Churches
Next time...random other things to compare. Hurray! Higher number: Charles blog posts arbitrarily comparing Ethiopia and Oman or Land Before Time movies? Only time will tell.
Ethiopia
I'm not sure if I've mentioned this yet, but Ethiopia is a very religious country. It's pretty neat to be somewhere where people take their faith more seriously than in the US. The predominant religions here are the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (~44%), Islam (~34%), and other Christian denominations (~19%). Even including inactives, the LDS population is less than 0.01%.
Having said this, there are a lot of old churches all over the country. They'll be a church even in the smallest villages out in the middle of nowhere. The churches are pretty much all still in use, but some of the most historic are also tourist attractions.
For the warm-up, we visited two churches in Addis:
Saint George's Cathedral was built to celebrate defeating the Italians after the Ethiopians defeated the Italians in the Battle of Adwa in 1896.
There's also a museum here, but for some reason, while you can take pictures inside the church, you can't inside the museum.
As will become a recurring theme, there were some pretty cool paintings / murals.
Ethiopian Orthodox churches are all laid out pretty similarly. There's an area for the men, an area for the women, and an area for the priests. In the middle (many of the churches are circular), is the Holy of Holies, which houses that church's replication ark of the covenant and only the priests can enter. By the way, Ethiopia claims to have the actual Ark of the Covenant as well up in a church in Tigray.
Our guide also showed us the different things used by the priests (all of which have a lot of symbolism behind them).
Then he insisted on taking pictures with Emma and I playing the instruments, but that felt super touristy and disrespectful, so I'm not sharing those.
We also visited the Entoto Maryam Church at the top of Entoto (the high point north of Addis). They wouldn't let us in the actual church, but there's a museum (which we declined to enter since they insisted on holding our bags at the front) and a large, empty house that one of the kings used to live in.
The real reason to climb Entoto:
The main event was Lalibela. Lalibela is home to rock-hewn churches from the 12th and 13th centuries (which are, amazingly enough, still operated as churches every Sunday). Lalibela is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (quite a few of those in Ethiopia, it turns out). In fact, it is part of the first group of 12 sites to be designated in 1978, along with some really obscure places like Yellowstone National Park and the Galapagos Islands. UNESCO recognizes eleven churches in the area as the part of the site.
In order to stay hidden from enemies, the churches are actually carved into the rock, meaning they are all either below original ground level or in the side of the mountain. The pathways between the churches are also below ground level. Like most things in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, there's a lot of symbolism inside the churches and about Lalibela overall. For example, Lalibela is symbolic of Jerusalem, so many of the things in Lalibela have Biblical names (the town's riverbed is even called the River Jordan). The story is that King Lalibela visited Jerusalem as a child and wanted to build a new Jerusalem in his domain (1) so his people didn't have to travel as far for a pilgrimage and (2) in response to the capture of Jerusalem by Muslims in 1187. The churches are also divided between earthly and heavenly churches.
One of the churches (Biete Medhane Alem), is believed to be the largest monolithic church in the world (all carved from one stone). A few years ago, they covered all the churches (except the Church of St. George which we'll come to in a minute) with pavilions because the stone was soft enough that the weather was wearing it away over time.
Biete Giyorgis (Church of Saint George). This is the most famous of the churches and also doesn't need a pavilion because it was carved out of the harder rock in the area (which also means it must have been much more difficult to carve).
You can see how the church really is below ground level.
I'm not sure if I've mentioned this yet, but Ethiopia is a very religious country. It's pretty neat to be somewhere where people take their faith more seriously than in the US. The predominant religions here are the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (~44%), Islam (~34%), and other Christian denominations (~19%). Even including inactives, the LDS population is less than 0.01%.
Having said this, there are a lot of old churches all over the country. They'll be a church even in the smallest villages out in the middle of nowhere. The churches are pretty much all still in use, but some of the most historic are also tourist attractions.
For the warm-up, we visited two churches in Addis:
Saint George's Cathedral was built to celebrate defeating the Italians after the Ethiopians defeated the Italians in the Battle of Adwa in 1896.
There's also a museum here, but for some reason, while you can take pictures inside the church, you can't inside the museum.
As will become a recurring theme, there were some pretty cool paintings / murals.
Ethiopian Orthodox churches are all laid out pretty similarly. There's an area for the men, an area for the women, and an area for the priests. In the middle (many of the churches are circular), is the Holy of Holies, which houses that church's replication ark of the covenant and only the priests can enter. By the way, Ethiopia claims to have the actual Ark of the Covenant as well up in a church in Tigray.
Our guide also showed us the different things used by the priests (all of which have a lot of symbolism behind them).
Then he insisted on taking pictures with Emma and I playing the instruments, but that felt super touristy and disrespectful, so I'm not sharing those.
We also visited the Entoto Maryam Church at the top of Entoto (the high point north of Addis). They wouldn't let us in the actual church, but there's a museum (which we declined to enter since they insisted on holding our bags at the front) and a large, empty house that one of the kings used to live in.
The real reason to climb Entoto:
The main event was Lalibela. Lalibela is home to rock-hewn churches from the 12th and 13th centuries (which are, amazingly enough, still operated as churches every Sunday). Lalibela is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (quite a few of those in Ethiopia, it turns out). In fact, it is part of the first group of 12 sites to be designated in 1978, along with some really obscure places like Yellowstone National Park and the Galapagos Islands. UNESCO recognizes eleven churches in the area as the part of the site.
