Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class, the production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome
Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Tracy B. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry.
Speaker 1: Today we have something that's been suggested by at least
Speaker 1: a couple of listeners, including William and Thomas, and that's
Speaker 1: the rock hewn churches of Ethiopia, in particular the complex
Speaker 1: of them that is known as Lollibella. There are at
Speaker 1: least two hundred rock hun churches in Ethiopia. The oldest
Speaker 1: ones are in the Tigray region and are carved from sandstone.
Speaker 1: Those dates all the way back to about the fifth century.
Speaker 1: This complex that Lollibella, is a little newer. It was
Speaker 1: excavated from volcanic rock about seven hundred years ago and
Speaker 1: the site has been in continuous use since then. Today
Speaker 1: Lollibella is a deeply important religious site in Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity.
Speaker 1: So these churches are just an incredible feat of engineering,
Speaker 1: both in terms of the structures themselves and all of
Speaker 1: the water management that's involved with them. And they're also
Speaker 1: connected to the overall history of Christianity in Ethiopia, which
Speaker 1: evolved very differently from Christianity and the rest of Sub
Speaker 1: Saharan Africa. So today we will have a brief overview
Speaker 1: of the origins of Christianity in Ethiopia before talking about
Speaker 1: these Rocket Churches at Lalibela, from their original building to
Speaker 1: the threats that the site is facing today, before we
Speaker 1: get to the introduction of Christianity in Ethiopia. The nations
Speaker 1: of Africa as we know them today have roots in
Speaker 1: the Scramble for Africa that took place in the late
Speaker 1: nineteenth century. That is, when European nations divided the continent
Speaker 1: up among themselves without regard for the existing nations, empires,
Speaker 1: and political alliances that were already there. This is something
Speaker 1: that has come up on the show multiple times before.
Speaker 1: The resulting national borders were really arbitrary in terms of
Speaker 1: everything from geography to existing territorial boundary. These nations and
Speaker 1: their borders continued to evolve after the Scramble for Africa,
Speaker 1: but in general they also continued to group people's that
Speaker 1: hadn't necessarily been affiliated before, creating the idea of nations
Speaker 1: that didn't necessarily match up to the existing political landscape.
Speaker 1: So of course that applies to Ethiopia, and then in
Speaker 1: terms of Ethiopia in particular. That name can mean a
Speaker 1: lot of different things depending on when a person is
Speaker 1: talking about and when they were using that term. A
Speaker 1: lot of ancient writing from outside of Sub Saharan Africa
Speaker 1: uses the word Ethiopia in a generic kind of way
Speaker 1: to just mean Africa in general, or in particular Africa
Speaker 1: south of Egypt. Ancient sources, including the Christian Bible, also
Speaker 1: used the word Ethiopian to describe anyone with very dark skin,
Speaker 1: so in these early uses of the word Ethiopia and Ethiopian,
Speaker 1: it's not always clear exactly who or where they are
Speaker 1: talking about. There are also a couple of written uses
Speaker 1: of the term that came from what's now Ethiopia rather
Speaker 1: than from elsewhere. They date back as far as the
Speaker 1: third or fourth century. One of them references a king
Speaker 1: of the Oxomites and the Ethiopians. The Oxomite Empire was
Speaker 1: in what's now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, and this wording
Speaker 1: suggests that people thought of these as two different places.
Speaker 1: In the history we're talking about today includes this same
Speaker 1: general region, which at some points has also been called Abyssinia.
Speaker 1: Christianity has been present in Northern Africa since the earliest
Speaker 1: years of the religion, as it's spread through areas that
Speaker 1: were part of the Roman Empire, but in most of
Speaker 1: Sub Saharan Africa it was introduced much later, starting with
Speaker 1: Portuguese missionaries in the fifteenth century, so for the most part,
Speaker 1: in Sub Saharan Africa, Christianity is associated with European colonialism.
Speaker 1: Ethiopia is an exception, though Ethiopia's Christian traditions trace back
Speaker 1: to Biblical accounts, including the flight of Mary, Joseph, and
Speaker 1: Jesus from Herod, the Roman king of Judea shortly after
Speaker 1: Jesus was born in the Book of Matthew and in
Speaker 1: some of the New Testament Apocrypha, an angel appeared to
Speaker 1: Joseph and told him that Herod planned to kill Jesus,
Speaker 1: so the Holy Family fled to Egypt and lived there
Speaker 1: for several years. In the Ethiopian tradition, they continued into
Speaker 1: Ethiopia and they took refuge there. The Book of Acts
Speaker 1: in the Bible also describes the apostle Philip baptizing a
Speaker 1: eunuch from the court of Candice, Queen of the Ethiopians,
Speaker 1: with that baptism happening in Jerusalem, and his fourth century
Speaker 1: ecclesiastical history, Bishop Assebius of Cesarea wrote that this person
Speaker 1: returned to Ethiopia, arriving there sometime before the apostle Matthew did.
