The work of angels ?

The monolithic churches of Lalibela have to be seen to be believed. They are hidden away in the central mountains of Ethiopia, and reputed to have been built, or more accurately carved, in the 12th and 13th centuries by King Lalibela after his return from exile in Jerusalem. The churches were created as a refuge, and a site of pilgrimage - instead of risking the life threatening journey across the Muslim lands on the way to Jerusalem, Ethiopian Christians could instead travel to the new Jerusalem. The backdrop, of an endless series of steep valleys, thin ridge lines and mesas that stretch along the horizon in all directions is almost impressive as the churches. The churches themselves are carved in to the rock - that is, the workers started with a flat stretch of rock and carved down 10 to 15 metres in to it, eking out a large hole in the ground with churches that are carved - rather than built - from the same rock, in the middle of the hole.


As our guide led us around the churches he explained that they were built supposedly in the space of 23 years, following the plans that were divinely revealed to King Lalibela, in a dream in which the designs were shown to him. They were all started and finished at the same time, and in order to complete the work so quickly at night angels would appear and work until morning when the mere mortals returned to work.

The angel story, told in all earnest by the guide, was what got my incredulity meter going - but I must admit it had been emitting some weird noises ever since I arrived in Ethiopia. The foundation of Ethiopia is based on the Queen of Sheba story. Supposedly Queen Sheba (allegedly an Ethiopian, but the Yemenis claim her as well) headed off to Jerusalem, and had a little dalliance with King Solomon to whom she bore a child. Her entourage then headed back to Ethiopia after nicking the Ark of the Covenant (what Moses got when God gave him the Ten Commandments on Mt Sinai and what Indiana Jones found somewhere in the desert near the Pyramids) The original ark is apparently in Axum in the north of Ethiopia, and is the Ethiopian Coptic Churches most holy site. However put your cameras away because it is hidden away and nobody is allowed to see it - apparently you will instantly turn to flames if you do. All churches in Ethiopia have a copy of the covenant, but again they are behind curtains and nobody is allowed to see it. As an English guy I met asked, is there a factory where these replicas are produced, and how can you produce a replica if you can't see the original.

So there is the work of angels, the Ark of the Covenant, and each of the thirteen churches in Lalibela also has its own cross, found in the waters surrounding each church and supposedly made from perfect gold -whatever that is. (Curiously one of them was stolen by a local and sold to a Belgian collector back in the '80s, clearly the divine cross doesn't cause blindness)

Needless to say, as with most religious beliefs, not much really stands up to close scrutiny - if the churches are the work of angels surely they would be perfect, so why the cracks and collapsed buildings - requiring some rather dodgy Italian concreting in the 1930's to hold them up, why do the divinely created crosses show flaws and some rust. I guess this helps explain the rather prodigious use of curtains. And the curtains were the start of the problem.

Being in a group of rather sceptical Westerners only encouraged further scepticism, and it appeared that the guide was growing tired under our barrage of questions. It all came to a head in a rather bizarre conversation with the guardian priest at one of the churches. To a rather innocuous question as to the practicalities of some supposed miracle the priest admonished us for inquiring too far, stating that it was not right to know all of the mysteries, and that even seeking to know was blasphemous and a lack of respect. Suddenly it all felt a little like the Wizard of Oz, all smoke, mirrors and curtains, mysteries and magic spell - but no questions allowed. Yet you just know that at some point somebody will come along and tug at the curtain to reveal the real truth. Rather than a deep, meaningful or spiritual experience, it feels more like a game of hide and seek, explaining the miraculous using God or angels as a kind of patch when things get a little tricky.

In the end all the dodgy stories, curtains, and don't look heres kind of ruined the experience, it was hard not to look at the incredible buildings without thinking about ridiculous stories of angels and crosses appearing from the deep.