Lalibela is a small town in the highlands of northern Ethiopia, approximately 645 km from Addis Ababa. It is also home to a truly awe-inspiring mystery: a series of 11 churches like no other, all built without bricks, mortar, lumber or concrete. Each is carved from a single stone. According to local legend, the churches of Lalibela were carved overnight by angels.
There are two main groups of churches – to the north of the river Jordan:
- Biete Medhani Alem (House of the Saviour of the World)
- Biete Mariam (House of Mary),
- Biete Maskal (House of the Cross)
- Biete Denagel (House of Virgins)
- Biete Golgotha Mikael (House of Golgotha Mikael)
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| Image credit: architecturaldigest.com |
And to the south of the river Jordan:
- Biete Amanuel (House of Emmanuel)
- Biete Qeddus Mercoreus (House of St. Mercoreos)
- Biete Abba Libanos (House of Abbot Libanos)
- Biete Gabriel Raphael (House of Gabriel Raphael)
- and Biete Lehem (House of Holy Bread)
The eleventh church, Biete Ghiorgis (House of St. George), is isolated from the others, but connected by a system of trenches.
The major churches, however, are monoliths, cut from one piece of stone. An elaborate trench system and deep stairwells are the entrances to these below-ground structures.
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| Image credit: UNESCO |
Historians date the building of the churches to the early thirteenth century. But who made them? There is no official record of how the churches came to be. No newsreels or photos, needless to say. There are a few theories.
Some people believe that the churches were created by the Christian crusaders known as the Knights Templar, who were very powerful at that time, but there is no evidence of their involvement.
Other believe the churches were carved around the year 1200 by people called the Zagwe. Their king, Lalibela, is said to have traveled the 1,600 miles to Jerusalem.
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| Image credit: BBC Travel |
Legend has it, when he returned and Jerusalem fell to the Islamic conquest, Lalibela ordered a new home for Christianity. King Lalibela built these churches around Ethiopia’s own stretch of the Jordan River.
Lalibela was the younger brother of Harbay, a ruling king of the Zagwe dynasty in Roha. His mother is said to have seen bees swarming around her second son soon after his birth. She named him Lalibela, meaning “he who has seen bees” in Ge’ez, Ethiopia’s liturgical language and Africa’s only indigenous written tongue. In Ethiopian folklore, bees are messengers of greatness, social advances, and riches.
As the younger brother matured, Harbay felt threatened by these foretellings about his brother. He tried to poison Lalibela, but the poison merely put him into a deathlike sleep for three days.
During that time, an angel carried Lalibela’s soul to heaven to show him the churches he was to build. When he returned to a waking state, Lalibela retreated into the wilderness and, upon God’s order, took a wife named Maskal Kebra, or Exalted Cross.
The interiors of the churches are illuminated by shadowy sunbeams through narrow slits, crosses, and semicircles cut into the rock near their ceilings. In this dim light, one can read the legend of Lalibela written on the church walls. Pictures of saints carefully etched over 800 years ago color these cool halls.
Engineers believe that the builders began each church by digging a trench around what would become the perimeter of the structure and then started digging downward. Working in the darkness below ground, they carved doors and tunnels as they went along.
They also sculpted archways, vaults and columns, just like in traditional churches. Though since the churches at Lalibela were carved from the top down, they didn’t need columns or archways to hold up the ceiling as in freestanding buildings.
Each church has its own unique treasures. Biete Golgotha Mikael holds the tomb of King Lalibela himself, with the figure of Saint Peter etched into the wall of the rock.
Biete Mariam has a fresco of the Star of David on the underside of an arch inside the church.
Biete Ghiorgis is shaped like a cruciform and topped with an etched Coptic cross that can only be seen from above.
The original function of the site as a pilgrimage place still persists and provides evidence of the continuity of social practices. Lalibela is not an easy destination, even for the most devout Coptic Christians who make a yearly pilgramage to this spot in the rugged mountains of Ethiopia. To them it is a place of miracles.
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