Lalibela

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For other uses, see Lalibela (disambiguation).
Lalibela
ላሊበላ
The Church of Saint George, one of many churches hewn into the rocky hills of Lalibela
The Church of Saint George, one of many churches hewn into the rocky hills of Lalibela
Lalibela is located in Ethiopia
Lalibela
Lalibela
Location in Ethiopia
Coordinates: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Country Ethiopia
Region Amhara Region
Zone Semien Wollo Zone
Population (2005)
 • Total 14,668 (est)
Time zone EAT (UTC+3)

Lalibela is a town in northern Ethiopia famous for monolithic rock-cut churches. Lalibela is one of Ethiopia's holiest cities, second only to Aksum, and a center of pilgrimage. Unlike Aksum, the population of Lalibela is almost completely Ethiopian Orthodox Christian. Ethiopia is one of the earliest nations to adopt Christianity in the first half of the fourth century, and its historical roots date to the time of the Apostles.

The layout and names of the major buildings in Lalibela are widely accepted, especially by local clergy, to be a symbolic representation of Jerusalem.[1] This has led some experts to date the current church forms to the years following the capture of Jerusalem in 1187 by Muslim leader, Saladin.[2]

Lalibela is located in the Semien Wollo Zone of the Amhara ethnic division (or kilil), at roughly 2,500 meters above sea level. It is the main town in Lasta woreda, which was formerly part of Bugna woreda.

History

During the reign of Saint Gebre Mesqel Lalibela (a member of the Zagwe Dynasty, who ruled Ethiopia in the late 12th century and early 13th century), the current town of Lalibela was known as Roha. The saintly king was named so, because a swarm of bees is said to have surrounded him at his birth, which his mother took as a sign of his future reign as Emperor of Ethiopia. The names of several places in the modern town and the general layout of the rock-cut churches themselves are said to mimic names and patterns observed by Lalibela during the time he spent as a youth in Jerusalem and the Holy Land.

Lalibela, revered as a saint, is said to have seen Jerusalem, and then attempted to build a new Jerusalem as his capital in response to the capture of old Jerusalem by Muslims in 1187. Each church was carved from a single piece of rock to symbolize spirituality and humility. Christian faith inspires many features with Biblical names –- even Lalibela's river is known as the River Jordan. Lalibela remained the capital of Ethiopia from the late 12th into the 13th century.

The first European to see these churches was the Portuguese explorer Pêro da Covilhã (1460–1526). Portuguese priest Francisco Álvares (1465–1540), accompanied the Portuguese Ambassador on his visit to Lebna Dengel in the 1520s. He describes the unique church structures as follows:

I weary of writing more about these buildings, because it seems to me that I shall not be believed if I write more...I swear by God, in Whose power I am, that all I have written is the truth[3]

Priest of rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela, a high place of Ethiopian Christianity, still today a place of pilgrimage and devotion. Lalibela, Ethiopia

Although Ramuso included plans of several of these churches in his 1550 printing of Álvares' book, who supplied the drawings remains a mystery. The next reported European visitor to Lalibela was Miguel de Castanhoso, who served as a soldier under Christovão da Gama and left Ethiopia in 1544.[4] After de Castanhoso, more than 300 years passed until the next European, Gerhard Rohlfs, visited Lalibela some time between 1865 and 1870.

According to the Futuh al-Habasa of Sihab ad-Din Ahmad, Ahmad Gragn burned one of the churches of Lalibela during his invasion of Ethiopia.[5] However, Richard Pankhurst has expressed his skepticism about this event, pointing out that although Sihab ad-Din Ahmad provides a detailed description of a rock-hewn church ("It was carved out of the mountain. Its pillars were likewise cut from the mountain."[5]), only one church is mentioned; Pankhurst adds that "what is special about Lalibela, (as every tourist knows), is that it is the site of eleven or so rock churches, not just one –- and they are all within more or less a stone's throw of each other!"[6] Pankhurst also notes that the Royal Chronicles, which mention Ahmad Gragn's laying waste to the district between July and September 1531, are silent about the Imam ravaging the fabled churches of this city.[7] He concludes by stating that had Ahmad Gragn burned a church at Lalibela, it was most likely Bete Medhane Alem; and if the Muslim Army was either mistaken or misled by the locals, then the church he set fire to was Gannata Maryam, "10 miles east of Lalibela which likewise has a colonnade of pillars cut from the mountain."[8]

Churches

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Rock-Hewn Churches, Lalibela
Name as inscribed on the World Heritage List
Church of Saint George.
Type Cultural
Criteria i, ii, iii
Reference 18
UNESCO region Africa
Inscription history
Inscription 1978 (2nd Session)
Lalibela area map

This rural town is known around the world for its churches carved from within the earth from "living rock," which play an important part in the history of rock-cut architecture. Though the dating of the churches is not well established, most are thought to have been built during the reign of Lalibela, namely during the 12th and 13th centuries. Unesco identifies 11 churches,[9] assembled in four groups:

The Northern Group:

The Western Group:

  • Biete Giyorgis (Church of Saint George), thought to be the most finely executed and best preserved church

The Eastern Group:

Farther afield, lie the monastery of Ashetan Maryam and Yimrehane Kristos church, (possibly eleventh century, built in the Aksumite fashion, but within a cave).

