“Still be in the church of Lalibela, singing hymns a cappella”
- Lauryn Hill from the song The Final Hour off her Grammy-award winning album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
On November 29 and 30, Mary, Eric and I set out for a fun-filled weekend in Lalibela, a historic, religious and cultural site in Northern Ethiopia which has been designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site and a must-see for any traveler coming to Ethiopia. The Lonely Planet describes Lalibela in the following terms at page 155:
An ancient world, including 11 magnificent medieval rock-hewn churches, dimly lit passageways, hidden crypts and grottoes, was carved down into the red volcanic rock underlying this remote Ethiopian town almost a millennia ago. Today that world still remains, frozen in stone.
[…]
Lalibela, a World Heritage site, undoubtedly ranks among the greatest religio-historical sites in the Christian world.
We woke up bright and early Saturday morning and our wonderful landlord Terefe drove us to the airport to catch our flight from Addis to Lalibela. The flight stopped on the way in Bahir Dar and Gondor before landing in Lalibela – it took about 2-2.5 hours to fly there. We emerged from our small propeller plane, a little frazzled by the up and down journey but completely thrilled to be exploring Lalibela. You see, I have heard so much about Lalibela from friends back home who have visited Ethiopia and from the locals here, that I was looking forward to exploring this must-see destination.
We found the shuttle bus to take us to our hotel, the Seven Olives Hotel, and were greeted on the way by an impressive landscape unlike anything we had seen in Ethiopia to date. The landscape was an amalgamation of rolling hills, blue skies, carved rocky platforms and various forms of vegetation. Lalibela did not boast the lushness of Bahir Dar but the juxtaposition of the rock against the plains combined with the intricately crafted trees was truly stunning!
The Seven Olives had a nice restaurant and the rooms had the smell of a strong disinfectant. There were poinsettias around the restaurant’s patio, so it was officially my first taste of Christmas in Ethiopia (you see Christmas is not celebrated here until January 7, pursuant to the Ethiopian Orthodox calendar, so the Christmas carols, the shopping centre displays and the festive mainstays so common at home have been virtually non-existent so far in Ethiopia).
After lunch, we set of on a trek in Lalibela walking down the meandering cobblestone paths with their steep curves, rolling elevations and winding borders. We saw the Lalibela market with its huge crowds of people. We decided not to venture into the market because the whole scene, while beautiful was also completely overwhelming with its level of excitement, crowds and activity.
Along the way, I was greeted by a number of people with the obligatory “Hey You, where are you from?” I have taken to ignoring these questions now because it tends to become problematic and not all people are warm and fuzzy characters. The children were particularly fascinated by the group of three firenjes (foreigners) winding through their town. Little children began following me and yelling Namaste (the reverential greeting for hello used in India)! One person came up to me and said “Namaste sir”. Eventually it became too much to ignore and I began folding my arms in salutation (as is traditional with the Namaste greeting) bowing dramatically and repeating Namaste with as much enthusiasm as I could muster. I had at that very moment become the Unofficial Ambassador of India in Lalibela. Go figure.
We arrived at the main gates to visit the 11 rock-hewn churches and found our absolutely fantastic guide for the day, Getanew, who took us around to all of the churches for the fantastic price of 150 birr for the group (approximately 15 USD). The admission price per person to the churches was 200 birr per person (20 USD). He informed us that the churches were constructed by St. Lalibela who was also a king of the entire region and a skilled engineer and architect (talk about multi-tasking). His rationale for building the churches was that he wanted to construct a Jerusalem in Ethiopia, so that believers could go on this religious pilgrimage within Ethiopia itself. Every year, especially around January 7, masses of people make the pilgrimage to Lalibela, many on foot (who travel for a month leading up to the 7th). The goal is each religious aspirant is to make the trek at least once in his or her lifetime.
There are three types of churches in the northern and southern cluster which comprise the 11 churches. The first type is a monolithic church (all sides are detached from the surrounding rock). The second type is the semi-monolithic (some of the sides are detached) and the third type is a cave church, where the roof of the edifice is the original rock from the caves. Each of the churches was carved out of one large piece of rock.
When navigating through the maze of rock and visiting the various churches, we witnessed a group of monks chanting religious prayers, first starting as a faint hum accompanying the wafting smell of religious incense. Slowly but steadily, the chanting grew stronger in intensity and volume and reverberated through the caverns, tunnels and churches that formed the Lalibela landscape.
