Chapter IV · c. 1137 – 1270

The Zagwe & the Churches of Lalibela

ላሊበላ

The Zagwe kings ruled from Lasta. Their greatest, Lalibela, had eleven churches carved downward out of living rock — a 'New Jerusalem' in the mountains.

Read the chapter →

Bete Giyorgis, the Church of St George, is cut in the shape of a cross from a single block of volcanic tuff.

The Lalibela churches were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978 and remain active places of pilgrimage.

The Zagwe dynasty, of Agaw origin, rose after the decline of Aksum and ruled from Roha in the Lasta mountains. Exact dates are debated; the dynasty is generally placed between the 10th or 12th century and 1270.

King Lalibela (reigned roughly 1181–1221) is credited with the rock-hewn churches. Workers cut trenches into the rock, then carved the church inside the remaining block — windows, columns and roofs included.

The site is laid out as a symbolic Jerusalem, with a stream named the Jordan. At Genna (Christmas) and Timket (Epiphany), tens of thousands of pilgrims gather there.