Monastery

way in

Our final afternoon in Axum a small gang of us chartered a minibus to visit a monastery. Located a 2 hour drive away this was a boys only trip since no women are allowed in the monastery.

scaling the entrance cliff

The drive itself was well worth it with stunning rock formations lining the route with the final 40km of dirt track taking us close to the boarder with Eritrea. The monastery itself is situated on a high plateau, at around 3,000m and is accessible only by scaling a 20m cliff with the aid of a cow skin harness and rope. Of the 5 manly men who undertook this venture, only 3 of us took on the cliff. Lloyd went first & must have looked in need of assistance since a local decided to use his head to support Lloyd's posterior. Thomas and I made it up without such help. Legend has it that the founding monk scaled the cliff using a serpent and of course there are pictures to prove it. 

the monastery

the old way in

We scaled the bell tower while waiting for the key man to arrive, who then opened up the sanctum containing a book of scripture & a number of drums. This old monk that showed us around had been living here for 50 years.

inside the monastery

living quarters

The surprising part was the scale of the village there, housing 250-300 monks.

Another monk showed us around his living quarters, surprisingly kept locked, they were quite spacious. The electric hot plate was where he cooked njera