Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela: Ethiopia's New Jerusalem

The rock-hewn churches of Lalibela are eleven medieval churches carved directly out of volcanic rock in the highlands of northern Ethiopia. Traditionally created under King Lalibela of the Zagwe dynasty in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, they were conceived as a “New Jerusalem” for Ethiopian Christians. Still used for worship and pilgrimage, they are among the most remarkable religious monuments in the world.

Background: King Lalibela and the Zagwe

Lalibela lies at about 2,500 metres above sea level in the Lasta mountains, in today’s Amhara Region. In the Middle Ages the town was called Roha and served as a royal centre of the Zagwe dynasty, a line of Christian kings from the Agaw people who ruled the Ethiopian highlands from the 12th century until 1270.

King Lalibela, who probably reigned from the 1180s to the 1220s, is the ruler most closely tied to the churches. According to his later hagiography, a life of the king written as a saint’s story, God revealed to him a vision of the churches he must create. The town was later renamed in his honour. Ethiopian Christianity itself went back to the 4th century and the conversion of the Kingdom of Aksum.

Why build a New Jerusalem?

The idea of Lalibela as a new Jerusalem is central to its meaning. A seasonal stream running through the site is called the Yordanos, after the River Jordan, and features of the complex bear names such as Golgotha, Mount Sinai and the Tomb of Adam. Pilgrims move through the churches as if through the holy places of Palestine.

A popular explanation links the project to the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin in 1187, which made pilgrimage harder for Christians from many lands. Ethiopian Christians had long travelled to Jerusalem and maintained a presence there. Historians note that this connection is plausible but not documented in contemporary sources, and that the symbolic geography may have developed over time.

The churches

The churches fall into two main groups on either side of the Yordanos, with the eleventh church, Bete Giyorgis, standing on its own. They are linked by trenches, tunnels and passages cut through the rock.

The northwestern group includes:

• Bete Medhane Alem (House of the Saviour of the World), often said to be the largest monolithic church in the world, about 33 metres long, 23 metres wide and 11 metres high, surrounded by a colonnade of pillars.
• Bete Maryam (House of Mary), possibly the oldest of the group, with painted ceilings and carved decoration.
• Bete Meskel and Bete Danagel, smaller chapels.
• Bete Golgotha-Mikael, a double church containing carved figures of saints, with the Selassie chapel and the so-called Tomb of Adam nearby.

The eastern group includes Bete Amanuel, Bete Merkorios, Bete Abba Libanos and Bete Gabriel-Rufael. Some of these were cut from larger rock masses and may have begun as other kinds of buildings before becoming churches.

Tradition also connects individual churches with members of the royal family. Bete Abba Libanos, for example, is said to have been made in memory of King Lalibela by his queen, Masqal Kibra. Such stories cannot be verified, but they show how closely the churches are tied to the memory of the Zagwe court.

Inside, the churches follow the plan of Ethiopian Orthodox worship. Each has a sanctuary containing a tabot, a consecrated tablet representing the Ark of the Covenant, which only priests may see. Several churches preserve wall and ceiling paintings, though many are of later date, and carved crosses, arches and geometric patterns decorate pillars and ceilings.

Standing alone to the southwest, Bete Giyorgis (House of Saint George) is the most famous. Shaped as a Greek cross in plan, it was carved down about 12 metres into the rock from the surface, so that visitors first see its cross-shaped roof at ground level. Legend says Saint George himself rode to Lalibela to ask for his own church.

How they were made

The churches were made by subtraction rather than construction. Workers first cut deep trenches into the soft reddish volcanic rock, known as scoria, to isolate a block, then hollowed it out to form rooms, columns, arches and windows. Some churches are fully monolithic, standing free of the surrounding rock on all sides; others are semi-monolithic, still attached on one or more sides; and some are cut into cliff faces like caves.

