Nearly 70 feet tall this geometrically carved obelisk has marked
a royal tomb in Aksum for 1,700 years. The only hint of vulnerability
a slight tilt. Aksumites
stopped erecting stelae when they abandoned their pagan gods and converted
to Christianity, but these colossal stone slabs still recall the
power of Aksum,
a kingdom that shaped a country.
Later named in honor of its most celebrated Emperor Lalibela. Aksum is the
holiest city because it is the first, the oldest. And because of what it
has; the Ark,.
Worku Sharwe told me.
“Lalibela is holy because of its promise. Coming
here is as good as going to Jerusalem”. The promise of Lalibela not Lalibela
is not readily apparent, the land is barren and denuded, its river Jordon is
just a shallow ditch that often holds only a trickle of water and the town is
deeply poor. But the promise that Worku spoke lies not in Lalibela is land but
in its 12 remarkable rock carved churches. Called prayers in stone, these churches
carved cliff faces and scooped out of the living rock to stand in deep stone
trenches were molded from the region's red mountains some 600 year’s
ago.
Legend says that they were built by angels who helped Lalibela
at night while
he and his legion of workers labored by day. Lalibela stands on soft
volcanic turf, easily without divine intervention, but it is hard
to imagine angels
hovering over these masterpieces, coaxing then from shapeless stone.