Speaker 1: But like we just talked about, it's not really clear
Speaker 1: exactly where Ethiopia is in these accounts in terms of
Speaker 1: the introduction of Christianity as an established religion that goes
Speaker 1: back to the days of the Oxomite Empire, also called
Speaker 1: the Kingdom of ox Um. This umpire was established sometime
Speaker 1: between one fifty b c. And fifty sea, and it
Speaker 1: flourished from the third to the six centuries. Because of
Speaker 1: its position on the northern Horn of Africa along the
Speaker 1: Red Sea, this empire had extensive trading relationships with what's
Speaker 1: now Sudan, Egypt, and the Arabian Peninsula. It was a wealthy,
Speaker 1: cosmopolitan kingdom with primary exports that included ivory and gold.
Speaker 1: The kingdom used the revenue from these exports to invest
Speaker 1: in agriculture, moving the region from subsistence farming to raising
Speaker 1: cattle and export crops. The foreign merchants who visited or
Speaker 1: worked in the Oxomite Empire included Christians, and at first
Speaker 1: Christianity was viewed in the Empire as a foreign religion
Speaker 1: rather than as something that Oxymites might practice for themselves.
Speaker 1: Multiple accounts document the same basic story about how that changed,
Speaker 1: and in that story, two men described as coming from
Speaker 1: Syria or Tire were shipwrecked and given employment in the
Speaker 1: king's household. The king died while his son was still
Speaker 1: too young to take the throne, and these two men
Speaker 1: remained at court while his widow served as regent for
Speaker 1: the late king's son, Azanna. Along the way, they made
Speaker 1: connections with Christian traders and merchants, although it's not clear
Speaker 1: whether these shipwreck survivors sought them out because they were
Speaker 1: already Christian themselves, or if they converted to Christianity at
Speaker 1: some point. When Azanna came of age, the younger of
Speaker 1: the two shipwreck survivors returned home, but the older, known
Speaker 1: as Frumentius of Tire, traveled to Alexandria Egypt to petition
Speaker 1: church patriarch Athanasius to appoint a bishop to lead the
Speaker 1: growing community of Christians in the Kingdom of Axum. The
Speaker 1: patriarch appointed Frumentius himself, and in Ethiopia he became known
Speaker 1: as Abba Salama or Father Peace. Abbas Salama also baptized
Speaker 1: the king, marking the royal family's conversion to Christianity, and
Speaker 1: about the year three thirty Azanna became the first monarch
Speaker 1: to put the symbol of the cross on coins, and
Speaker 1: the capital of Oxom grew into a religious as well
Speaker 1: as the political center, So the establishment of Christianity and
Speaker 1: Ethiopia was happening at about the same time as it
Speaker 1: was in Armenia, which is usually noted as the first
Speaker 1: country to make Christianity the official state religion. It took
Speaker 1: another couple of centuries before Christianity was widely practiced outside
Speaker 1: of the royal family and nobility in the Kingdom of Oxom.
Speaker 1: Much of that shift started with the introduction of monasticism
Speaker 1: in about the sixth century. This is traditionally described as
Speaker 1: being brought by nine saints who were refugees fleeing religious
Speaker 1: persecution in Syria. There are still monasteries in Ethiopia that
Speaker 1: are dedicated to or trace their origins back to one
Speaker 1: of these nine saints. These monastic communities were hugely influential
Speaker 1: in the conversion of the general public to Christianity. Although
Speaker 1: the Oxomite Empire had a robust trading network and relationships
Speaker 1: with other Christian nations, it was relatively isolated from other
Speaker 1: predominantly Christian parts of the world. Its primary contact was
Speaker 1: the Coptic Church in Egypt, which appointed Egyptian bishops to
Speaker 1: lead the church in oxom and about the seventh century,
Speaker 1: Muslim conquest of surrounding areas also cut off the kingdom's
Speaker 1: contact with most other Christian nations, so for centuries, the
Speaker 1: Church and what's now Ethiopia didn't have formal contact with
Speaker 1: the Roman Catholic Church or the Eastern Orthodox Churches as
Speaker 1: they evolved at all. Consequently, the Orthodox Christianity that developed
Speaker 1: in the Horn of Africa is unique, with rituals and
Speaker 1: beliefs and practices that are specific to that region and
Speaker 1: sometimes have more in common with Judaism than with other Christianity.
Speaker 1: The Oxomite Empire went into decline around the seventh century,
Speaker 1: but by that point Christianity was established enough among the
Speaker 1: population that it survived the end of the political dynasty.
Speaker 1: The historical record is a little bit fuzzy on the
Speaker 1: years that followed, but the next people documented as coming
Speaker 1: to power where Kushite speaking Zagwe people. In about the
Speaker 1: eleventh century, they moved the capital south from Oxom to Roha.