Many architectural details imitate earlier Aksumite buildings, which were made of alternating wood and stone. At Lalibela these features, such as projecting “monkey-head” beam ends and recessed walls, are reproduced in stone purely as decoration. This shows the craftsmen’s awareness of older Ethiopian traditions.

The builders also had to manage water. In the rainy season heavy downpours flood the highlands, so the trenches around the churches were cut with channels and drains to lead water away. Without this system the soft rock would have eroded far faster. Iron picks and chisels were probably the main tools, and the vast quantities of rock removed had to be carried out of the trenches by hand.

Nothing is known for certain about the workforce. Ethiopian tradition says angels helped the workers, labouring by night, and claims the churches were finished in about 24 years. Modern estimates of the labour involved vary greatly, and archaeologists believe the work may have been spread across a longer period than a single reign.

Questions of date

Tradition firmly credits King Lalibela, but the archaeologist David Phillipson has argued that several structures, especially in the eastern group, began as secular or defensive buildings perhaps several centuries earlier and were only later converted to churches. Others disagree with parts of this reconstruction. Because there are no inscriptions or securely dated deposits, the precise sequence remains uncertain.

Written sources help only a little. The main account of the king’s life, his hagiography, was composed long after his death and mixes history with miracles. Land grants copied into Gospel books from the Zagwe period name King Lalibela and confirm that he was a real ruler, but they say little about how the churches were made. Archaeological excavation around the churches has been limited, partly because the site is in constant religious use.

What is widely accepted is that the complex took its present form under the Zagwe and became a royal and religious centre by the 13th century. After the Solomonic dynasty replaced the Zagwe in 1270, see Yekuno Amlak and the Solomonic dynasty, Lalibela lost its political role but kept its religious importance.

European discovery and later history

The first European known to have described the churches was the Portuguese priest Francisco Álvares, who visited Ethiopia with a Portuguese embassy in the 1520s. In his account he described the churches in detail and remarked that he was tired of writing about them because he feared readers would not believe him.

In the centuries that followed, Lalibela remained remote, reachable only on foot or by mule. Its churches survived wars, including the invasions of the Adal sultanate in the 16th century, and were maintained by local clergy. In 1978 the site was among the first twelve places inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Concern over erosion and water damage led to the construction of large protective shelters over several churches in the late 2000s, a measure that has itself been debated.

Pilgrimage and worship today

Lalibela is not a museum but a living religious site of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Priests hold services daily, and the churches keep manuscripts, processional crosses and other treasures. The largest gathering is for Genna, the Ethiopian Christmas, celebrated on 7 January, when tens of thousands of pilgrims, many dressed in white, fill the trenches and rock ledges to watch the ceremonies. Timkat, the feast of Epiphany in January, also draws large crowds.

During these feasts priests in embroidered robes chant in Ge’ez, the ancient liturgical language, accompanied by drums and sistra, while deacons carry ornate crosses. Pilgrims often walk for days to reach the town and spend the night in prayer around the churches. For many Ethiopian Christians, a pilgrimage to Lalibela is a lifetime aspiration. The site also draws large numbers of international visitors, making it one of Ethiopia’s most important cultural destinations.

By the numbers

Timeline

• 4th century: Aksum adopts Christianity.
• c. 12th century: The Zagwe dynasty rules from Lasta.
• 1187: Saladin captures Jerusalem.
• c. 1181-1225: Reign of King Lalibela, by common estimates; the churches take shape.
• 1270: The Zagwe are overthrown by Yekuno Amlak.
• 1520s: Francisco Álvares visits and describes the churches.
• 1978: UNESCO inscribes the churches on the World Heritage List.
• Late 2000s: Protective shelters are installed over several churches.

Why it matters

The churches of Lalibela are a masterpiece of medieval engineering and a powerful expression of faith, carved by African craftsmen into the living rock. They link Ethiopia’s ancient Christian tradition to its present, and they remain one of the few great medieval monuments in the world still used as their builders intended.