Visiting Ethiopia's New Jerusalem: Lalibela's incredible rock-hewn churches

My first visit to Lalibela, far and away Ethiopia's most popular tourist destination, was neither planned nor auspicious. Flying to Axum from Gonder, bad weather at our destination resulted in a five-hour layover at the Lalibela aeroport while waiting and hoping that the skies above Axum would clear enough for us to complete our journey. Much of the waiting was done in the aeroport's second floor restaurant, which my daughter - a conoisseur of Italian cuisine - recalls as serving Ethiopia's best spaghetti and tomato sauce. Also memorable was our captain holding court with the flight crew and other hangers on at a neighbouring table for the duration of our layover. His table weighed down with plates of shiro, tibs and other delicacies, taking calls on his mobile phone, and enjoying a laugh-a-minute with his entourage, the life of a pilot in Ethiopia seems a lot more fun than anything I've seen of the harried existence of flight crews in Canadian aeroports.

Lalibela aeroport

 On our subsequent - and this time planned - stay in Lalibela we again arrived at the aeroport, only this time we skipped the restaurant and headed straight out of the terminal where we were promptly met by the driver from our hotel. The fact that airport transfers are almost always included in room rates is one of my favourite features of the Ethiopian hotel sector, and it is hard to imagine better value for money than is the case in Lalibela, where the aeroport is located almost 30km from the town centre along a winding mountain road. Difficult to reach as recently as the mid-1990s, Lalibela has since become the centrepiece of Ethiopia's "historical circuit". While the tourist influx has undoubtedly brought a measure of prosperity to both the town and surrounding region - not to mention home comforts for foreign visitors - tourism-led development clearly has a downside as well. More on this later.

Lalibela Countryside

Navigating the town's peripheral sprawl, we arrived at the Lal Hotel under a light drizzle. With over 100 rooms the Lal is the town's largest hotel and a tour group favourite. However, the rainy season and travel warnings had clearly put a damper on bookings, and perhaps as a result the hotel had a desolate feel to it, like a ski resort in the middle of summer. Concretely, this meant the swimming pool had been drained, satellite TV reception cut off, all but one of the hotel's vaunted bars and restaurants were closed and water leaked into our room whenever it rained.

Biete Ghiorghis

 Of course, Lalibela is not a place you to visit for the quality of the pool-side lounge but rather the world heritage site it is built around. In this regard, stay at almost any hotel in town and chances are you're a stone's throw away from one of the town's rock-hewn churches or associated warren of canals and subterranean passages. And they are truly amazing, not only for their outstanding workmanship and the unique history they embody, but above all because of the enduring role they play in the religious lives of Ethiopian Christians. Visiting Biete Golgotha Mikael on a fasting day when the church is thronged by the faitfful, I felt halfway between the stone-carved Nabatean temples of Petra and Copacabana beach on New Year's Eve, when thousands of white-clad followers of Macumba make offerings to Iemanjá, Goddess of the Water.

Biete Medhani Alem

As is the case elsewhere in Ethiopia, Lalibela's is understudied by historians and archaeologists, especially considering the magnitude and significance of the site. While myth and tradition has more than filled the breach in scholdarship, some features of Lalibela's history are relatively uncontested. Notably, Lalibela's rock-hewn church are thought to have been built in four or five stages, between the 7th and 13th centuries. Physically, the churches form two distinct clusters: A northern group, consisting of Biete Golgotha Mikael, Biete Mariam, Biete Denagel, Biete Maskal and  Biete Medhani Alem, and a southern group, consisting of Biete Lehem, Biete Gabriel Rafael , Biete Abba Libanos, Biete Amanuel and Biete Qeddus Mercoreus. A final church, Biete Ghiorghis, stands alone a short walk from the southern cluster, and is undoubtedly the most recognizable of all Lalibela's churches (think St George's Cross).

Worshippers' shoes left outside the sanctum

Drawing on Axumite architectural traditions, the churches' consistently square or rectangular shape belies many striking and unique features, while the layout of the site - with its subterranean passages, drainage canals and assorted caves and other dark openings - fosters a sense of otherworldliness that is consistent with Lalibela's traditional representation as the "New Jerusalem". In this regard, I found it striking how the sacred and the profane mingled so seamlessly in Lalibela. On the one hand, these are very much working churches where the faithful come in their thousands on major feast days such as Orthodox Christmas. On the other, it a key income earner for the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and sustains a major tourism industry and everything good and bad that this entails.