Speaker 1: One was King Lallabella, which brings us to the rock
Speaker 1: Hun church complex that is named for him, and we
Speaker 1: will get to that after a sponsor break. The complex
Speaker 1: of rock Hun churches in Lallabella is named for and
Speaker 1: attributed to King Gibrae Mescal Lallabella. Most sources spell his
Speaker 1: name and the name of the church complex the same way,
Speaker 1: but one of the sources that I used for this
Speaker 1: episode spelled the king's name is ending with b a
Speaker 1: l a rather than be e l a, and that
Speaker 1: author noted that it has some pronunciation nuances that aren't
Speaker 1: necessarily perceptible to people who aren't from Ethiopia. I have
Speaker 1: also heard reputable sources say this name in three totally
Speaker 1: different ways. If you go watch videos from the Smithsonian, UNESCO,
Speaker 1: and the World Monuments Fund, you will hear three different pronunciations.
Speaker 1: King la Labella's biography and his connection to the church
Speaker 1: complex named after him are also really important and devoutly
Speaker 1: believed in the Ethiopian Orthodox religious tradition. We have a
Speaker 1: couple of pieces of documentation that helped pinpoint the dates
Speaker 1: of King Lallabella's reign. Both are land grants that he
Speaker 1: issued to churches, the first in twelve oh four and
Speaker 1: the second in twelve Most sources conclude that he ascended
Speaker 1: to the throne sometime towards the very end of the
Speaker 1: twelfth century, and that he ruled for at least a
Speaker 1: few years after twelve Most of the information that we
Speaker 1: have about his biography comes from a fifteenth century work
Speaker 1: called Life of King Lallabella, which was written after he
Speaker 1: had already attained sainthood, so apart from the centuries that
Speaker 1: passed between when he lived and when this was written,
Speaker 1: it's not clear how much of his content is strictly
Speaker 1: factual and how much is more related to creating kind
Speaker 1: of an idealized portrayal of the life of a saint.
Speaker 1: According to Life of King Lallabella, when he was born,
Speaker 1: a swarm of b's circled around him, almost as though
Speaker 1: he was made from honey. His mother interpreted this as
Speaker 1: being like an army surrounding its leader, and she took
Speaker 1: it as a sign that one day he would become king.
Speaker 1: His name has also been translated to the bee recognized
Speaker 1: his sovereignty, or the Bee has seen his grace. Lallabella's brother,
Speaker 1: King Harby became jealous over this and later tried to
Speaker 1: poison Lallabella. Let's attempt to assassinate his brother failed and
Speaker 1: a deacon and a dog were killed instead. Lallabella blamed
Speaker 1: himself for all of this and took the same poison.
Speaker 1: He fell unconscious for three days, and during that time
Speaker 1: God gave him a vision of ten churches hewn from
Speaker 1: solid rock, and commanded that he would build them. After
Speaker 1: recovering all of this poison incident, Lallabella fled to the desert,
Speaker 1: and there he married a woman named Kebra Mescal. Together
Speaker 1: they went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and when they
Speaker 1: returned to Roja, they were escorted by the archangels Michael
Speaker 1: and gave Brieal. King Harbey abdicated and Lallabella took the throne.
Speaker 1: In addition to the religious vision that's described in this account,
Speaker 1: sometimes there's other reasoning folded into Lallabella's excavation of this
Speaker 1: complex of churches, and that's that after the fall of
Speaker 1: Jerusalem to Saladin in eleven eighty seven, it became impossible
Speaker 1: for Christians to undertake a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, so King
Speaker 1: Lallabella wanted to make a new Jerusalem in Ethiopia. He
Speaker 1: wanted a new pilgrimage site that people could visit. They
Speaker 1: could go to each church as they might visit the
Speaker 1: sites in Jerusalem that were associated with Jesus. The traditional
Speaker 1: account of these churches construction also has religious elements that
Speaker 1: human workers excavated during the day and then angels did
Speaker 1: three times that amount of work each night. For this reason,
Speaker 1: the religious community at La Llabella today regards the entire
Speaker 1: site as sacred, including any dust or rubble that might
Speaker 1: have been created during the excavation. This complex of churches
Speaker 1: at Lalibela is one of the things that's been nicknamed
Speaker 1: an unofficial eighth Wonder of the World. The churches are monolithic.
Speaker 1: They are excavated from the surrounding volcanic rock in one
Speaker 1: contiguous piece. For most of them, the workers excavated from
Speaker 1: the top down, creating a huge trench around the perimeter
Speaker 1: that also included the exterior faces of the walls, and
Speaker 1: then another team excavated the interior ceilings and floors, hollowing
Speaker 1: out the insides. In some places, you can see how
Speaker 1: this was the work of multiple teams excavating simultaneously because
Speaker 1: occasionally the interior elements don't quite match up with the exterior.
