Lalibela

Lalibela – is a tourist town in Ethiopia, which has become famous throughout the world thanks to its unique temple complexes. It is located on the slope of Mount Abuna-Josef, which is at an altitude of 2.5 thousand meters above sea level.

This small provincial town, in which people live and work, once had the name Roha and was the capital of Ethiopia. In the Middle Ages, life was simply boiling here, because it was in this place that its political, cultural and commercial sphere was concentrated. The future king of Lalibela wished to bring up a huge temple in this place, without yet standing on the throne. The heir to the king decided to build a wonderful temple building on the slopes of the mountains, taking as an example Jerusalem, in which he lived for 13 years. Lalibela was confident that the temple complex on his land would become a new place for the world pilgrimage of believers, because since 1187, for some reason, Ethiopian residents have not had the right to go to the Holy Land.

Since that time, the churches that appeared, as well as rivers and streets with biblical names, began to be called in Lalibel. Thus, Golgotha and even the Sorrow Path arose here. After the ruler of Lalibela died, the city of Roch was renamed in his honor.

The entire Lalibela Temple Complex in Ethiopia is a series of churches carved in the rocks. There are eleven of them. The largest among them is Beta Medana Alem, or the Temple of the Savior of the World. This structure stands out enough among the rest, it is completely carved in a massive rock, and its decoration is huge columns. This building is unique, because its floor, walls, ceiling, columns – are all the remains of the rock that once was at this place, but with the help of tools and workshops of the hands, it turned into, what we are observing even today.

Ancient stone-crops deserve respect, because their work was simply impeccable, given that they had no right to make mistakes, because having cut down an extra detail, the design could fall. At the same time, they also had to take into account the density of the building material itself so that the construction would not crack.

All monolithic temples are covered with twilight, they are very different from such temple buildings. It just makes every element of temple decor look at itself. They say that a huge cross of gold of the founding king of the temple was saved in the local cache.

The tourist flow to the Lalibela temples is simply continuous. In 2009, for UNESCO's initiatives, it was decided to build special codes to save the frescoes of the oldest temples. Under such protective buildings, they will become even more invisible, but this will strengthen them and save them for longer, because such Christian temples simply do not exist on the entire Earth planet.