This Christmas season brings new hope with the release of vaccines and the start of the new year. That is Time of faith, and reminded us of the red beetle, a monument of rare devotion. 800 years ago, an Ethiopian king ordered a new capital for Christians. There are 11 churches standing on the central platform of Ethiopia, each carved out of a huge, stone block. No bricks, no mortar, no concrete, hardwood – just rock in architecture. As we told you before last Christmas, not much is known about who made them or how. But believers in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church say there really is no mystery. The churches of Lalibela were built by angels.
The Northern Highlands of Ethiopia came to the rose 31 million years ago when the Horn of Africa was flooded with lava a mile from the earth’s crust. On the shores of the hills you can see the cummins of stagnant lava in time. Iron made the basalt red and, trapped inside the gases, made the stone light, as light and soft as air. Christians made their mark on Ethiopia 400 years ago. They saw that the ancient stone was greeted with a chisel bite. The churches were carved around 1200 by people called Zagwe.
His king, Lalbila, is said to have traveled 1,600 miles to Jerusalem. Legend has it that when he returned and Jerusalem fell to Islamic conquest, Lalibela ordered a new home to be built for Christianity.
Fasil Georgis: And he came back with an ambitious idea, the vision of building a black Jerusalem, African Jerusalem in the Highlands of Ethiopia.
Fasil Georgis is an Ethiopian architect and historian who went through the Stone Age.
Fasil Georgis: Well, the church has three groups, and each group is connected to each other.
Scott Pel: We’re sitting in St. Mary’s Church. How was it made?
Fasil Georgis: Well, it was made from scratch. They formed the shape. And then they start digging or digging downwards.
Scott Pel: So they dug a trench around the whole perimeter Which left them with a huge cube of solid stone.
Fasil Georgis: Yes. OK.
Scott Pel: And then they carved their doors and they went?
Fasil Georgis: They went.
Chipping from the inside, mostly in the dark, the artists created many rooms with no room for error. Archways, vaults and cummins mimic traditional constructions, however, in solid rock, the roof does not need to be gripped. Why survive is a mystery. Why did King Lelibella make the seemingly impossible attempt when simple building techniques were known?
Scott Pelly: He was helped by angels as the story goes.
Fasil Georgis: Yes.
Scott Pelly: who worked on the project overnight.
Fasil Georgis: I think I would take this as a symbolic thing because–
Scott Pelli: Don’t you have any experience working with angels in architecture?
Fasil Georgis: Well, I get inspiration from angels.
The site of the 11 churches is about 62 acres. It is shared by King Lalibela, a stream called the Jordan River. The largest church covers approximately 1,000,000 square feet, each with a special four-story elevation. But their very surprising dimension cannot be measured. That is the length in which they call adoration.
Fasil Georgis: This is considered a sacred place, and coming here as a devout Christian is a very strong sign of their faith. Some people travel hundreds of kilometers on foot here. On foot. And they have been doing so for many centuries.
These churches are open for worship all year round but we were there on Christmas Eve when about 200,000 pilgrims ascended to heaven on their way to earth. Many walked for days or weeks, fasted, robbed in white – an ordeal that was washed away by the disciples in the tradition of Jesus. No Ethiopian, over the age of 30, can forget the grief and hunger of the one million people who died of famine and war. And so, having known poverty in this life, they have invested their souls in the future.
Teved Yigza told us, “I believe God is here. I have come with faith.” His neighbor, Getaye Abeb, and his daughter told us they had gone on a three-day trip, about 100 miles from their farms.
Scott Pelli: God can hear your prayers anywhere. Why did you come here
Teved Yigzo (translation): “So that God may see our devotion,” he said, “and our dedication.”
Getty Abebu (translation): “We were very tired,” he said, “we all flocked here to see the celebration and came back. And God will recognize our efforts.”
Celebrating Christmas Ethiopians say Ganna compresses them, stays shoulder to shoulder, fasts and chants and praises all night long ‘until Christmas day comes. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church, thanks to a mysterious figure in the Hebrew Bible, claims to be one of the earliest capitals of Christianity.
Believers believe that the queen of Sheba left Ethiopia, went to Jerusalem where she met King Solomon. From that meeting came a son, and when the son was an adult, he returned to Ethiopia with 12,000 Israelites and the Ark of the Covenant, which contained tablets with the Word of God, 10 commandments.
According to the clergy of the Church of the SubGenius, there is an arch in Ethiopia. We met Sigi Selasi Majjebu, the chief priest of Lalibela in St. George’s Church, which was built at last and was considered a masterpiece.
