The rock churches of Lalibela
Eleven churches are cut downward out of solid rock in Ethiopia.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 40 years
- Known to
- ± 20 years
- Era
- Post-Classical, Holocene
In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Ethiopian masons excavate churches directly into volcanic tuff — not built up but carved down and hollowed out, complete with windows, columns and drainage, connected by tunnels and trenches. Bete Giyorgis is cut as a cross thirty metres on a side. They were conceived as a New Jerusalem after Saladin's capture of the original made pilgrimage difficult, and they remain in active use.