There is some controversy as to when some of the churches were constructed. David Buxton established the generally accepted chronology, noting that "two of them follow, with great fidelity of detail, the tradition represented by Debra Damo as modified at Yemrahana Kristos."[11] Since the time spent to carve these structures from the living rock must have taken longer than the few decades of King Lalibela's reign, Buxton assumes that the work extended into the 14th century.[12] However, David Phillipson, professor of African archeology at Cambridge University, has proposed that the churches of Merkorios, Gabriel-Rufael, and Danagel were initially carved out of the rock half a millennium earlier, as fortifications or other palace structures in the waning days of the Axumite Kingdom, and that Lalibela's name simply came to be associated with them after his death.[13] On the other hand, local historian Getachew Mekonnen credits Masqal Kibra, Lalibela's queen, with having one of the rock-hewn churches (Abba Libanos) built as a memorial for her husband after his death.[14]

Contrary to theories advocated by writers like Graham Hancock, according to Buxton the great rock-hewn churches of Lalibela were not built with the help of the Knights Templar; asserting abundant evidence exists to show that they were produced solely by medieval Ethiopian civilization. For example, while Buxton notes the existence of a tradition that "Abyssinians invoked the aid of foreigners" to construct these monolithic churches, and admits that "there are clearly signs of Coptic influence in some decorative details" (hardly surprising given the theological, ecclesiastical, and cultural links between the Ethiopian Orthodox and Coptic Orthodox Churches), he is adamant about the native origins of these creations: "But the significant fact remains that the rock-churches continue to follow the style of the local built-up prototypes, which themselves retain clear evidence of their basically Axumite origin."[15]

The churches are also a significant engineering feat, given that they are all associated with water (which fills the wells next to many of the churches), exploiting an artesian geological system that brings the water up to the top of the mountain ridge on which the city rests.[16]

Other UNESCO Mission reports

In a 1970 report of the historic dwellings of Lalibela, Sandro Angel evaluated the vernacular earthen architecture on the Lalibela World Heritage Site, including the characteristics of the traditional earth houses and analysis of their state of conservation.

His report described two types of vernacular housing found in the area. One type are a group he calls the "tukuls", round huts built of stone and usually having two stories. The second are the single-storey "chika" buildings which are round and built of earth and wattle, which he feels reflects more "scarcity". Angel's report also included an inventory of Lalibela's traditional buildings, placing them in categories rating their state of conservation.[17]

  • Lalibela-Toukoul.jpg
  • Lalibela-Maisons.jpg
  • Houses, Lalibela, Ethiopia (8178717008).jpg
  • Lalibela-Habitation.jpg
  • Lalibela Village.jpg

Other features

Man standing beside the walls of Bete Medhane Alem, believed to be the largest monolithic church in the world.

Lalibela is also home to an airport (ICAO code HALL, IATA LLI), a large market, two schools and a hospital.

Demographics

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency in 2005, the town has an estimated total population of 14,668 of whom 7,049 were males and 7,619 were females.[18] The 1994 national census recorded its population to be 8,484 of whom 3,709 were males and 4,775 were females.

Image gallery

  • Bete Medhane Alem

  • Bete Amanuel

  • Ritual drums in a side track of Bete Giyorgis

  • Bete Abba Libanos

  • Bete Maryam

See also

References

  1. ↑ David W. Phillipson, Ancient Churches of Ethiopia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), p. 181
  2. ↑ Phillipson, Ancient Churches, p. 179
  3. ↑ Francisco Alvarez, The Prester John of the Indies, translated by C.F. Beckingham and G.W.B. Huntingford (Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1961), p. 226. Beckingham and Huntingford added an appendix that discusses Alvarez's description of these churches, pp. 526-42.
  4. ↑ De Castanhoso's account is translated in R.S. Whiteway, The Portuguese Expedition to Ethiopia (London: The Hakluyt Society, 1902), pp. 94-98.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Sihab ad-Din Ahmad bin 'Abd al-Qader, Futuh al-Habasa: The conquest of Ethiopia, translated by Paul Lester Stenhouse with annotations by Richard Pankhurst (Hollywood: Tsehai, 2003), pp. 346f.
  6. ↑ Pankhurst, "Did the Imam Reach Lalibela?" Addis Tribune, 21 November 2003
  7. ↑ Sihab ad-Din Ahmad, Futuh al-Hasasa, p. 346n. 785.
  8. ↑ Sihab ad-Din Ahmad, Futuh al-Hasasa, p. 346n. 786.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Bethlehem
  11. ↑ David Buxton, The Abyssinians (New York: Praeger, 1970), p. 110
  12. ↑ Buxton, The Abyssinians, p. 108
  13. ↑ "Medieval Houses of God, or Ancient Fortresses?" Archaeology (November/December, 2004), p. 10.
  14. ↑ Getachew Mekonnen Hasen, Wollo, Yager Dibab (Addis Ababa: Nigd Matemiya Bet, 1992), p. 24.
  15. ↑ Buxton, The Abysssinians, pp. 103f
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ CSA 2005 National Statistics, Table B.3

Further reading

  • David W. Phillipson, Ancient Churches of Ethiopia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009). Chapter 5, "Lalibela: Eastern Complex and Beta Giyorgis"; Chapter 6, "Lalibela: Northern Complex and Conclusions"
  • Sylvia Pankhurst, "Ethiopia: a cultural history" (Lalibela House, Essex, 1955). Chapter 9, "The monolithic churches of Lalibela"
  • Paul B. Henze, "Layers of time: a history of Ethiopia" (Shama Books, Addis Ababa, 2004). Chapter 3: "Medieval Ethiopia: isolation and expansion"
  • Hancock, Graham, Carol Beckwith & Angela Fisher, African Ark - Peoples of the Horn, Chapter I: Prayers of Stone/The Christian Highlands: Lalibela and Axum. Harvill, An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, ISBN 0-00-272780-3

External links

Development website

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