Speaker 1: The resulting structures average about four stories tall, and they're
Speaker 1: situated in similarly deep excavated pits, with a system of
Speaker 1: underground tunnels and trenches connecting them to each other. Their
Speaker 1: upper portions of the structures have a reddish appearance thanks
Speaker 1: to the oxidized iron in the volcanic material that they
Speaker 1: were carved from, and the lower portions are gray basalt.
Speaker 1: There are also a sore did other rooms and nooks
Speaker 1: carved into the rock all around these churches themselves, and
Speaker 1: evidence that at some point in the past there were
Speaker 1: also above ground structures built from wood and stone. There
Speaker 1: are also remains of traditional village houses in the area
Speaker 1: that are still standing. Those were circular, two story houses
Speaker 1: with thatched roofs. And then, aside from the churches, Lollabelah
Speaker 1: is also a town with a population of about twenty
Speaker 1: thousand people. As we mentioned at the top of the show,
Speaker 1: different sources group or describe the buildings in the hun
Speaker 1: Lallabella complex slightly differently, but most of the time they
Speaker 1: are described as being in two clusters, separated by a
Speaker 1: seasonal torrent bed known as the River Jordan's. Initially, all
Speaker 1: the structures were probably connected to the torrent bed by
Speaker 1: trenches or tunnels, but some of those have collapsed or
Speaker 1: fallen in overtime. There's also one building that separated off
Speaker 1: on its own rather than being in one of these
Speaker 1: two groups, but it's connected to the others by trenches,
Speaker 1: and that one is the House of St. George, which
Speaker 1: is probably the most well known of the churches. When
Speaker 1: you look at this from above, it's shaped like a cross,
Speaker 1: with nested crosses carved into the roof. The cross itself
Speaker 1: measures about twelve meters by twelve meters or forty forty feet.
Speaker 1: To the north of the torrent bed are the House
Speaker 1: of the Savior of the World, the House of Mary,
Speaker 1: the House of the Cross, the House of Virgins, and
Speaker 1: the House of Gogatha Michail. To the south or the
Speaker 1: House of Emmanuel, the House of Merkorios, the House of
Speaker 1: Abbott Lebanos, the House of Gabriel Raphael, and the House
Speaker 1: of Holy Bread. The House of the Savior of the
Speaker 1: World is a five aisled basilica with a Colonnade and
Speaker 1: is believed to be the largest monolithic church in the world.
Speaker 1: Each of these churches is unique. They vary in details
Speaker 1: from one to another, and we have different window shapes,
Speaker 1: different structural elements and designs and artwork, and you can
Speaker 1: see multiple influences reflected in the various buildings. Before the
Speaker 1: Oxomite royal family converted to Christianity, royal burial sites were
Speaker 1: marked with these monolithic stone steele a that represented very tall,
Speaker 1: multi story buildings. Some of these are still standing in
Speaker 1: oxom which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and
Speaker 1: some of the windows and other design features that Lalibela
Speaker 1: are patterned after these carved obelisks. Ethiopia's historic churches also
Speaker 1: include more traditional above ground structures built from stone blocks
Speaker 1: and wooden beams. Many of them have the square ends
Speaker 1: of beams jutting out horizontally from the corners of the windows.
Speaker 1: They're locally nicknamed monkey heads. Some of the windows at
Speaker 1: Lalibela replicate the look of these beams as well. The
Speaker 1: House of Emmanuel in particular, tries to replicate the look
Speaker 1: of a built wooden church, even though these structures are
Speaker 1: hewn from solid stone as one piece. Many of their
Speaker 1: interiors replicate structural elements that would hold up the ceiling
Speaker 1: and the roof, and buildings that were made from another
Speaker 1: material like stone blocks. So if you look up at
Speaker 1: the ceilings, you'll see things like pillars, which are a
Speaker 1: good idea anyway, but then archway is up in the
Speaker 1: ceilings that would be structural elements. In another context, the
Speaker 1: houses of Mary Angle Gotha, Michale were once completely plastered
Speaker 1: and painted on the inside, with the plaster covered with
Speaker 1: murals and other artwork. It's not totally clear how far
Speaker 1: back all of this artwork dates, and in a lot
Speaker 1: of places there's paint from artwork that is no longer visible.
Speaker 1: One of the most complete murals depicts Mary riding a
Speaker 1: mule with Joseph walking by her side, led by the
Speaker 1: archangel Gabriel as the Holy Family arrived in Egypt. Along
Speaker 1: with the sculptures, religious carvings, and other artwork, these buildings
Speaker 1: are also home to a collection of arcs. In the
Speaker 1: Ethiopian religious tradition, the Queen of Sheba, who was Ethiopian,
Speaker 1: had a son with the Israelite king Solomon. This son
Speaker 1: was mental like the first and When he reached adulthood,
Speaker 1: his mother took him to visit his father. He returned
Speaker 1: to Ethiopia with the Ark of the Covenant, which remains
Speaker 1: hidden in a church in ox Sum guard did by
Speaker 1: one monk who is the only person allowed to see it.
