EA V: Lalibela, "eighth wonder of the world"

The northern Ethiopian town of Lalibela was named for a King Lalibela, whose name means "the honey eater." He was so named because a swarm of bees attended his birth, we're told.

Before that it was called Roha and the old name is still used today by some restaurants and bars.

In the 12th century, following some political intrigue and visits from angels, Lalibela's older brother, who was king, abdicated. Lalibela took over.

Lalibela was very religous and had many dreams and angels visit him. One told him that he should recreate in Ethiopia the city of Jerusalem, which he had visited.

So Lalibela set about to do that. He ordered churches be carved out of the stone around the city, which was the capital of Ethiopia at the time.

Twelve churches were built in Lalibela over 24 years. An extra year was necessary for the vestments and stuff.

Today the monolithic churches of Lalibela are considered the "eighth wonder of the world," (or so they continually tell you in Lalibela) and the city of 14,000 has become a mecca to Ethiopian Orthodox followers, especially at Orthodox Christmas.

Many of the churches were covered with scaffolding and tin roofs to protect them from erosion; apparently UNESCO is working on a plan to build less intrusive-looking domes of some sort over them. But we were pleased to see that Bete Giyorgis, the one photographed in all the tourist brochures and posters, did not have scaffolding so we could take our own picture and share it with you:



Tourists are allowed inside almost all the churches, which are still used for services. Most are lit by candles, single light-bulbs or by the windows alone, and many of their ceilings were covered with beautiful painted frescoes. Flash photography was mostly not allowed, so we didn't take many photos inside.

Each church has its own special cross, made of solid gold or silver or brass. Priests are on-duty all the time to take care of the crosses and other saintly or holy items no one is allowed to see.

The priests take up the crosses when people come in, and they let us take pictures of them. As you can see, they were very cool:



Ha, really they put on the sunglasses to protect their eyes from all the tourists taking photographs of them all day long. [Wendy says: I turned off my flash for this one, so he looks much more serious]:



[Wendy notes: I found the crosses very interesting. We saw dozens of different corsses, usually very elaborate, incorporating birds or leaves or other extra designs, and each was named for a different saint or religious figure (See some here).

But we never even once saw what I previously considered the "typical" Orthodox cross, the type found on many Orthodox churches in Winnipeg -- this one with the extra bar or bars.

I asked several of our guides about this, but they either didn't know why this was or didn't know what I was talking about. But I later learned that there are different types of Orthodoxy, so maybe that explains it.]

This embossed carving is of an apostle and was in a room that was off-limits to women, apparently because there were no female disciples. Wendy sat outside while I visited.



[Wendy notes: being able to take photographs on the "men-only" side does seem to lessen its top-secret impact. But I'm glad I got a chance to see!]

Here's some photos from the outside of the church:



That's our guide lounging there. Look close, there are no bricks in those walls. All of the churches were carved from stone by master craftsmen. We could still see the chisel marks in the walls.

This one was carved so the walls would look like wood:



Our guide was once a deacon in the above church and in training to be a priest. Due one of the many conflicts in Ethiopia's recent history, he was forced into separation with his wife and their relationship ended in divorce, ruining his future religious career. A sad story. But he made a great tour-guide for churches, as he knew all the details of all the religious stories and practices.



Still no bricks . . . just one solid piece of rock . . .



That's a short tunnel connecting two churches. We went through one that was over twenty metres long, lit only by the tiny flashlight of our guide. The tunnel was even longer, but it is still being restored, so we only did the first twenty metres, which is plenty long enough.

Our last day in Lalibela we went on a very long, very bumpy trip through the countryside to see another church, this one built into a huge natural cave. The pictures of that one aren't ready yet. But here's a village we passed by on our way there, with tiny circular houses with thatched roofs:



And a close-up of typical rural home in Ethiopia's north:



Ethiopia's population is about 70 million, and most of the northern residents seem to live in tiny huts like this one, which are spread all over the countryside on tiny subsistence farms.

The population figure really came to life for us as we drove around rural areas outside larger communities like Gondar and Lalibela. We'd be driving around in what seemed to be a completely empty area -- not a person in sight.

Then we'd pull over to have lunch or stretch our legs or whatnot, and suddenly a couple dozen children would appear, seemingly out of nowhere, to gape at the "farenje" and their guides. Then you'd look a little closer at the hillsides and see all these little huts and farms blending into the surrounding landscape. Amazing.