Leyland Cecco

ETHIOPIA | Saturday, 12 January 2013 | Views [861] | View Smaller Image

In the 1500s, King Lalibela had 11 churches hewn from a 'mother rock' in order to create a holy place below ground safe for pilgrims to worship and evade detection. The result was so captivating that the first European to enter the site wrote "I am weary of writing more about these buildings, because it seems to me that I shall not be believed if I write more." Lalibela's vision ensured continued worship for hundreds of years, with masses of the pious still congregating each Christmas.

Perched high in the mountains of Northern Ethiopia, the small town of Lalibela is a place of pilgrimage during the time of Orthodox Christmas, and Ethiopian Christianity's second holiest site. Wrapped in shrouds of early morning mist and cotton, Ethiopian Orthodox Christians stand in prayer at the edge of Bet Giyorgis, the rock church carved to resemble a cross.

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Narrow tunnels underneath the churches and within the mountain connect the churches, and as the number of pilgrims swell dramatically with Christmas approaching, the passages become an increasingly tight traverse. Stories of long treks echo off the cool stone, with one pilgrim telling me of his group's barefoot journey of more than 8 days in order to reach Lalibela. As so many villages are within reach, more than 60,000 pilgrims descend on the churches each Christmas.

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Leyland Cecco

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