Biete Golgotha Mikael

At the time of our visit in July 2016, the entry fee for the churches was USD50 per person and USD25 for "students", with ample care taken at the visitor centre to ensure that tickets, which are valid for five days, are not shared among multiple visitors. While the visitor centre houses a quickly forgotten museum in its basement with a collection of dusty relics and a few ancient books, those interested in learning about the history and archaeology of Lalibela are advised to visit the Lalibela Cultural Centre instead. Located next door to the Tukul Village Hotel, its displays are top notch with lots of interesting context, photos and artefacts that are bound to enrich anyone's visit to Lalibela.

Biete Mariam

 As for the church themselves, what can I say that has not already been written by someone far more learned than me? Despite on again, off again rain for the two days I spent visiting the site, the experience was nothing short of remarkable. And especially memorable for me was the distinctiveness of each of the churches, notwithstanding their superficial similarities. While Biete Ghiorghis' cruciform layout has become the face of Lalibela (if not Ethiopia) among tourism promoters, the carved statues of Biete Golgotha Mikael or the majestic columns of Biete Medhani Alem are no less striking in both their beauty and craftsmanship.

Every church has its bell

At a more prosaic level, visitors to Lalibela will undoubtedly encounter the usual characters who feature anywhere in Ethiopia frequented by large numbers of foreign visitors: guides, touts and assorted hustlers. Featuring prominently in the latter group are large numbers of "grade 10" students keen on practising their English and acquiring a gift-giving benefactor in the process. That being said, the hassles in Lalibela are very mild compared with many other places around the world, and I was left a warm impression of almost everyone I dealt with. I'm looking forward to a return trip soon!

Looking towards the sanctum sanctorum

Visiting one of Ethiopia's lesser known world heritage sites: Tiya Stelae Field

World heritage site. For visitors to Ethiopia, this label most likely evokes images of grandeur and awe. Think for example of Lalibela's singularly ornate rock-hewn churches or the breathtaking landscape of Simien Mountains National Park. White the Tiya Stelae Field is equally a world heritage site, its scale is altogether more modest than that of its better known brethren.

Tiya is located about 80km south of Addis Ababa on the road to Butajira, and the trip there is memorable in its own right, as are most road trips in Ethiopia. Leaving Addis' Bole district mid-morning in a chartered minivan - an Ethiopian tourism industry mainstay on roads where 4WD is not required - we almost immediately became snarled in the capital's ever-worsening traffic. 

Roadside scene on the Addis-Butajira Highway

Weaving our way past pedestrians, bajaji (as three-wheel taxis are known locally), broken down trucks and a donkey which had decided that the middle of a four-lane road was as good a place as any to take a nap, we finally breached Addis' sprawling suburbs and emerged into the open countryside.

The landscape south of Addis is beautiful: rolling hills, lush vegetation and small farmsteads, studded with the occasional volcanic plug and (not so attractive) roadside village. Passing through one of these villages we had the memorable experience of a massively obese man walking into the middle of the road, holding out his arms and blocking our vehicle no matter how our driver tried to navigate around him. As pedestrians and their animals walked by as though nothing odd was happening, our driver finally accepted defeat and handed over a couple crumpled notes and the man went on his way.

Most people visiting Tiya on a day-trip from the capital make two stops en route. The first is the Paleolithic site of Melka Kunture. About one kilometre west of the highway down a rough track, the site apparently features a fine museum containing many impressive stone age artefacts. I say apparently because we did not get to see the museum ourselves, arriving too late in the day and finding the entrance gates already locked.

The rural landscape south of Addis is verdant and lush

We had better luck at our second stop at Adadi Maryam, which has the distinction of being the most southerly of Ethiopia's rock-hewn churches. Located on high ground about 30 kilometres west of the main road, Adadi Maryam is thought to date from the 13th century CE, and was reputedly built by King Lalibela himself. Whether this is true or not, the church remained in use for the next three hundred years, when it fell into disrepair until it was rediscovered by Emperor Menelik II in the late 19th century.

Sunday market at Adadi village

Although the church is a popular pilgrimage destination for Ethiopian Christians, there was little road traffic on the day of our visit, apart from the occasional herd of sheep and goats and a few farmers heading home after a morning spent tending to their fields. However, as the farmland gave way to the outskirts of Adadi. where the eponymous church is located, we discovered why we had seen so few people on the way in: everyone seemed already to be in the village, buying, selling or just walking about at the local weekly market. Dozens of donkeys and horses were tied up on either side of the road as we approached the market square, and soon the way forward was entirely blocked with a mass of people. Yet our driver crawled along, with people moving out of our path good-naturedly, and soon we arrived at the church gates.

