African Arguments

Top Menu

  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
    • Climate crisis
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
    • Into Africa Podcast
    • Africa Science Focus Podcast
    • Think African Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

logo

African Arguments

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
    • Climate crisis
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
    • Into Africa Podcast
    • Africa Science Focus Podcast
    • Think African Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
EthiopiaPhoto of the Week
Home›African Arguments›Country›East›Ethiopia›Photo of the Week: Lalibela, carved by angels

Photo of the Week: Lalibela, carved by angels

By Uncategorised
August 4, 2017
4653
0

A worshipper pauses at the steps to one Lalibela’s breath-taking rock-hewn churches. These remarkable buildings were carved out of rock some 900 hundred years ago and are still in use by the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian community.

Legend has it that King Lalibela in the 12th century received the vision for this underground city of churches when he went into a coma after being poisoned by his brother. When he awoke, he was said to have been in heaven where God had given him the instructions for a “New Jerusalem”.

The King’s subjects went about creating the vision. A whole network of churches, of which eleven are still standing, was carved out of the rocky ground, with doors, windows, columns, drainage ditches, passages, hermit caves and catacombs. The entire structure was constituted by a single rock. Nothing was added, but only chipped away.

It was an enormous and costly endeavour, but the story goes that it took years rather than decades to complete because while men worked on it by day, angels continued their work by night.

Photograph by Göran Höglund.

For more on Ethiopia, see:

  • Ethiopia was colonised
  • Ethiopia uprising: Whither solidarity?
  • The Ethiopia protesters’ struggle moves to the athletics track
  • Ethiopia’s rubbish policies

In our Photo of the Week, we showcase one of the boldest and most beautiful images, old or new, that we’ve come across that week. If you’d like to submit a photograph to be featured, please email [email protected]

Previous Article

How the young and restless could change ...

Next Article

How Kenya’s votes will be counted, and ...

Uncategorised

Leave a reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Politics

    UK Parliamentary Group Report on Sudan

  • In Sierra Leone's 2018 elections, opposition leader Julius Maada Bio won a narrow victory. Credit: Direct Relief.
    Sierra LeoneSociety

    The WhatsApp rumours that infused Sierra Leone’s tight election

  • Politics

    Africa’s ‘Rise’ precarious whilst investors still consider safer destinations – By Hannah Waddilove

Subscribe to our newsletter

Click here to subscribe to our free weekly newsletter and never miss a thing!

  • 81.7K+
    Followers

Find us on Facebook

Interactive Elections Map

Keep up to date with all the African elections.

Recent Posts

  • Oligarchs, Oil and Obi-dients: The battle for the soul of Nigeria
  • Of cobblers, colonialism, and choices
  • Blackness, Pan-African Consciousness and Women’s Political Organising through the Magazine AWA
  • “People want to be rich overnight”: Nigeria logging abounds despite ban
  • The unaccountability of Liberia’s polluting miners

Editor’s Picks

Editor's PicksSociety

The pandemic has set gender equality back. Its legacy must not.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been tough on everyone, but women have shouldered the bulk of the burden at home and at work. Most years, International Women’s Day offers an opportunity ...
  • Girls line up during a basketball drill in Mogadishu, Somalia. Credit: AU UN IST/Tobin Jones.

    To counter al-Shabaab, Somalia’s new govt must do something for the kids

    By Liban Obsiye & Liban A. Hussein
    May 24, 2022
  • On the campaign trail with President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto. Credit: Uhuru Kenyatta.

    Siasa na Kusengenyana (aka When Kenyan politicians switch from English)

    By Nanjala Nyabola
    October 3, 2017
  • Asian-African

    It’s time to confront anti-Blackness in Asian-African communities

    By Sabrina Mahtani
    August 5, 2020
  • Bobi Wine and supporters at a rally this September don the red beret . Credit: Bobi Wine.

    To beat or not to beat: Museveni’s big Bobi Wine problem

    By Michael Mutyaba
    October 31, 2019

Brought to you by


Creative Commons

Creative Commons Licence
Articles on African Arguments are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
  • Cookies
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • en English
    am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu
© Copyright African Arguments 2020
By continuing to browse this site, you agree to our use of cookies.
en English
am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu