Of angels and people in Lalibela

I immediately liked him when he approached us and introduced himself in a calm and friendly manner, “My name is Mesele. I am happy to show you the sacred sites of Lalibela.” This young Ethiopian, with his alert eyes and a smile at the corners of his mouth, was genuinely pleased to be allowed to explain the world-famous rock-hewn churches. He told us about the king who carved these churches out of the red tufa rock and had a new city built here. A swarm of bees is said to have circled his cradle. In the tribal language, “the bees proclaim his kingship” translates to Lalibela – and that is the name of the future king and his city.Rock churches have always fascinated me. Foremost because of the immense craftsmanship that people unfolded to create a sanctified space for their god. But unlike many other rock and cave churches, these buildings in northern Ethiopia were not built into the mountain or a cave, but were carved entirely out of stone.

How good and elaborate the building plans had to be, I thought to myself, to simply stand on rocky ground and begin hewing the stone to eventually expose a church more than ten meters high. Already at the beginning of our visit in the three church buildings of the northern group, Mesele told us that King Lalibela wanted to build a second Jerusalem. And this symbolism accompanied us at every turn. The river (dried up during our visit) is called Yordanos and separates the first church complex from a second one to the east. There is a place Golgotha, an area Sinai and both the tomb of Adam and the tomb of Jesus. We follow Mesele in wonder from church to church until we finally arrive at the famous St. George’s Church to the west. It is probably the youngest of the many churches: Built at the end of the 12th century, perhaps as late as the beginning of the 13th century. Here, all the experience of this extraordinary building technique has been put to use, and you can still see how the church was cut from the stone around it.

Mesele tells again his story, which he already told at all other churches: During the day the people worked on the church construction and at night the angels continued to build on it and removed the next layers of stone. Again, I say in response, “at least that’s what the legend says”. And walking back, I ask again how he meant the story about the angels. “Well, the angels have just built the churches!” he repeats and cannot understand my questioning. “That’s how it was!” he emphasizes again in conclusion.

At this moment he is even more sympathetic to me. A twenty-year-old who doesn’t want the world to be disenchanted and who keeps the border between the worldly and the extraterrestrial open.