Lalibela - A City Carved from Legend

Last week Matt, Jamie, Margaret, & I jumped on plane and flew to Lalibela, and ancient city filled with legend, symbolism, and wonder. Matt & Jamie are a couple here who work with the Education Resource Center (ERC) which offers English classes as a door into people's lives. Margs is one of their friends from Florida who quickly became our friend, too!

The small town of Lalibela is home to one of the world's most astounding sacred sites: 11 rock-hewn churches, each carved entirely out of a single block of granite with its roof at ground level.

Were it not for these extraordinary churches, Lalibela would almost certainly be well off the tourist radar. A dusty rural town nestled into rolling countryside, Lalibela only recently got electricity. It has few motorized vehicles, no gas stations and no paved streets. Isolated from the modern world, the town goes about its business much as it has for several hundred years.

A little history: During the late 12th century, King Lalibela's goal was to create a New Jerusalem for those who could not make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. As such, many features have Biblical names - even the town's river is known as the River Jordan. Popular legend has it that angels came every night to pick up where the workmen had left off. So enough history... now some pictures!

The gang

The view surrounding Lalibela - breathtaking.

A few of the rock-hewn churches

The girls with Bet Giorgis in the background.

So my roommate, Jen's tagline is "Love you, love your hair." I think this picture exemplifies this quote!

We also took donkey / horse rides through the countryside. Here's Margs... this may be my favorite picture from the trip!

Our following of animals and sometimes small children. The joys of Africa! Love it.

Okay... the next series of pictures needs to be prefaced. So there is another church, Yimrehane Kristos, which is 43 km from Lalibela. To get there you take a beautiful drive throughout the countryside in a landcruiser and then climb this fairly steep and rocky path to get to the church. The church is in a cave with a small waterfall in front of it. As you walk into the cave you feel as though you have entered an Indiana Jones movie - you are in an ancient church in a cave with bats chirping and flying above your head. The only light is from the sun outside the cave and your small flashlight - or as they call it " your torch".

So as your walk towards the back of the church you stumble upon a mountain of bones, human bones. Thousands of mummies of holy people who have pilgrimaged to the city remain there. The Indiana Jones movie becomes more and more real.

Yes, this is our feet beside a skull that you might just happen to trip over... no biggie.

These are prayer sticks which the people lean upon during the service or while they are praying since they stand the entire time... kind of like an Aggie football game. Maybe we should market them in College Station.

So this my favorite picture, only next to the pic of Margs on the donkey... so each church has a priest who poses all day long with the processional cross for pictures... well the priests think that they will go blind from all the pictures so they sport the shades. Well this priest was especially legit with aviators, so we decided to join him.

The view from our boucany in our hotel room... To me personally, Father's beauty is always more evident in His creation than in buildings and things made by man... as rich in history and tradition as they may be, His creation will always be more ancient and glorious.