Lalibela Rock Hewn Churches Pt 2

 The most famous church, Bete Giorgis, or St. George's.

 Bete Merkorios, the fortress, palace and then prison.

 The entrance to the dark tunnel.

 Kaleb and Tiruye, our shoe lady.

 A priest inside one of the churches and a processional cross.

 Another of the churches.

 Getting from one church to the other.

 This one is thought to be incomplete as the roof is still connected to the rock it was cut from.

 A revisit to St George's Church with the afternoon light.

That is John's and my shadow on the church.

January 29th continued.

The last church was the most amazing and the one I had seen a picture of on the Intrepid website, which made me want to come to Ethiopia. It is Bete Giorgis, or St. George's. It was chiselled out to make 15 m cubic Greek cross. Absolutely stunning and incredible. On the top there is a Greek cross cut out of the rock and draining lines to take rain water off the structure. There is about a ten-foot gap between the walls of the church and the surrounding rock, which had to have been dug out and carried away. 

I wonder who the creative engineer was who designed this structure and how they managed to complete it. This ranks right up there with the Acropolis, the Coliseum, Machu Picchu, and other ancient buildings. 

After the last church we gathered at the van in the parking lot and went to a nice local restaurant for lunch.

Kaleb had hired a beautiful woman, Tiruye, to take care of our shoes as we went from one to the other. She was cheerful, happy and glad to help with some of the group who needed assistance navigating the uneven ground.

After lunch we drove to the second group of churches and toured them. Again, they were carved out of rock. The last one was carved into a man made (or enlarged) cave. You could walk around the whole church, but the ceiling was still connected to the ceiling of the cave.

Bete Merkorios, one of the churches had been used as a Fortress Palace and then as a prison at some point and is now finally one of the stone churches. 

Between two of these churches we had to navigate a tunnel. It was fairly long and completely dark, you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. Kaleb told us to keep our right hand on the wall and our left on the ceiling and to walk slowly as the floor was rough and we didn’t want to bang into each other. At the end we had to climb up a series of steep steps. 

After touring this group, we returned to St. Georges church for one more look with the more dramatic late afternoon lighting. Then we returned to our hotel and showered and got organized. Some of us gathered on the rooftop mezzanine for a drink. I had a gin and tonic for the first time in many years, which I quite enjoyed. Then we boarded on the van and went to another local restaurant for dinner. Teklay sat with us and we had a good dinner. After a great day, we headed back for typing and bed. Another early start tomorrow for a long hike on our last day of the tour.