Lalibela

The churches of Lalibela were built in the late 12th century.  There are 10 churches in total, representing the Ten Commandments, although sometimes thought of as 11 with a double church. Chiseled out of the rock by hand it's a fairly astonishing piece of engineering. The churches are built from the top down, the top set of windows being larger as they would go in through these and hollow them out. There are two main clusters of churches and within the clusters they are connected by passageways and tunnels. 

Lalibela

rock church, Lalibela

Lalibela

St George's Church, Lalibela

We spent a full day with our guide Prince exploring the churches. Most of them are covered by large protective roofs, with the exception of St George's, which is the poster boy for Lalibela tourism.  

In the lead up to Ethiopian Christmas many pilgrims are making there way, mainly on foot to worship and there are a number of campsites which could easily be mistaken for refugee camps. Amusingly there was a tent selling mobile phones directly opposite the gate to one of the camps, maybe the connection to god is better with 4G.

pilgrim camp

mobile phone shop

Pilgrim, Lalibela

Pilgrim, Laibela

Sunset in Lalibela