Adadi Maryam Church

Having paid our 5USD entry fee we clambered down slippery stone steps to the church proper. Having visited Lalibela earlier in our trip I will admit to being a little disappointed by the much less finely carved stonework. However, in other respects Adadi Maryam is impressive. At 20 metres long and 16 metres wide the church is imposing in its size and layout, with large (carpeted) chambers leading into the maqdas, or Holy of Holies, where only priests may enter. However, even without delicately wrought stonework or elaborate wall-paintings, what struck me most about Adadi Maryam was the sense that it was above all a working church, where people come to worship as they have for centuries, with no effort to sanitize or commodify the experience.

Interior of Adadi Maryam Church

Leaving Adadi Maryam, the rest of the trip to Tiya took the better part of an hour. The world heritage site sits at the end of an unpaved but well signed road about 200 metres east of the main highway. Surrounded by farmland and thickly vegetated with tall grass and shrubs, there is almost nothing that gives away the site's significance as one approaches. No aspiring tour guides or souvenir hawkers, no roofing or other site protection - just a modest hut where a local man sell trinkets and a tiny ticket building where we were given a laboriously written receipt after paying our USD6 entrance fee.

"Welcome to Tiya Ethiopian World Heritage Site"

The Tiya stelae field, entered via a brightly coloured gate in a low-slung barbed wire fence, consists of 46 standing stones, regarding which remarkably little is known. Erected between the 10th and 15th centuries CE, they are of much more recent vintage than the obelisks of Aksum, yet their meaning and significance remains shrouded in mystery. The stelae vary in height with the tallest reaching five metres, and they include both anthropomorphic and phallic shapes. Most also bear elaborately carved symbols, variously reminiscent of swords, leaves and human figures.

Tiya stelae field

Despite being designated a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1980, very little archaeological work has been undertaken at Tiya. However, evidence of mass graves of individuals whose remains bear signs of violence suggest that the stones may be grave markers for warriors killed in battle. Other finds in the area include Middle Stone Age tools as well as several tombs.

Tiya stela detail

On the day of our visit, we had the ruins almost entirely to ourselves, and traipsing across the site it was easy to imagine all manner of ancient artefacts waiting to be found beneath the uneven ground. The stelae themselves were striking for their recurring motifs, which must have been fiendishly difficult to carve in the hard rock. Not for the first time in Ethiopia we were struck by the country's remarkable historical legacy, which is as rich as that of any country in the world, yet so much remains unknown or unqueried by professional archaeologists and historians. While the protection afforded to Tiya through its world heritage designation is an important first step, clearly that there is much more to be done to preserve and study this remarkable site.

Sword motif on Tiya stela

Consecration ceremony in Timbuktu to celebrate rehabilitation of destroyed medieval mausoleums

Some good news from Mali today with reports of a consecration ceremony held in Timbuktu on February 4, 2016 to mark the restoration of 14 medieval mausoleums destroyed by Islamist militants during their occupation of this world heritage site in 2012.

Djingareyber Mosque (credit: upyernoz)

Rehabilitation of the mausoleums began in March 2014, with local masons working under the supervision of the Imam of the Djingareyber Mosque and with support from UNESCO and the United Nations mission to Mali, known as MINUSMA.

Everyday threats faced by world heritage sites

Beyond their fearsome reputation for killing, maiming and terrorizing local populations (and the few foreigners who happen to fall into their hands), militant Islamist outfits like the Taliban and so-called Islamic State have become known for their enthusiastic pillaging and destruction of cultural heritage. While the razing of ancient monuments at Bamiyan (Afghanistan) and Palmyra (Syria) – both world heritage sites – are certainly among their most infamous handiwork, many lesser sites have also been targeted with equally grim results.

Triumphal arch at Palmyra (now destroyed) *

While the attention and oppobrium that these incidents garner is entirely understandable, it is worth keeping in mind that IS is not the only culprit. Heritage sites the world over are suffering cumulative damage caused by visitors and those working in the tourism business. While the scale of any particular incident is not comparable say to the destruction of an ancient tomb in Timbuktu, over time the impact can nonetheless be highly destructive.

Take for example the ancient rock-art of Tadrart Acacus in Libya. Having survived up to 12,000 years, the world heritage site have in recent times been wantonly vandalised by both tourists and tour guides.

Ancient rock art in Tadrart Acacus in Libya (credit: Robert D'Angelo)

These acts are inexcusable, and while arguably authorities should be doing more to safeguard heritage sites like Tradart Acacus, visitors must take responsibility as well, and be held to account when they are found to have damaged a site, whether through malice, carelessness or ignorance.

