we lived in Ethiopia during the early 1960s.  After landing at the airport, we mounted donkeys and rode them up to a ridge, where we camped out for the night.  There was no road to Lalibela and no hotels when we got there.  I remember smelling wood fires and injera and wat (the Ethiopian meat stew and spongy sourdough bread) being cooked, as we fell asleep on the mountainside.  We then rode the donkeys to Lalibela and explored the rock churches.  “Really?” Camille asked in amazement.  “Grandma took three children on a trip like that?  She used to tell me how adventurous she thought I was, taking my children to Wheeler Farm!”

Crosses were carved into the rock ceilings.

There were rock bas reliefs along the walls.

There were even rock balconies along the edges of some of the churches.

As in all Ethiopian churches, a priest leads services and also sits quietly, guarding the church's treasures, when no services are in session.

Steel and fabric shelters have been built over some of the churches to protect them from weathering.

The priests carried large crosses like the one Mike bought in Axum.

This is the view from the restaurant where we ate lunch.

One afternoon we took a three kilometer round trip hike to a monastery carved into a cave.

The priest showed us his church treasures—a book from the 13^th century with parchment pages covered with paintings of the saints, an intricate gold and silver processional cross, two gold and silver crowns from Zagway kings.  He then gave us a blessing, wishing us a safe journey back to wherever we came from.

Our last morning in Lalibela, Mike and Camille got up at dawn and watched worshipers assemble for  a church service at Bet Giyorgis, the most famous church in Lalibela.  Mike and Camille said it was a memorable experience, with chanting, incense, and the faithful all dressed in white.

We spent an hour, on Saturday morning, at the Lalibela weekly market.  “Where are the cows and sheep and goats?” I asked, as I searched for those essential Ethiopian animals.  They can be seen on every road and in every market in Ethiopia.  ‘They’ll be arriving later,” Bayau explained.  “Their owners had to drive them from their homes, which might be far away.”  

Sure enough, at 9:30 a.m., as we were leaving, the cows and sheep and goats began to arrive, with their owners.  

Crosses are everywhere in northern Ethiopia--worn around necks, tattooed on foreheads, held on poles by priests, and even embroidered onto hats, as with this woman

We walked past piles of the plastic sandals and boots we had seen on villagers across the country, and past piles of black men’s sandals made from car tires.  “I would really like a pair of those,” David said, and he eventually bought himself black tire sandals at one of the Ethiopian markets!  We walked past stalls full of white cotton scarves, women’s patterned dresses, and fresh fruits and vegetables--cabbage, spinach, avocados, tomatoes, lettuce.  Mike and Camille clicked their cameras and doled out 10 bir notes (25 cents) as we walked.