Lalibela

Lalibela is a tourist town in Ethiopia, which is famous all over the world for its unique temple complexes. It is located on the slope of Mount Abuna Yosef, at an altitude of 2.5 thousand meters above sea level.

This small provincial town, where people live and work, was once called Rokha and was the capital of Ethiopia. In the Middle Ages, life was in full swing here, because it was in this place that its political, cultural and commercial sphere was concentrated. The future king of Lalibela wished to build a huge temple in this place before he ascended the throne. The king's heir decided to build a wonderful temple building on the slopes of the mountains, taking Jerusalem as an example, where he lived for 13 years. Lalibela was confident that the temple complex on his land would become a new place of world pilgrimage for believers, because since 1187, for some reason, Ethiopian residents had not had the right to go to the Holy Land.

Since that time, the temples that appeared in Lalibela began to be called by biblical names, as well as rivers and streets. Thus, Golgotha and even the Sorrowful Path appeared here. After the ruler of Lalibela died, the city of Roja was renamed in his honor.

The entire Lalibela temple complex in Ethiopia is a series of churches carved into the rocks. There are eleven of them here. The largest among them is Bete Medane Alem, or the Church of the Savior of the World. This structure stands out from the rest, it is completely carved into a massive rock, and its decoration is huge columns. This building is unique, because its floor, walls, ceiling, columns are all remnants of the rock that once stood in this place, but with the help of tools and masterful hands, it turned into what we see even today.

The ancient stonemasons deserve respect, because their work was simply impeccable, given that they had no right to make mistakes, because cutting down an extra detail, the structure could collapse. At the same time, they also had to take into account the density of the building material itself so that the building would not crack.

All monolithic temples are covered with semi-darkness, they are very different from similar temple buildings. It just makes you look at every element of the temple decor. Rumor has it that a huge cross made of gold was kept in the local hiding place by the king himself, the founder of the temple.

The tourist flow to Lalibela temples is simply continuous. In 2009, at the initiative of UNESCO, it was decided to erect special vaults to preserve the frescoes of the oldest temples. Under such protective structures, they will become even more invisible, but this will allow them to be strengthened and preserved for longer, because such Christian churches simply do not exist on the entire Earth's planet.