* The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. (1860 - 1929). Triumphal arch of temple at Palmyra, Syria. Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-6192-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

An uncertain road ahead for residents of Algiers' kasbah

On the shores of the Mediterranean, just a short flight from Western Europe, Algiers' kasbah could easily be a top-rated tourist attraction. Inscribed as a worldheritage site in 1992, the kasbah (or medina) dates from the 4th century BCE, when it was established as a Carthaginian trading post, and is brimming over with the remains of a citadel, mosques and Ottoman-style palaces.

Yet recent history has not been kind to the kasbah, or Algeria more generally. An armed Islamist insurrection in the 1990s led to tens of thousands of deaths and widespread atrocities both on the part of militant groups and security forces. Within Algiers, the kasbah was a militant stronghold, and while the conflict may have largely ended by 2000, the kasbah continues to struggle with a legacy of decay and neglect.

The New York Public Library. (1670). De Stadt Algier.*

Crumbling buildings are everywhere as is evidence of poor sanitation and decaying infrastructure. While many observers are despairing of ever seeing positive change, there is some indication that the tide may be turning. Since 2012 authorities have allocated almost USD1 billion for the kasbah's rehabilitation. However, these efforts are not being welcomed in all quarters. Some complain at being forcibly relocated while renovation work is being carried out as well as producing rampant real estate speculation.

The jury is still out at whether the Algerian authorities can protect the kasbah's unique historical heritage without irrevocably changing the character of a vibrant, tight-knit community whose forebears have lived in the kasbah for generations.

* Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47db-e424-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

ICC case involving Timbuktu war crimes suspect inches forward

The trial of Mr. Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague is one step closer today with the Court's ruling that confirmation of charges against Mr. Al Mahdi would take place on March 1, 2016.

As reported previously on this blog, Mr. Al Mahdi stands accused of war crimes in relation to the destruction of mausoleums and a mosque in Timbuktu, a world heritage site, while the city was under occupation by Islamist forces in 2012.

f the charges are confirmed, the case will be transferred to a Trial Chamber, which will conduct the subsequent phase of the proceedings.

A seven-step program to turn Nigeria into a "tourism giant"

The Eagle Online, a Nigerian newspaper, published a thoughtful article yesterday on seven steps Nigeria must take it if it become a "tourism giant". With outstanding cultural heritage, attractive beaches, dynamic cities, etc, the country undeniably has tremendous potential, yet as everyone knows Nigeria is dogged by an awful reputation for corruption online con artists and, in recent years, a bloody Islamist insurgency.

While arguably Nigeria needs to focus first on improving its international reputation and tackling Boko Haram before it can hope to attract any significant number of international visitors, all seven steps are sound, and moreover several could equally be applied in any number of countries, including many whose current tourism strategy seems fixated on showcasing just one or two major attractions, raising serious questions of sustainability and equity in the process (Cambodia's focus on Angkor Wat comes to mind in this regard).

In brief, the seven steps are:

1. Develop a tourism mindset 
2. Promote internal tourism 
3. Integrate all the tourism attractions 
4. Make travelling easy 
5. Give us world-class institutions 
6. Dream big dreams 
7. Give everyone light

Good advice, to which I would add just one more suggestion: given local people a stake in the success of the tourism industry, as they can be your most effective ambassadors to foreign visitors - either in a positively or negatively.

Foreign tourists abandon Egypt

Few countries in the world can rival Egypt for its remarkable geography and wondrous monuments, including of course the pyramid fields from Giza to Dahshur, a world heritage site since 1997. While in years past this made Egypt one of the most visited countries in the world (14 million foreign tourists came in 2010 alone), the violence and unrest has taken its toll, despite the best efforts of the country's strongman president, Mr. Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, to crack down on opposition.

With the exodus of Russian tourists following the explosion on a Moscow-bound passenger aeroplane in October 2015 foreign tourists have all but disappeared. Cited by the Nikkei Asian Review, one trinket seller in the vicinity of the Giza pyramids lamented: "I've been doing business here for 15 years and now is the worst. It's really difficult to make a living."

Unfortunately, given the authorities' continuing campaign against Islamic militants within Egypt as well the seemingly endless strife in nearby countries, whether Syria, Iraq or Libya, prospects for the Egyptian tourism industry remain grim for the foreseeable future.

Islamic State militants seize control of world heritage site in Libya

News media are reporting today that another world heritage site has fallen into the hands of so-called Islamic State (IS). The archaeological site of Sabratha in north-western Libya, was a Phoenician trading-post before being integrated into the Roman Empire and rebuilt in the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE.

According to The Times newspaper, IS fighters travelling in 30 pick-up trucks set up checkpoints throughout the city, with fears mounting regarding the archaeological site, which includes on the best-preserved Roman amphitheatres in the world.

