In the morning, we paid a pretty adventurous entrance fee (🎟️ 100 USD / 15,000 ETB) to see the Lalibela rock churches. The complex was built in the late 12th and early 13th centuries under King Gebre Meskel Lalibela of the Zagwe dynasty to create a “New Jerusalem” in Ethiopia after the Crusades made pilgrimage to the Holy Land difficult. The hills surrounding the churches are named after sacred mountains in Jerusalem.
Highlights include the 11 monolithic churches carved from a single block of volcanic rock, the symbolic grouping of churches north and south of the “Jordan” River. The rock is hollowed out to create the structure, including doors, windows, and columns. Though often mentioned as the 11th, the eleventh church is named Biete Ghiorgis (House of St. George) and is famously shaped like a cross. One of the churches, Bete Mariam, is the oldest and contains a stone pillar on which King Lalibela supposedly wrote the secrets of the buildings’ construction, though it remains permanently covered. Unlike a museum, the churches are still actively used for daily worship and are considered a “living heritage”.
