Their little huts hardly seem to offer sufficient shelter against the cold nights of this altitude. Walking through the village you will see the quiet even austere, mountainous landscape of the region of Lasta, where the peasants labor to cultivate their patches of stony fields with the traditional hook plough. Approaching the village in a four wheel drive from the airport you may just catch a glimpse of a group of churches. Angels worked side by side with the stone-masons, any within twenty-four years the entire work was completed.Ĭoming to Lalibela you will find an atmosphere of mystery. Anointed king under the throne name Gabre-Maskal (Servant of the Cross) Lalibela, living himself an even more severe monastic life than before, carried out the construction of the churches. Christ himself ordered the king to abdicate in favour of Lalibela. During these three days an angel carried his soul to heaven to show him the churches which he was to build Returned once more to earth he withdrew into the wilderness, then took a wife upon God's command with ,the name of Maskal Kebra (Exalted Cross) and flew with an angel to Jerusalem. The king, made jealous by these prophecies about his brother, tried to poison him, but the poison merely cast Lalibela into a death-like sleep for three days.
It is said that bees prophesied his future greatness, and Ethiopian folklore still has it that bees in a dream foretell greatness, social advance and coming riches. Legends flower in Lalibela and it is also according to legend that Lalibela grew up in Roha, where his brother was king. Roha, the centre of worldly might, became Lalibela the holy city pilgrims to Lalibela shared the same blessings as pilgrims to Jerusalem while the focus of political power drifted to the south to the region of Shoa. The Ethiopian Church later canonized him and changed the name of Roha to Lalibela.
Lalibela's pious zeal converted the royal residence of the Zagwe in the town of Roha into a prayer of stone. However - according to legend - before the throne of Ethiopia was restored to its rightful rulers, upon command of God and with the help of angels. When a famous priest, Tekla Haymanot, Persuaded them to abdicate in favor of a descendant of the old Axumite Solomonic dynasty. The Zagwe kings ruled until the thirteenth century. Apparel, her handmaid in Tigray costume, busy spinning.
The folklore paintings include a lovely little picture of the two women sitting side by side, their babies on their laps, the Queen of Sheba in her coral.
But the handmaid of the Queen, too, gave birth to a son whose father was King Solomon, and her son was the ancestor of the Zagwe dynasty. The Queen of Sheba gave birth to Menelik, who became the first king of Ethiopia. The charming Ethiopian folklore pictures telling the story of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, which are sold in Addis Ababa, give a popular version of how not only the dynasty of ancient Axum (and present-day Ethiopia) descended from King Solomon,- but also the medieval Zagwe dynasty. The Zagwe dynasty had come to power in the eleventh century, one hundred years after Queen Judith, a ferocious woman warrior, had tribes up from the Semyen mountains to destroy Axum, the capital of the ancient Ethiopian empire in the north. Eastwards, dust, wind, and the baking heat of the merciless midday sun create an environment where only the strong and cunning survive.Even if the fame of the Seven Wonders of the World has been outworn and the word "wonder" itself has been misused too often, the visitor will rediscover its true meaning, when faced with the rock churches of Lalibela.Įver since the first European to describe Lalibela, Francisco Alvarez, came to this holy city between 15, travelers have tried to put into words their experience, praising it as a "New Jerusalem", a "New Golgotha", the "Christian Citadel in the Mountains of Wondrous Ethiopia".