Speaker 1: The churches at Lallabella contain replicas of this arc, which
Speaker 1: are decorated with stylized carvings and then treated with a
Speaker 1: similar amount of reverence. Some of the arcs are carved
Speaker 1: from a single piece of wood, and nine of them
Speaker 1: are dedicated to King Lallabella UH with no disrespect intended.
Speaker 1: I can't stop thinking about Indiana Jones Uh. The excavation
Speaker 1: of these buildings was an incredible feat of engineering. In
Speaker 1: addition to just the planning and labor, Volcanic rock is
Speaker 1: not uniformly dense or stable. When artists and artisans are
Speaker 1: carving from stone, they're usually choosing a piece that's consistent
Speaker 1: and of the right quality for their purposes. But you
Speaker 1: just do not have that option when you're carving an
Speaker 1: entire building from the living rock. These artisans had to
Speaker 1: account for all kinds of variations in the structure and
Speaker 1: strength of the material to get the aesthetic look that
Speaker 1: they were seeking, as well as the stability to make
Speaker 1: sure everything remains standing. And on top of that, this
Speaker 1: required a complex and massive hydro engineering project. Lalibela is
Speaker 1: situated in the Ethiopian highlands about two thousand, six hundred
Speaker 1: thirty meters above sea level that's about eight thousand, six
Speaker 1: hundred eight feet. There is no water at the surface
Speaker 1: of the site, so a whole system of canals, trenches, cisterns,
Speaker 1: sluice gates, damns, catch basins, and other devices was created
Speaker 1: to both bring water into the area from an aquifer
Speaker 1: that was miles away and to manage all the rain
Speaker 1: and run off during the rainy season. This includes the
Speaker 1: creation of multiple pools that were used for drinking water, baptisms,
Speaker 1: and healing and cleansing rituals. This hydro engineering work is
Speaker 1: usually credited to someone named abe Lebanos, and one of
Speaker 1: the churches at Lalibela is named for him. Sometimes the
Speaker 1: House of abe Lebanos is described as the only church
Speaker 1: at Lalibela dedicated to a specifically Ethiopian saint, but there's
Speaker 1: also some debate about whether he was Ethiopian. He was
Speaker 1: definitely brought from somewhere to oversee this work, but it
Speaker 1: is not entirely clear if it was from within Ethiopia
Speaker 1: that he was brought or from without Ethiopia, especially considering
Speaker 1: that they were built in the thirteenth century. These churches
Speaker 1: are just extraordinary, and we will talk about what archaeological
Speaker 1: study has revealed about them and the threats that they're
Speaker 1: facing today after a sponsor break. The rock hewn churches
Speaker 1: of Lalibela presents some particular challenges when it comes to
Speaker 1: archaeological study because most of them were carved from the
Speaker 1: top down. That meant that most of the evidence of
Speaker 1: earlier phases of work was destroyed as that work progressed.
Speaker 1: A lot of what remains is found in spoil heaps
Speaker 1: that are all over the area, But because the spoil
Speaker 1: heaps weren't really planned as carefully as the buildings themselves,
Speaker 1: they don't necessarily represent a neatly chronological stratificcation, with the
Speaker 1: oldest debris on the bottom and the newest on the top.
Speaker 1: These are also remember deeply holy sites in the Ethiopian
Speaker 1: Orthodox Church and home to an active religious community that
Speaker 1: has been there continually for centuries. Some parts of the
Speaker 1: churches can only be entered by very specific monks. The
Speaker 1: idea that these buildings were excavated by angels and that
Speaker 1: the work was commanded by God is also part of
Speaker 1: this community sincerely held religious belief. In some cases, this
Speaker 1: has meant that researchers have only been able to study
Speaker 1: the buildings from the outside. Restoration and conservation projects also
Speaker 1: have to account for the idea that even the debris
Speaker 1: may have been handled by angels. As we said earlier,
Speaker 1: in addition to the churches themselves, there are rooms and
Speaker 1: nooks and other elements that are hewn from the surrounding rock.
