© UNESCO/Jasmina Šopova
A tight concentration of churches at Lalibela.

Perched at an altitude of 2,500 metres in the Amhara region, the small village of Lalibela has been home to an astonishing gem of religious architecture for the last eight centuries. Constructed of single blocks of stone, the village’s churches were added to the World Heritage List in 1978.

The village was called Roha, “the Wonderful”, back when the very pious king Gebre Mesqel Lalibela had 11 monolithic churches hewn from the rock, linked to each other by a vertiginous maze of tunnels, their walls pierced with cavities, some of them with a foot sticking out of some saint laid to rest there several centuries ago.

The living and the dead are accustomed to rubbing elbows in this place where nothing seems impossible – not even carving an entire church, with portico, naves, vaults, upper stories, windows, out of a single block of stone. Beta Medhane Alem, the largest of the 11 churches inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, rests on 34 pillars forming a rectangle 34 metres by 24. It is practically the size of Notre Dame of Paris!

As for the double church, Golgotha-Michael, also called Debre Sinai and Golgotha: it offers one of the most spectacular views. The king, after whom the village is now named, is buried there, adjacent to the tomb of Adam – ancestor of all humanity, in the Biblical tradition. Take one step in Lalibela, and you tumble from history into myth.

A short distance from this hillside nest of churches lies St George, the only one with a drainage system and probably the most recent of the churches hewn on the orders of King Lalibela. One can see it from a distance jutting out of the earth inside a huge pit with its roof sculpted with interconnected crosses. Standing next to it, you feel dwarfed by the cross-shaped structure, with its 12 façades rising 12 metres. Its three stories are marked on the outside by ledges and windows. “Those at the bottom have no windows because that’s Noah’s level,” says Muchaw, one of the site’s official guides. “It’s to prevent flood water coming in,” he adds with a smile.

To reach another group of churches, which, from afar, seem to be straddling each other, one must walk by a stream called Jordan, which flows past another hill crowned by a small bell hanging on a dead tree – Mount Thabor – and you cross the cave of Bethlehem: the Holy Land in miniature !
According to one of the many contradictory legends surrounding King Lalibela, he founded Roha when he returned from exile in Jerusalem and intended it to become a new holy city in Africa.

It welcomes some 140,000 pilgrims a year, between Christmas and Tikmet (Epiphany), says Belete, the most popular person around. He heads a staff of 20 at the Tourism and Culture Office in the village of 12,000 inhabitants, which is located some 600 km north of Addis Ababa. For Belete, tourism is the wave of the future: “Between July 2007 and March 2008, more than 8,000 tourists stayed in our 12 hotels,” he reports.

His office, funded by the Amhara Regional Council, receives contributions from the central government and from the Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage (ARCCH). Safeguarding projects on the Lalibela site are also supported by the European Union, UNESCO and several NGOs, notably Plan International.

While one of UNESCO’s main concerns is preventing the churches’ deterioration due to infiltration of rainwater, Belete’s first preoccupation is the disadvantaged population that lives on the site and is causing damage. It is imperative to relocate these 270 families as quickly as possible, he thinks.

Right now he lacks a specific plan and an accurate idea of cost, but he is optimistic. For this dynamic young leader, the image of a clean and well maintained Lalibela is paramount. “I spread the word in the village’s five schools and it’s working,” he says proudly.

He is equally worried about the condition of 24 churches in the vicinity of Lalibela, 14 of which are not part of any safeguarding plan. “They should all be inscribed on the World Heritage List,” he maintains. To convince me, he takes me on a tour.

One stands out because of its amazing natural setting. It was built by Lalibela’s predecessor King Imrahana Kirstos.

More than 40 minutes’ drive to cover the 12 kilometres separating Lalibela from a very poor hamlet at the foot of a mountain. Then half an hour of climbing, on a slope with no visible sign of human life… except a group of women returning from the market on the other side of the mountain.

Halfway up, we leave the trail and suddenly an immense cliff looms above us like a thick cloud petrified centuries ago. A small church is nestled there, barely visible. It is protected by a newly-constructed high wall.

The inside of the sanctuary is like a theatre: daylight only reaches one side of the church and a small royal palace of brick and earth nearby. Splendid liturgical drums are heaped on the straw-covered floor. The straw is spread over animal skins, under which are bones. “The church was built on water,” explains the priest, lifting the small lid inserted in the ground to convince unbelievers.

Behind the church, the body of its architect is laid out on the bare ground, wrapped in multicoloured sheets, close to the sarcophagus of the holy king and the tomb of his holy spouse. She bore him no children. “Their union was only spiritual,” says the priest, launching into an astonishing biography of the king, who every day received the visit of the archangels Gabriel and Raphael, bringing food for the 5,740 pilgrims come from the four corners of the world to admire his work and his wisdom. The precision of the numbers is also surprising.

Having shown me the cross God himself forged and gave to Imrahana Kirstos, as well as a triptych painted by the king’s own hand, the priest lets me go off alone to explore the depths of the cave. As my eyes get used to the dark, I spot a grinning skeleton, stretched out in a long wooden box. Recovering from the shock, I see a vast ossuary spread out in front of me. It could easily contain the remains of 5,740 people.

What happened in this grotto? From what period do these bones really date? Answers remain vague. But it seems, in Lalibela, just one step is enough to take you from imagination to reality.

Jasmina Šopova

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Photo 2 : © UNESCO/Jasmina Šopova
Mt Tabor at, Lalibela, named after the site of the transfiguration of Christ in Galilee.

Photo 3 : © UNESCO/Jasmina Šopova
The Imrahana Kirstos church is nestled under this cliff.