In order to stay hidden from enemies, the churches are actually carved into the rock, meaning they are all either below original ground level or in the side of the mountain. The pathways between the churches are also below ground level. Like most things in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, there's a lot of symbolism inside the churches and about Lalibela overall. For example, Lalibela is symbolic of Jerusalem, so many of the things in Lalibela have Biblical names (the town's riverbed is even called the River Jordan). The story is that King Lalibela visited Jerusalem as a child and wanted to build a new Jerusalem in his domain (1) so his people didn't have to travel as far for a pilgrimage and (2) in response to the capture of Jerusalem by Muslims in 1187. The churches are also divided between earthly and heavenly churches.
One of the churches (Biete Medhane Alem), is believed to be the largest monolithic church in the world (all carved from one stone). A few years ago, they covered all the churches (except the Church of St. George which we'll come to in a minute) with pavilions because the stone was soft enough that the weather was wearing it away over time.
Biete Giyorgis (Church of Saint George). This is the most famous of the churches and also doesn't need a pavilion because it was carved out of the harder rock in the area (which also means it must have been much more difficult to carve).
You can see how the church really is below ground level.
As my buddy Scott said in his Lalibela blog post (that's right, I'm plagiarizing now), don't fall in!
The churches were all really interesting, and I have way too many pictures, but to avoid giving one of the slide projector diatribes that we all had to sit through as children, I'll just include a couple of more.
Fine, fine, that was more than a couple. What can I say? I am that weird neighbor you had in the 1980s, who insisted on sharing 500 pictures of his trip to the Grand Canyon with you.
Bahir Dar (the place with the Blue Nile Falls nearby) is right on Lake Tana (largest lake in Ethiopia). Lake Tana has several monasteries on different islands and peninsulas. Given the time it took the boat to get to the peninsula, we only ended up seeing the outside of two monasteries (looked very similar) and the inside of one. However, I think we chose well since we saw the one with all the old, cool murals.
Hike from the boat to the monastery:
Monastery outside:
Monastery inside:
We also passed some of the small, very lightweight reed boats that the locals use on the lake.
Fine, fine, that was more than a couple. What can I say? I am that weird neighbor you had in the 1980s, who insisted on sharing 500 pictures of his trip to the Grand Canyon with you.
Bahir Dar (the place with the Blue Nile Falls nearby) is right on Lake Tana (largest lake in Ethiopia). Lake Tana has several monasteries on different islands and peninsulas. Given the time it took the boat to get to the peninsula, we only ended up seeing the outside of two monasteries (looked very similar) and the inside of one. However, I think we chose well since we saw the one with all the old, cool murals.
Hike from the boat to the monastery:
Monastery outside:
Monastery inside:
We also passed some of the small, very lightweight reed boats that the locals use on the lake.
Oman
I would guess one of the few places in the world that rivals Ethiopia for religiousness is the Middle East. You similarly see mosques even in the middle of nowhere in Oman. However, somehow, I don't have many pictures of those. What I do have is pictures of the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat. While the churches in Ethiopia seem to all be named things like House of the Savior of the World, House of Mary, Church of Saint George, the Grand Mosque is named after Oman's ruler - Sultan Qaboos (and yes, it's pronounced like the red thing at the end of a train). The Grand Mosque is just slightly smaller in many ways than the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi (which I told you about in May or June).
Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque
-Capacity: 20,000 worshipers
-Main prayer hall capacity: 6,500 worshipers
-Carpet: 2nd largest in the world
-Chandelier: 14 m height
-Courtyard: Nicely landscaped instead of all being marble
-Tallest minaret: 90 m
Sheikh Zayed Mosque:
-Capacity: 40,000 worshipers
-Main prayer hall capacity: 7,000 worshipers
-Carpet: Largest in the world
-Chandelier: 2nd largest in a mosque and 3rd largest in the world; 10 m diameter; 15 m height
-Courtyard: The largest marble mosaic in the world
-Tallest minaret: 107 m
But wait...the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque has five minarets (compared to four for the Sheikh Zayed Mosque) and may have larger overall grounds (unclear given lack of standardization in how they measure this).
Anyway, the mosque is still quite impressive:
I would guess one of the few places in the world that rivals Ethiopia for religiousness is the Middle East. You similarly see mosques even in the middle of nowhere in Oman. However, somehow, I don't have many pictures of those. What I do have is pictures of the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat. While the churches in Ethiopia seem to all be named things like House of the Savior of the World, House of Mary, Church of Saint George, the Grand Mosque is named after Oman's ruler - Sultan Qaboos (and yes, it's pronounced like the red thing at the end of a train). The Grand Mosque is just slightly smaller in many ways than the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi (which I told you about in May or June).
Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque
-Capacity: 20,000 worshipers
-Main prayer hall capacity: 6,500 worshipers
-Carpet: 2nd largest in the world
-Chandelier: 14 m height
-Courtyard: Nicely landscaped instead of all being marble
-Tallest minaret: 90 m
Sheikh Zayed Mosque:
-Capacity: 40,000 worshipers
-Main prayer hall capacity: 7,000 worshipers
-Carpet: Largest in the world
-Chandelier: 2nd largest in a mosque and 3rd largest in the world; 10 m diameter; 15 m height
-Courtyard: The largest marble mosaic in the world
-Tallest minaret: 107 m
But wait...the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque has five minarets (compared to four for the Sheikh Zayed Mosque) and may have larger overall grounds (unclear given lack of standardization in how they measure this).
Anyway, the mosque is still quite impressive:
Next time...random other things to compare. Hurray! Higher number: Charles blog posts arbitrarily comparing Ethiopia and Oman or Land Before Time movies? Only time will tell.
I love the churches and mosques, especially the art you can find in there. Let's talk soon!
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