Rock Churches of Lalibela

I've been a bit overwhelmed thinking about how to share the northern part of our trip with you. We saw SO much, learned so much, and encountered so much poverty that it seems impossible to process it all. But, here it goes.

The most amazing historical site to see in Ethiopia is Lalibela. It is a town of 20,000 people situated on top of a mountain. What is so spectacular about it? This is where King Lalibela commissioned a bunch of Orthodox churches to be built. About 10 were built in the town of Lalibela by carving from the ground, straight down through rock. So, the roofs of the churches are at ground level. Legend has it that angels helped carve them because it took only 23 years to make these 8th wonders of the world. We know the carvers used hammers and nails and paint and ended up making these incredible churches. They were all made between the 12th and 14th centuries and are, with the exception of a few places, still the same.

We spent a morning and afternoon exploring the churches just within the town of Lalibela. (There are hundreds, if not thousands, more in the countryside). These places were INCREDIBLE and have such a rich history, you can just be swept away. We were usually the only visitors at each church, so we spent much time crawling in tunnels, up walls, taking pictures, exploring each compound, and sitting in the churches listening to the birds and the wind and the intense peacefulness. Part of what makes this place so amazing is that it is not at all a tourist attraction . . . yet. All the churches are still used, still have priests and deacons and a congregation. During festival times, people walk for weeks to visit Lalibela as spiritual pilgrimage. They show up by the thousands and stay in the countryside or town or with families.

We were free to dangle our feet off a 40 foot cliff for example. However, the churches of Lalibela are beginning to be 'preserved' by a tourist board from the EU. This is both good and bad. The tourist board wants to keep the churches is good shape and protect the structures from rain and deterioration, so they've made some enormous canopies over a couple of them. Good, good. But, they also want to do traditional things for preserving a place - things like closing off sections. All of this is very difficult to do when the locals see these incredible buildings as THEIR churches that still need to be used. The priest still needs to be the only one to enter the holy of holies. The churches still need to be accessible to the thousands of people who journey to them and they still need to hold services on an almost daily basis. So, it will be interesting to see what happens, but we were continually thankful that we went before the tide turned.

Each church has its own processional cross and each one was unique. Below is one of the priests with their cross and King Lalibela's prayer stick. King Lalibela was a very, very, very, very tall man, as the 'T' in the prayer stick is meant to be leaned on during the long services and comes up to your armpit.

The crosses were made of gold, silver, bronze, wood and I can't even remember what else. Many also had etchings on them.

Our guide in the north was Yosef (more about him later) and he grew up in Lalibela. He shared stories with us and told us how some things have or have not changed. Below is the entrance to his church. The bridge is over a 30 foot drop-off and was only built 4 years ago. Yosef remembers being a very small boy holding his mother's hand as they walked over a log to get into the church! The first floor of this church is rather mysterious and is usually flooded with water. As a boy, Yosef and his friends would crawl down and swim in the pitch black. The rock pool made great echos.

Before leaving on Sunday morning, we attended part of the service of one church. The Orthodox church is very similar to the Catholic church. The service was, quite literally, smells and bells. The smell of frankincense pervades the town on Sunday. First the Bible is read in the ancient language of Ge'ez, which no one but the church officers understand. Then a bell is rung and chants echo from throughout the rock compound. This continues for hours and then the priest comes outside, and from under an umbrella translates some scripture from Ge'ez to the modern Amharic language.

The priest of the church is responsible for caring for his parishioners. He also acts as a judge in matters of the law. Much like all priests, I'm sure some are more faithful than others in this area. I would be curious to find out more about the role of the church in people's lives; What Orthodoxy requires of them to be forgiven and what faith people have in God.