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Bet Giyorgis, Ethiopia

Bet Giyorgis church in Lalibla, Ethiopia as seen from the air. Perhaps the most beautiful of the monolithic churches, its roof is cut into the shape of a square cross, and visitors enter the church via a stairs cut down into the volcanic rock. These stairways deepen into trenches that connect to a tunnel that opens to base of the church and its entrance.

This is perhaps the most beautiful of all the monotlithic churches, which were carved out of the ground to which they are still attached. Some eight hundred years ago the Ethiopian King Lalibela had a divine vision to carve a new Jerusalem from volcanic stone underneath his place of birth. He hired workmen to chisel this vision out of solid stone, starting out with the surface of the roof at ground level, then carving down the outside of the walls, then tunneled in the windows. Once inside the carved up to the roof, then out and downwards to what would be the ground floor, and then out through the ground level doors. The architectural styles are based on those of more ancient built-up churches, and show shapes of what were wooden pillars and beams, but here they are excavated from solid stone in stone.

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©2005 George Steinmetz
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Bet Giyorgis church in Lalibla, Ethiopia as seen from the air. Perhaps the most beautiful of the monolithic churches, its roof is cut into the shape of a square cross, and visitors enter the church via a stairs cut down into the volcanic rock. These stairways deepen into trenches that connect to a tunnel that opens to base of the church and its entrance.<br /> <br /> This is perhaps the most beautiful of all the monotlithic churches, which were carved out of the ground to which they are still attached. Some eight hundred years ago the Ethiopian King Lalibela had a divine vision to carve a new Jerusalem from volcanic stone underneath his place of birth. He hired workmen to chisel this vision out of solid stone, starting out with the surface of the roof at ground level, then carving down the outside of the walls, then tunneled in the windows. Once inside the carved up to the roof, then out and downwards to what would be the ground floor, and then out through the ground level doors. The architectural styles are based on those of more ancient built-up churches, and show shapes of what were wooden pillars and beams, but here they are excavated from solid stone in stone.

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