Speaker 1: But because naturally occurring basalt blocks can really resemble something
Speaker 1: that was carved by human hands, it can be hard
Speaker 1: to identify which features are hand carved and which are
Speaker 1: not without further study. I mean, obviously the entire churches
Speaker 1: are carved by hands, but there are things like that
Speaker 1: looks like a throne. Is this a thing that someone
Speaker 1: carved to look like a throne or did the rock
Speaker 1: just form that way. It's also physically hard to get
Speaker 1: from one part of the complex to another. A lot
Speaker 1: of the tunnels that connect the different structures are roughly
Speaker 1: the height and width of a person, so there's not
Speaker 1: a lot of extra room to be moving around and
Speaker 1: hauling equipment that you might need for some kind of
Speaker 1: a dig uh and my claus trophobia has just kicked him. Also,
Speaker 1: La Labella's fairly remote. It's about three hundred seventy miles
Speaker 1: at six dred kilometers north of the Ethiopian capital of
Speaker 1: Addis Ababa. Until the late nineteen fifties, it was only
Speaker 1: accessible by foot or mule. An airstrip opened up in
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty, but not only operated during the dry season.
Speaker 1: Ethiopian oral histories have been passed down, but there's virtually
Speaker 1: no written record of the site's construction, and only a
Speaker 1: very few written accounts by foreign visitors to the site.
Speaker 1: Before the nineteenth century. It was virtually unknown beyond the
Speaker 1: Horn of Africa until the mid nineteenth century, and virtually
Speaker 1: unstudied by archaeologists until the nineteen sixties. Two of the
Speaker 1: very sparse earlier accounts of Laali Belah were written by
Speaker 1: Portuguese missionaries. Francisco Alvarez wrote of visiting a place called
Speaker 1: Lalibela in the sixteenth century after spending six years in Ethiopia.
Speaker 1: Portugal was hoping to form an alliance with the Empire
Speaker 1: against Muslim nations. Alvarez's book was first published in fifteen forty,
Speaker 1: but his description of what he saw is more about
Speaker 1: how it was so fantastic that no one would believe
Speaker 1: him than about what the site actually looked like at
Speaker 1: the time. For example, he wrote, quote, it seems to
Speaker 1: me that I shall not be believed if I write more,
Speaker 1: and because regarding what I have already written, they may
Speaker 1: blame me for untruth. Therefore I swear by God and
Speaker 1: whose power I am, that all that I have written
Speaker 1: is the truth. And there is much more than what
Speaker 1: I have written, and I have left it that they
Speaker 1: may not tax me with its being falsehood. A later
Speaker 1: edition of his book included some diagrams of the rock
Speaker 1: youn churches, but there's no documentation of where they came
Speaker 1: from or who drew them, and they're also not particularly accurate.
Speaker 1: Even the name Lalibela wasn't consistently used until more recently.
Speaker 1: Most older Ethiopian references called the town Roha and the
Speaker 1: church complex Deborah Roja. Archaeologists and other researchers have started
Speaker 1: to draw some different conclusions about Lallibella and more recent decades,
Speaker 1: though it appears that the buildings were excavated over multiple phases,
Speaker 1: possibly starting as early as the seventh or eighth century
Speaker 1: and then stretching into the thirteenth century, so definitely overlapping
Speaker 1: with the reign of King Lalibela. Although all of the
Speaker 1: buildings are currently used as churches and other religious sites,
Speaker 1: and they have been for a very long time, at
Speaker 1: least some of them were probably originally built for other purposes.
Speaker 1: The House of Gabriel Raphael, for example, was probably initially
Speaker 1: used as a castle. There's also some speculation that King
Speaker 1: Lalibela's aims may have been as much about moving the
Speaker 1: capital from Axum to Roja and solidifying a political dynasty
Speaker 1: as it was about creating a religious pilgrimage site. After
Speaker 1: King Lalabella died, he was reportedly entombed at Lollabella in
Speaker 1: the house of Golgatham Michael. About fifty years later, his
Speaker 1: successor was killed, and the dynasty that came to power
Speaker 1: from there traced its lineage back to Solomon and Mettle
Speaker 1: at the First. Much later, this was dubbed the Solomonic Restoration.
Speaker 1: The Solomonic emperor's branded the previous Zagwe dynasty as usurpers,
Speaker 1: and that fed into debate about who should be credited
Speaker 1: with excavating the churches at Lallabella. This dynasty remained in
Speaker 1: power until nineteen seventy four, with the deposition of Ethiopia's
Speaker 1: last emperor, highly Selassie. Stay tuned for a Saturday classic
Speaker 1: about that for more information. After the Solomonic Restoration, Ethiopia
Speaker 1: continued to grow wealthier, especially through trade with Christian nations
Speaker 1: in Europe that didn't want to trade with Muslims or
Speaker 1: send their merchants through Muslim controlled territory. Then, in fifteen
Speaker 1: thirty and fifteen thirty one, Ahmad Grin conquered about three
Speaker 1: fourths of Ethiopia and forced the people living in those
Speaker 1: areas to convert to Islam. The Solomonic dynasty retained control
Speaker 1: of some territory, though, and Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity survived. In
Speaker 1: the seventeenth century, Jesuit missionaries arrived in the remaining Christian
Speaker 1: regions of Ethiopia and began trying to convert the population
Speaker 1: to a more European style of Christianity. Whilata Petros, who
Speaker 1: was the wife of one of the emperor's counselors, left
Speaker 1: her husband, became a nun, and led a successful resistance
Speaker 1: movement to retain traditional Ethiopian practices. The Life and Struggles
Speaker 1: of Our Mother Whileta Petros was written about thirty years
Speaker 1: after her death, and it is the earliest known book
Speaker 1: length biography of an African woman. It documents both the
Speaker 1: resistance movement and her lifelong partnership with another nun. In
Speaker 1: the nineteenth century, King Teodri's the Second tried to reunify
Speaker 1: Ethiopia under a Christian monarch and did reclaim much of
Speaker 1: the previously conquered territory. He hope to gain the sympathies
Speaker 1: of Britain as a Christian nation, but was ultimately defeated
Speaker 1: by a British expeditionary force and took his own life.
