Lalibela

After a month away from Ethiopia, the first thing I thought I would do is take a vacation. After all, didn't I deserve it? Well, a couple of friends who we work with in Tanzania had the week off for Easter and decided to come up to Ethiopia for a vacation, which gave me the perfect reason to take a couple of days off and go to a place I've wanted to go since I arrived: Lalibela. Lalibela's north of Addis, about a 1 hour flight away. It's a holy town that's well known for its 11 rock hewn churches, which, according to my guidebook (which is generally cynical about everything in the country), are described as "supernatural."

There's something I've learned in the past few months about famous and amazing sites, which is that every single one of them claims to be "the 8th wonder of the world!" As my family knows, I have a special interest in the 7 wonders of the ancient world, and I dare any one of you (if anyone is still reading this) to try and name more than 3 wonders.

Anyway, it turns out that Lalibela is as amazing as its described to be. The churches are all carved from rock into the ground, so that the roof of the church is at ground level and the base is a good 10 meters or so down below the surface. Some churches were still attached at various points to the rock (semi-monolithic) and others were completely free standing, with only the floor or base still attached to the rock (monolithic). The churches were absolutely breathtaking, amazing feats of architecture, artistic beauty, and holiness. I actually thought about believing in god for a second in there.

As usual, here are some photos:

St. George's church, us in the rain (we're holding out our hands because it's raining but you can't really tell), and an area between a few churches, which kind of gives you an idea of the underground like feel of the whole thing.