The Church of St. George (Amharic:
Biete Giyorgis) is one of
eleven monolithic churches in Lalibela, a city in the Amhara Region of
Ethiopia. Carved from the rock in the early thirteenth century, it is the most
well known and last built
of the eleven churches in the Lalibela area, and has been referred
to as the “Eighth Wonder of the
World“.
North of the Jordan river, but much further to
the west, and somewhat isolated from the others,
is the remarkable church of Biete Giyorgis, possibly the most elegant of all the Lalibela structures,
located in the south-west of the village on a sloping rock terrace.
In a deep pit with perpendicular walls, it can only be reached
through a tunnel entered a distance away through a trench. Small
round caves and chambers have been found in the courtyard walls —
graves for pious pilgrims and monks.This famous church stands alone
in the southwest. Dating to the early 13th century AD, it is the
most recently built of the Lalibela churches.
Standing on a three-tiered
plinth, Biete Giyorgis is shaped like a Greek cross and has walls —
with an alternation of projecting and recessing horizontal layers —
reminiscent of Axumite archi¬tecture. The church also has an
elaborately shaped doorway.
The dimensions of the complex are
25 meters by 25 meters by
30 meters, and there is a small baptismal
pool outside the church, which stands in an artificial
trench. According to Ethiopian cultural history, Biete
Giyorgis was built after King Gebre Mesqel
Lalibela of the Zagwe dynasty had a vision
in which he was instructed to construct the church; Saint George and God have both been referred to as
the one who gave him the instructions.
Ethiopia , officially known as the
Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a
country located in the Horn of Africa. It is
the second-most populous nation in
Africa, with over 82 million
inhabitants, and the tenth largest by area,
occupying 1,100,000 km2. Ethiopia is bordered by
Eritrea to the north, Djibouti and
Somalia to the east, Sudan and
South Sudan to the west, and Kenya
to the south. With its capital at Addis Ababa,
it is also the most populous
landlocked nation in the
world.
Ethiopia was a monarchy for most of
its history, and the Ethiopian dynasty traces its
roots to the 2nd century BC. Ethiopia is also one of
the oldest sites of human existence known
to scientists today, having yielded some of humanity’s oldest
traces. It may be the region from which Homo
sapiens first set out for the Middle East and points
beyond. Alongside Rome, China
and Persia, the Ethiopian Aksum
Empire was considered one of the four
great world powers of the 3rd
century. During the Scramble for
Africa, Ethiopia was the only African country beside
Liberia that retained its
sovereignty as a recognized independent
country, and was one of only four African
members of the League of Nations. After
a brief period of Italian occupation, Ethiopia
became a charter member of the United
Nations. When other African nations received their
independence following World War II, many of them adopted the colors
of Ethiopia’s flag, and Addis Ababa became the
location of several international organizations focused on
Africa.
Modern Ethiopia and its current borders are a result
of significant territorial reduction in the
north and expansion in the
south toward its present borders, owing to several
migrations and commercial integration as well as
conquests, particularly by Emperor Menelik
II and Ras Gobena. In
1974, the dynasty led by Haile
Selassie was overthrown as civil wars intensified. Since
then, Ethiopia has seen a variety of governmental systems. The
country has one of the most powerful militaries in
Africa and Addis Ababa is the headquarters of the continental
African Standby Force
(ASF). Ethiopia is the only African
country where an indigenous alphabet is
still widely used. Ethiopia also has its own time
system and unique calendar,
seven to eight years
behind the Gregorian
calendar. It has the largest number of UNESCO
World Heritage Sites in Africa.
The country is a land of natural
contrasts, with waterfalls and
volcanic hot springs. Ethiopia has some of
Africa’s highest mountains as well as some of the
world’s lowest points below sea level. The
largest cave in Africa is located in Ethiopia at
Sof Omar. Ethiopia has one of the
largest number of rivers in the
world while the country’s northernmost area at
Dallol, Afar is the
hottest place year-round anywhere on
Earth. Ethiopia is a multilingual,
multicultural and multiethnic
society of around 80 groups, with the two largest
being the Oromo and the Amhara,
both of which speak Afro-Asiatic languages. The
country is also famous for its Olympic gold medallists in running,
rock-hewn churches in Lalibela, and as the place where the
coffee bean originated. Currently, Ethiopia is
the top coffee and honey-producing
country in Africa, and home to the largest
livestock population in Africa. The Ethiopian
Aksum region was the first major
empire in the world to convert to
Christianity and it was one of the first countries
to officially adopt Christianity as a state
religion in the 4th century. Ethiopia
has a Christian majority and a
third of the population is
Muslim. Ethiopia is the site of the
first Hijra in Islamic
history and the oldest Muslim
settlement in Africa at Negash. Until
the 1980s, a substantial population of Ethiopian
Jews resided in Ethiopia. The country is also the
spiritual homeland of the
Rastafari religious
movement. |