The church of Bete Medhane Alem is located in North East Ethiopia and is one of the eleven rock-cut churches of Lalibela. This church is a major holy city of Orthodox Christian and it is built in 12th century by the king of Lalibela. It is made out of a single block of granite. Its roof is level with the ground and reached by stairs descending into narrow trenches. It is cut 40 feet down, and has a cross shape from top to bottom. Carved features include fragile looking windows that contain several of shapes, sizes, and different forms of crosses. The roof is decorated with relief crosses connected by blind arcades. The patina on the surface of the church blazes a deep pink color in striking harmony to the brownish-yellow earth and green-leaved trees of the landscape that goes to the bottom of the church.
The church is mainly used for a religious purpose, but it is also used as museum and a living place for monks. There are lot of Bibles with different languages and all kinds of crosses. A person who wants to educate himself about the Ethiopian’s original orthodox culture visits this place. Most of the monks live here till they die; some of them are buried there, as is evidenced human skeleton that remain behind. Some people even believe that the king Lalibela’s body is buried in this church, which makes it extra especial. It is believed that king lalibIela was told by God in his dreams to build the church with the help of angels. Because of all this reasons, it is a big source of money. Huge number of tourists from all over the world comes to visit this incredible church everyday.
No comments:
Post a Comment