This morning we left early for tjhe airport and our flight with Ethiopian Airlines to Lalibela via Gondar. The plane was a Bombadier Q400 (the stretched DH Dash 8 used by Qantaslink for regional flights at home) and the flight was good. We then proceded virtually immediately the see the first "cluster" of the churches hewn from monoliths of volcsnic tuff.
The building principal seems ro have been to first identify a suitable large single mass of this rock (a monolith) underground and then dig a trench in the rock around the outline of the planned building, to a depth equal to the full anticipated height of the church. Then they started tunneling in from the sides and left behind the required structure of arches, walls, ceilings, stairs, floors, window openings, doorways etc. The chosen site would be "uphill" from a suitable drainage area, and so a tunnel or cutting dug to lower ground for drainage - probably after diversion through outdoor baptismal pools.
The churches range from simple to quite intricate in design, and appear rather larger on the outside than the inside due to conservative design using very thick ealls and columns. In all, we visited 11 churches, almost all built (we are told) during the reign of and at the behest of King Lalabela during a very short period of time (reputed to be around 23 years).Recently,UNESCO built protective structures including roofs over some of these churches as can be seen in photos.
Overnight tonight is a spectacurly located hotel perched on the edge of the escarpment with amazing views of the rolling hills and valleys below..
The building principal seems ro have been to first identify a suitable large single mass of this rock (a monolith) underground and then dig a trench in the rock around the outline of the planned building, to a depth equal to the full anticipated height of the church. Then they started tunneling in from the sides and left behind the required structure of arches, walls, ceilings, stairs, floors, window openings, doorways etc. The chosen site would be "uphill" from a suitable drainage area, and so a tunnel or cutting dug to lower ground for drainage - probably after diversion through outdoor baptismal pools.
The churches range from simple to quite intricate in design, and appear rather larger on the outside than the inside due to conservative design using very thick ealls and columns. In all, we visited 11 churches, almost all built (we are told) during the reign of and at the behest of King Lalabela during a very short period of time (reputed to be around 23 years).Recently,UNESCO built protective structures including roofs over some of these churches as can be seen in photos.
Overnight tonight is a spectacurly located hotel perched on the edge of the escarpment with amazing views of the rolling hills and valleys below..
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