Scott Pelli: I met a woman on Christmas day who spent three days walking here. Who are these pilgrims?
Tsigi Selasi Mezebu (translation): “This is a believer,” he told us, “not just three days, but sometimes three months sometimes. When there was no air travel or bus, people traveled from different parts of the country for months. And to celebrate with us. “
This celebration beats the rhythm of ancient instruments; The cabaret is a double-headed drum and a rock known as the systrum, the sound of which was known in North Africa 3,000 years before Jesus.
Scott Pelli: On Christmas Eve, we saw you and your priests leading the chanting all night. What are you speaking in that chanting?
Tsigi Selasi Mezebu (translation): “We tell people that God became man and man became God. Because of Christ, we were punished by God from where we became his children again. Christmas is the day that forgiveness was born.”
But, when God forgives, there is no time. Eight centuries later, the basalt basilicas are fed by wind and water.
Stephen Battle: What is clear is that something miraculous happened here.
Stephen Battle is an architect from the World Monument Fund who told us that the miracle of Lalibela is diminishing because the rock is not hard.
Stephen Battle: When you are building a traditional building, you go to the quarry, and you will have different grades of stone. And you try and choose the best stone. You leave the bad thing behind. When you build a church out of a mountain you don’t have that luxury. And so, in general, in any church here, you get a good stone. And it is a very good stone. But then you also get really bad stone and really very bad stone, which is really very soft. And over time, if you touch it, it really crumbles.
Simon Warrack: And this is the holiest part of Lalibela.
We saw the good and the bad in the chamber where King Lalibela is laid to rest.
Scott Pelli: This is one of the most iconic sculptures I’ve ever seen in Lalibela.
Simon Warrack: Yes. This is especially beautiful. And they are also painted.
Simon Warrack is a Master Stone Mason with World Memorial Fund, U.S. Based charity, which preserves some of the great achievements of mankind.
Varake has repaired European cathedrals and Roman antiquities. But Lalibela is further complicated by the sincere belief that the angels worked this stone.
Scott Pel: Simon, you can’t really cut this stone to make a new piece, because the stone you cut is sacred.
Simon Warrack: Yeah, that was a big issue I was going to face. If we have to drill a hole to strengthen it to put it in a pin, we have to discuss it with the priests. They collected dust. There was a whole process around touching the fabric of the church.
Scott Pelli: Did the priests collect dust?
Simon Warrack: Yes, yes.
That was the point when Warrick was asked to revive the cross in the window without disturbing the remaining piece.
Scott Pel: So this cross was not here.
Simon Warrick: This was completely gone, yes. It was a very thin piece of stone.
Simon Warrick: So I put a cross-shaped back that we were inserting so that it could fit on the original stone, like a dentist. And so we were able to save this little stone, which, in terms of stone masonry, is crazy. But you have to do it in this kind of situation.
Other crazy defense ideas have come up. A dozen years ago, five umbrellas were created to save heaven from falling.
Stephen Battle: The locals call him the roof of the gas station. And I think it’s very appropriate to describe it. So as you can imagine, we have this extraordinary site with some of the most beautiful buildings in the world of extraordinary, vast, spiritual significance. And there is a set of gas station roofs that have been placed on top of it. It’s not really relevant, it’s not appropriate.
Impure to look at, the roof became a lesson in the law of uncertain consequences. The churches were very wet, now it is very dry.
Scott Pelli: For the first time in 900 years, it hasn’t rained on them.
Stephen War: Exactly right. And so the stone is contracting more than it was before. And what happens is that at this micro level a little failure occurs and the stone starts to crumble.
The roof was supposed to be temporary and should be reclaimed in a few years. Stephen Battle prays that they will be removed together and replaced by intensive maintenance. To that end, the World Memorial Fund is teaching dozens of Lalibela priests and the general public to protect themselves in the hope that the host will be able to protect them for centuries to come.
Scott Pel: How long can they last?
Stephen Battle: Well if 900 years, if they handle it properly. Oh yes, if they are taken care of properly, beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Even beyond the second century, we are unlikely to know for sure why. Why try what seemed impossible? No answer was clear until we saw Christmas Day. In the Old Testament, Isaiah advises those who seek God, “Look at the query from which you were cut and from where you were cut.” Whoever cut this rock, angels or man, understood that faith can never be washed away in the presence of miracles.
Produced by Nicole Young. Associate Producer, Katie Curbstate. Broadcast collaborator, Ian Flinker.
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