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Inevitably,
a fortress mentality took root: an intense suspicion of the motives of strangers,
a hatred of intrusion and interference, a protective secrecy. During this period
roughly from the seventh to the sixteenth centuries AD - the Ethiopians, encompassed
by the enemies of their religion, were described by the British historian Edward
Gibbon as having slept for near a thousand years, forgetful of the world by whom
they were forgotten. It is true, moreover, that in holding back those who sought
to destroy their faith, the highlanders also effectively cut themselves off from
the evolving mainstream of Christian culture. This is the only sense, however,
in which they slept. Their unique, idiosyncratic civilization was otherwise very
much awake - a singular and spirited affirmation of the creative power of the
human intellect. Many improvisations were so vital,
so uplifting, that they have endured to the present day as living expressions
of the central and lasting values of Christian Ethiopian culture. Paramount among
these priceless legacies, like a great heart beating out an ancient but powerful
pulse, is the monastic settlement of Lalibela on a natural 2,600-metre rock terrace
surrounded on all sides by rugged and forbidding mountains in the northern extreme
of the modern province of Wollo. 
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| Once the thriving and populous capital city
of a medieval dynasty, the passing centuries have reduced Lalibela to a village.
From the road below, it remains little more than invisible against a horizon dominated
by the 4,200-metre peak of Mount Abuna Joseph. Even
close-up it seems wholly unremarkable. It is this camouflaged, chameleon quality,
however, that gives the remote settlement its special and lasting place in the
life of the highlands - for there, some 800 years ago, safe from the prying eyes
and plundering hands of hostile interlopers, a noble king fashioned a secret marvel.
Lalibela, previously known as Roha, is named after
the king. The word itself, which translates to mean the bees, recognizes his sovereignty
and the people of the region still recount the legend that explains why. Lalibela
was born in Roha in the second half of the twelfth century, the youngest son of
the royal line of the Zagwe dynasty, which then ruled over much of northern Ethiopia.
Despite several elder brothers he was destined for greatness from his earliest
days. Not long after his birth, his mother found a swarm of bees around his crib
and recalled an old belief that the animal world foretold important futures. She
cried out: -The bees know that this child will become king. 
But
trials and tribulations followed. The ruling king feared for his throne and tried
to have Lalibela murdered and persecutions continued for several years - culminating
in a deadly potion that left the young prince in mortal sleep. During the three-day
stupor, Lalibela was transported by angels to the first, second and third heavens
where God told him not to worry but to return to Roha and build churches - the
like of which the world had never seen before. God also told Lalibela how to design
the churches, where to build them and how to decorate them. Once
he was crowned, he gathered masons, carpenters, tools, set down a scale of wages
and purchased the land needed for the building. The churches are said to have
been built with great speed because angels continued the work at night
such apocryphal folklore. The Lalibela churches, however,
silence the most cynical pedants. These towering edifices were hewn out of the
solid, red volcanic tuff on which they stand. In consequence, they seem to be
of superhuman creation - in scale, in workmanship and in concept. Close examination
is required to appreciate the full extent of the achievement because, like medieval
mysteries, much effort has been made to cloak their nature. Some lie almost completely
hidden in deep trenches, while others stand in open quarried caves. A complex
and bewildering labyrinth of tunnels and narrow passageways with offset crypts,
grottoes and galleries connects them all - a cool, lichen- enshrouded, subterranean
world, shaded and damp, silent but for the faint echoes of distant footfalls as
priests and deacons go about their timeless business.  
Four
are completely free-standing, attached only to the surrounding rock by their bases.
These are Beta Medhane Alem, the House of the Savior of the World; Beta Ghenetta
Mariam, the House of Mary; Beta Ammanuel, the House of Emanuel; and Beta Ghiorghis,
the House of St George. Although their individual dimensions and configurations
are extremely different, the churches are all built from great blocks of stone,
sculptured to resemble normal buildings and wholly isolated within deep courtyards.
They represent, as one authority has put it, the ultimate in rock-church design....
One is amazed at the technical skill, the material resources and the continuity
of effort.which such vast undertakings imply. |
