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Visiting Lalibela has been a dream for me ever since I first saw the spectacular Bete Giyorgis rock-hewn monastery on The Amazing Race four or five seasons back. Of the 100 or so top UNESCO World Heritage sites I have visited, Lalibela definitely ranks in my Top 5 Most Favorite (only after Abu Simbel, Petra, Tikal and Angkor Wat). So my only top destination in Ethiopia (and one of my top few for all of Africa) was in Lalibela where I spent much of 4 full days exploring the amazing churches, town and market.

Lalibela is a town in northern Ethiopia and one of Ethiopia’s holiest cities, second only to Aksum. The town is a center of pilgrimage for much of the country. Lalibela was intended to be a New Jerusalem in response to the capture of Jerusalem by Muslims, and many of its historic buildings take their name and layout from buildings in Jerusalem. The town and the UNESCO World Heritage site comprised of the 13 spectacular rock-hewn monasteries have been given the name Lalibela after the 13th Century King who built them – Saint Gebre Mesqel Lalibela. Many of the 12th and 13th Century rock-hewn churches are monolithic, meaning that they are freed entirely out of a single mass of rock. The most impressive by far is Bete Giyorgis, which was the final church to be built by King Lalibela.

The Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela:

To save myself a stopover in some dinky town and an extra morning of travel I traveled to Aksum by private Land Rover with a group of Dutch Med Students I had met in Gonder. The trip was long, cramped, expensive ($300 total is a ton in Africa even with 10 hours of fuel) but the scenery in the Semien Mountains was spectacular and that comprised the majority of the trip.

Aksum (asa Axum) was once the capitol of the Ethiopian Axumite Kingdom. The Kingdom of Aksum had its own written language called Ge’ez, and also developed a distinctive architecture exemplified by giant stelae, the oldest of which (though much smaller) date from 5,000-2,000 BC. This kingdom was at its height under King Ezana in the 4th Century AD – which was also when it officially embraced Christianity. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church claims that the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Aksum houses the Biblical Ark of the Covenant in which lies the Tablets of Law upon which the Ten Commandments are inscribed. This church was also the site Ethiopian emperors were crowned for centuries until the reign of Fasilides, then again beginning with Yohannes IV until the end of the empire in the 20th Century with Emperor Hali Selassie’s crowning. Axum is considered to be the holiest city in Ethiopia and is an important destination of pilgrimages.

After a few days in Bahir Dar on Lake Tana I hopped a relatively short 3 hour mini bus to the early 17th Century Imperial City of Gonder. Gonder was founded as the first permanent Imperial Capitol by Emperor Fasilides in 1635, where it remained prosperous for over 200 years until it was moved in 1855 and then sacked and plundered in 1864.

Of all the local food between South Africa and Ethiopia I have found Ethiopian food to be the tastiest, and full of a mix of rich spices mainly made of beriberi spice mixture (also called peri-peri in other parts of Africa), which includes chilies, ginger, coriander, allspice and cloves. Most Ethiopian food is served on a large, flat, pancake-like fermented bread called Injera and the bread is ripped off in pieces and used to pinch bites of food without the aid of silverware. Some of the tastiest dishes are Doro Wat, Tibs and Shiro. Ethiopians are fiercely Orthodox Christian and rather than observing Lent once a year they fast every Wednesday and Friday days then only eat vegetarian in the night, also with tasty dishes like Shiro (the vegetarian version) and these dishes are called fasting foods. Both the carnivore and veggie dishes have combos with samples from multiple dishes on a single Injera for multiple delicious flavors.

Even though the food is good I found it hard to digest Injera more than once a day so would have the other of my 2 Ethiopian meals of the day with bread. Normally I am not a big breakfast fan but I found bread was an especially fine companion for my favorite Ethiopian breakfast (or for me often lunch) food that was sometimes called Ukilasis (sp?) and sometimes just [Scrambled] Eggs with [Beri-Beri] Sauce. I actually make eggs somewhat the same way by scrambling salsa with the raw eggs before cooking and I found this version even more tasty so I had to buy some of this delicious spice to recreate the simple but delicious dish upon my return.