Speaker 1: Of course, Ethiopia has its own social and political history
Speaker 1: from there, but our focus today is really on Lalibela
Speaker 1: and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. For most of its history,
Speaker 1: the Ethiopian Orthodox Church had been headed by an Egyptian
Speaker 1: appointed from Alexandria. That changed in nineteen fifty one, when
Speaker 1: Basilios became the first Ethiopian to be appointed by the
Speaker 1: Church in Alexandria. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church, now called the
Speaker 1: Ethiopian Orthodox to Waado Church, became fully independent in nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty four. The Eritrean Orthodox Church became independent from the
Speaker 1: Ethiopian Church in nine three. Today, the Ethiopian Orthodox to
Speaker 1: Wahado Church is also the second largest Orthodox church in
Speaker 1: the world, with roughly fifty million adherents. Ethiopia's monasteries were
Speaker 1: nationalized after the Alster of highly Selassie in nineteen seventy four,
Speaker 1: and at that point they stopped being as economically powerful
Speaker 1: as they had been, but they continued to be a
Speaker 1: huge center of religious importance in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Today,
Speaker 1: Lalibela is still a deeply important religious and pilgrimage site,
Speaker 1: particularly on Christmas, which is celebrated on January seven. As
Speaker 1: many as sixty thousand pilgrims visit the site for the
Speaker 1: Christmas festival, which is known as Genna. The site gets
Speaker 1: between eighty thousand and one hundred thousand visitors each year,
Speaker 1: many of them making that pilgrimage on foot, but this
Speaker 1: volume of visitors has contributed to ongoing issues with conservation
Speaker 1: at the site. These are massive monolithic structures that were
Speaker 1: excavated from the rock about seven hundred years ago and
Speaker 1: have been exposed to the elements since then, so naturally
Speaker 1: they've been affected by weather, water, erosion, seismic activity, and
Speaker 1: even like in another plant life. The World Monuments Fund
Speaker 1: started some conservation work on the site in the nineteen sixties,
Speaker 1: making it one of the World Monuments Funds first projects.
Speaker 1: In the nineteen nineties, temporary roofs were placed over some
Speaker 1: of the churches as an emergency measure to try to
Speaker 1: protect them from the sun in the seasonal rains. Lalibela
Speaker 1: was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in nineteen seventy eight,
Speaker 1: and in two thousand seven UNESCO and the WMF teamed
Speaker 1: up for additional conservation work, including the installation of more
Speaker 1: sophisticated shelters over some of the churches. Plans started for
Speaker 1: conservation work at the House of Gabriel Raphael in two
Speaker 1: thousand nine. That's not one of the churches that's currently
Speaker 1: protected by a roof. Work started in and finished in
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, and it included training local artisans and craftspeople
Speaker 1: to handle ongoing conservation work. A field school provided further
Speaker 1: trading in team it brought in students from New York's
Speaker 1: Columbia University and Ethiopia's Addis Ababa University. Additional funding was
Speaker 1: secured for repair work on two other churches that same year.
Speaker 1: In eighteen though, Ethiopians organized protests about ongoing issues at
Speaker 1: the site, including concerns about the quality of restoration work
Speaker 1: that had already been done. One of the issues is
Speaker 1: those temporary shelters that are protecting some of the churches.
Speaker 1: They really are not attractive. Locals have nicknamed them gas
Speaker 1: station roofs. Because the churches are made from solid stone
Speaker 1: with small windows, the roofs make their already dark interiors
Speaker 1: even darker. There's also some argument that the use of
Speaker 1: these roofs has protected the sites from rain and runoff,
Speaker 1: but the downside is that they're making the stone too dry.