The following descriptions which our guide gave to us (and which I tried to write down in my trust reporter-notebook) provide a few details on some of the churches. I apologize if the details are minimal or unclear. I am trying to decipher my messy notes nearly 10 days after first writing them down:
1) Beta Medanyalam
• This is the church of the Holy Saviour
• The Columns were rebuilt after their collapse in 1954
• This is the largest church in the cluster
• Men and women must enter the church through separate entrances
• In an effort at restoration, the church was painted a bright red in 1954, but then people thought that this took away from the ancient, historic look of the area and scraped the paint off in 1968, causing extensive damage to the edifice in the process
• Around the church (and in fact many of the churces) are holes in the rock walls which served as tombs for respected and revered religious figures of the past
• There is also a square well near the church which was traditionally used as baptism pool
• The corner of the church is defined by a cross which is to serve as a reminder of the struggle in Christianity
2) Bet-Le-Hem – this is the small space used by the priests to prepare holy communion. It is only accessible to the priests.
3) Beta-Denagil (the Church of the Maiden Nuns)
• Smallest church
• There are four columns to symbolize the four evangelists
• According to the Lonely Planet, this church was said to have been constructed “in memory of the maiden nuns martyred on the orders of the 4th-century Roman emperor Julian in Edessa (modern-day Turkey).”
4) Beta Maryam (the Church of the Virgin).
• In this church, there is a painting of Mary’s journey from Jerusalem to Egypt
• There is also a painting of a rooster, symbolizing the episode that St. Peter would betray Lord Jesus 3 times before the rooster crows
5) Bet-Debrezina
• There are several types of crosses on the roof in this church
• In this church there is also the place known as Golgota, only open to men, where there is found a symbolic representation of Jesus’ tomb
• When asked why only men were allowed to visit this room, our tour guide informed us that this is rooted in history and in the fact that during the resurrection, Mary Magdalene feared the tomb and was drawn back and that only the other apostles went into the tomb itself
Between the churches, St. Lalibela constructed a man-made river called the River Jordan.
6) Beta Ghiorghis
• This is the tallest and youngest church in the clusters and is shaped like a cross
• The church is 12m by 12m inside
• In this church, there is also an enclave in the wall which holds the skeletons of various Saints (about 400 or so) which are still visible to all visitors (these skeletons have still not decayed)
• The priest in this church is holding the Lalibela-style cross (In each church we visited, the priest would prominently hold the cross of the particular church for all visitors to see)
• Outside of this church, there is also a small patch of holy grass used for prayer
From cluster 1 to cluster 2 of the churches, there is a steep and narrow staircase carved in the rock that is called the Path of Heaven.
7) Beta Gabriel and Raphael
• There is a huge cavern outside of the church that is to symbolize the distinction between heaven and hell and also to denote that there is another separate level known as paradise which will only become known at the end of civilization
• 800 year old book written in the Giz language is found in these 2 churches describing the history and miracles of angels
After this church, we walked through a dark, narrow underground tunnel (completely dark, pitch black) to lead us to another set of churches. It was completely dark and ominous and there was no sound whatsoever except the sound of our conversation echoing off the walls.
8) Beta-Merkorios
• large painting of St. George who rode a white horse
9) Beta- Emmanuel
• Monolithic church, 2nd largest in the clusters
• It was also painted red in 1954 and hen scrapped off causing extensive cracing, decay and weakening of the edifice
10) Beta-Abalivanos
• This is the cave-church all sides are detached and the roof is a cave
• This is the Church of the Father
• There is no gallery in this church unlike many of the other churches
Other random facts:
• Along the way, our tour guide was a wealth of random, unrelated information. He showed us the Kaskasse plant which is a laxative that helps the user vomit out any illness or bad food consumed earlier. As the old NBC commerical would sing after a celebrity would talk about the virtues of literacy and staying in school: "THE MORE YOU KNOW"
• Toockool house – We saw a number of these houses during our trek and during our stay in Lalibela. These houses look like silos with a pointy roof – almost like a shortened castle turret built directly into the ground.
• We also visited Mount Tabor which is the highest hill/peak overlooking the churches.
• There is some unfortunately large and prominent UNESCO scaffolding supporting many of the churches which takes away a bit of the majesty of the site.
• I have taken many photos of the churches which I will attempt to post if the Google / Picasa Photo-album ever cooperates. Side Note: Thanks to Tyra Banks and her talk show (a sentence I never thought I would use), I learnt that the digital camera has a mode called Sepia which lets you take pictures that look more ancient/old-school – so I have done a bit of photo-experimenting. (also some black and white shots too).
On our flight back, I fell asleep, as I am prone to do, and was shocked when I discovered that we reached Addis in ½ hour. Apparently, the flight back is a direct flight without all of the stops we encountered on our way there.
All in all, the Lalibela trip was a memorable experience without the crazy drama and misadventures that we faced on our trip to Bahir Dar back in September. Good times.