Let's hope that Libya's IS militants does not seek to emulate the behaviour of their confrères in Palmyra...

Rising sea levels threaten world heritage site in West Africa

With the world's media focussed on the "COP21" climate conference in Paris this week, stories with a climate change angle are proliferating across the Internet. One of the most striking from my perspective is the impact of rising sea levels on the Island of Saint-Louis in Senegal. Saint-Louis, a world heritage site since 2000, became an entrepot for European traders in the second half of the 17th century, and the political capital of French West Africa (FWA) until 1902, and capital of Senegal and Mauritania up until 1957.

Today, the coast is being eroded at several points around the island and buildings in outlying villages are being washed away by the sea. According to UN-HABITAT, Saint-Louis is the most vulnerable city in Africa to rising sea levels. And while the Senegalese government has recently announced a USD1.6 million project to build breakwaters, much of the population is at risk, along with the island's unique cultural and natural heritage.

Heavenly tilework in the Medina of Fez

The Medina of Fez is one of Morocco's best known world heritage sites and for good reason. Not only is it home to the oldest university in the world, but its centuries-old streets and buildings provide a glimpse into an incredibly rich history spiced with Andalusian, Oriental and African influences.

 To my mind, one of the most striking features of Fez are its distinctive mosaic tilework or zillij. Created by master craftsmen, tiles are glazed and cut in complex geometric patterns and colours.

While zilij is said to have reached its apogee in the 16th century in Marrakesh, the art form remains very much alive in Fez, and incredible tilework may be found almost anywhere, ranging from public fountains to the courtyards of the city's many madrassas, or Islamic religious schools.

The photos posted here were taken in Fez in July 2012.

Earliest European Christian church in the tropics excavated in Cabo Verde

University of Cambridge has reported this week that a team of archaeologists from the university have unearthed the earliest known European Christian church in the tropics. Dating from ca1470, the church of Nossa Senhora da Conceição was built by Portguese in Cidade Velha, the former capital of Cabo Verde, and the country's only world heritagesite.

Excavation site (photo credit: University of Cambridge)

Thanks to its role as a trans-shipment point between Africa and the Americas for the Portuguese slave trade, Cidade Velha became the second richest country in the Portuguese empire. And fascinatingly the archaeologists found a burial site under the church where more than 1,000 people were buried before 1525, including both Africans and Europeans.

I look forward to learning more about the archaeology of this site in the months and years to come.

Rebuilding Timbuktu's historical buildings

Timbuktu, a world heritage site in northern Mali, was a centre for the propagation of Islam throughout Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries, and remains famous for its historical mosques and mausoleums as well as its libraries of ancient religious manuscripts. In 2012 Timbuktu's historical legacy was placed at risk when the city was seized by Islamist militants, and more than a dozen mausoleums and other religious buildings were destroyed.

While the international community strongly backed calls to rebuild the destroyed buildings after the Islamists left Timbuktu, UNESCO has reportedly struggled to raised even a quarter of the USD11 million estimated for the project. 

Meanwhile, local builders have pushed forward with their own rebuilding efforts using traditional methods and local materials, although a great deal of work remains to be done.

Roman City of Volubilis, well worth visiting, but perhaps not in mid-summer

Reading about the destruction of Palmyra's monumental arch by IS reminded me of a visit in July 2012 to Volubilis, another ancient Roman city that also has the well-deserved status of a world heritage site. Despite the blazing sun and oven-like heat, the site was incredible!

Ruins range from the politico-religious (including the monumental arch pictured above) to the vernacular (no tour guide misses the opportunity to point the site of a reputed brothel), along with amazing mosaics that are all the more impressive for being preserved in situ.

Suspect in the destruction of historical sites in Timbuktu detained by the ICC

At a time when the so-called Islamic State continues its campaign of destruction and pillaging of ancient sites in Syria and Iraq, the International Criminal Court detained yesterday (September 26, 2015) Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi, the first individual charged with war crimes in connection with similarly wanton acts in Mali in 2012.

When an Islamist group seized Timbuktu, a listed world heritage site, in April of that year, many feared for the city's remarkable architecture dating from the 15th and 16th centuries. Those fears proved justified as the Islamists destroyed many historical sites before they were forced from the city in 2013.

Now, Mr. Al Faqi faces prosecution "concerning the destruction of buildings dedicated to religion and historical monuments," having allegedly been involved in the destruction of nine mausoleums and the SidiYahia mosque.

It is to be hoped that the ICC will pursue similar cases against other perpetrators, whether in Mali or elsewhere.