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a slide show on |
has a completely different feel. The four churches are linked by a warren of dark tunnels, and only one of them is completely free-standing.
The first one is hidden until you're almost there |
It's a half-monolith, joined on the two ends. |
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A short tunnel takes you up onto the gound again from where you cross a bridge to what's supposed to have been King Lalibela's sleeping chamber. A long and very dark tunnnel leads to the second church |
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This one is thought to have been built for secular reasons. The walls have been bricked in between original pillars
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Another short tunnel opens out high in the wall of the courtyard surrounding a large free-standing church |  |
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The last one is free on 4 sides, but joined by its roof to the solid. This (I think) is the one built overnight by one woman - with some help from angels! |  |
I could never get the preists to stand still! |
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3 days away (2 if you're lucky - I wasn't.) The bus driver drove off the road and slid the bus down a small embankment at one point. Apparently he was reading the paper. Everyone on the bus sat watching him in the mirror for the rest of the day, along steep winding mountain roads.
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A pair of trucks come to our rescue
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Coffee with Thomas at the Sheraton - an oasis of stupendous wealth in a slum area. |
The flight from AA left at sunrise, in true Ethiopian Transport fasion |
I
left Ethiopa one month after arriving (streaching my 30-day visa to 31) and
flew to Nairobi, then continued home overland from there: see Going
Home. >>>
| by Michael Abbott (email)
www: July 2000 ©
www.mabot.com > east africa |