Speaker 1: There are also concerns about what might happen if one
Speaker 1: of the roofs collapses onto the structure that it is
Speaker 1: supposed to be trying to protect. Clearly, there's still a
Speaker 1: lot of work to be done, and in the words
Speaker 1: of UNESCO a quote, there is a need for stronger
Speaker 1: planning controls for the setting of the churches that address housing,
Speaker 1: land use, tourism, and for a management plan to be
Speaker 1: developed that integrates the conservation action plan and addresses the
Speaker 1: overall sustainable development of the area with the involvement of
Speaker 1: the local population. It's hard to describe how stunning these
Speaker 1: churches are in the context of an audio podcast. This
Speaker 1: is always the trick with like art or architecture, or
Speaker 1: particularly things like this that are almost um I mean
Speaker 1: it would be unheard of if someone today said I
Speaker 1: am going to carve a building from an existing rock.
Speaker 1: I think they would get a lot of shocked faces.
Speaker 1: But they did this over and over on this site. Yes,
Speaker 1: it is quite quite spectacular. They are I have a
Speaker 1: little listener mail fantastic. This is from Lindsay Lindsay Rights. Hi, guys,
Speaker 1: love the show in particular, I've enjoyed learning about American history,
Speaker 1: which as an Australian, was never part of my education
Speaker 1: and I felt was a void in my understanding of
Speaker 1: world history. Anyway, Finally I feel like I have something
Speaker 1: to contribute. I was fascinated to hear about the relationship
Speaker 1: between barbecues and politics in your recent episode, and this
Speaker 1: got me thinking about a recent phenomenon in Australia. A
Speaker 1: bit of background. Community groups in Australia make the most
Speaker 1: of any opportunity to hold a fundraising sausage sizzle, a
Speaker 1: budget affair where the cheapest sausages are barbecued, probably grilled
Speaker 1: question mark and served on a slice of white bread
Speaker 1: with tomato sauce. Definitely not catch up with grilled onions optional.
Speaker 1: So kind of election day. The choice of which polling
Speaker 1: place to use can often be determined by which one
Speaker 1: is hosting the best sausage sizzle. Fun fact, voting is
Speaker 1: compulsory in Australia, so here's the hilarious part. The election
Speaker 1: day sausage in bread has become such a big deal
Speaker 1: that it has become known as a democracy sausage, and
Speaker 1: the most recent federal election it was trending hashtag democracy sausage.
Speaker 1: I would encourage everyone in the US to exercise of
Speaker 1: democratic right to vote next year and perhaps partake in
Speaker 1: a democracy sausage ps. The term selfie is also widely
Speaker 1: accepted to have originated in Australia, So on behalf of Australia.
Speaker 1: You're welcome, Lindsay, Thank you, Lindsay. I wanted to read
Speaker 1: this for two reasons. One is that the idea of
Speaker 1: democracy sausage cracks me up. Uh. And the other is
Speaker 1: that when I was working on the Barbecue episode, which
Speaker 1: I did the research for, UH, it gradually narrowed down
Speaker 1: to being a specifically United States North American story about
Speaker 1: the intersection between indigenous cooking methods and introduced food and
Speaker 1: the work of at first enslaved black people and then
Speaker 1: later on um free people in in making this culinary tradition.
Speaker 1: But as I was starting out, it was much broader
Speaker 1: before it became clearer that it needed to narrow down.
Speaker 1: And one of the things that I had in my
Speaker 1: notes is that there is a draft addition into the
Speaker 1: Oxford English Dictionary from that is the Australian slang barbecue stopper,
Speaker 1: and a barbecue stopper is a topic of conversation that
Speaker 1: is so compelling or controversial that if you brought it
Speaker 1: up at a barbecue, everything would stop. And that cracked
Speaker 1: me up, uh. And I was a little bummed that
Speaker 1: by narrowing down the focus, I didn't have a reason
Speaker 1: to include it in the episode anymore. So I'm including
Speaker 1: it today. UM. So thank you Lindsay for writing to
Speaker 1: us with that if you would like to write to
Speaker 1: us about this or any other podcast where at History
Speaker 1: podcast at I heart radio dot com. Then we're all
Speaker 1: over social media at Missed in History. That's where you'll
Speaker 1: find our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. This is typically
Speaker 1: when I would say that you can come to our
Speaker 1: website for show notes about the episode and a picture
Speaker 1: of some of these churches. But if you've been to
Speaker 1: our website recently, it has been changed significantly. We don't
Speaker 1: have a timeline for when those show notes are going
Speaker 1: to be visible again, but it is something we are
Speaker 1: actively working on. All that information still exists, it's just
Speaker 1: not currently visible on the website. So to see pictures
Speaker 1: of these churches for now, go to the unesco website.
Speaker 1: They have so many. You can also subscribe to our
Speaker 1: show in Apple podcast, the I Heart Radio app, and
Speaker 1: anywhere else you get your podcasts. Stuff you Missed in
Speaker 1: History Class is a production of I Heart Radio's How
Speaker 1: Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the I heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.