Field Trip: Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela, Ethiopia
Photo Illustration: Humanizing History Visuals. Photos: Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3 via Wikimedia Commons
Welcome to Humanizing History™! Every month, we feature a central theme. Each week, we dive into different areas of focus.
This month’s theme: Summer Field Trip, Earth Etched
This week’s focus: Field Trip, where we highlight significant historic, archaeological, and cultural sites around the world
Today’s edition of Humanizing History™ is about 1,100 words, an estimated 4-minute read.
The Why for This Week’s Topic
For our theme this month, we’re embarking on a journey of global field trips.
We’re exploring how people across time and place shaped land — carving or etching into earth, arranging natural materials — to tell stories, honor beliefs, and leave lasting imprints of cultural identity. And how the shaping of land is a shared human experience — bridging time and geography.
Different questions will guide us:
How have cultures around the world shaped the land to reflect their values, beliefs, and practical needs?
What can we learn — and still not know — about a society by examining how they interacted with their environment?
Why do some societies build on top of the land, while others build into it? Essentially, how do different materials (stone, earth, cliff, desert, etc.) influence or shape people’s choices?
To dive deeper into this topic, consider our inaugural monthly theme and its four newsletters: Land Shapes People and People Shape Land.
For our first newsletter, we stood among the pine-dotted valleys and cliffs — made of volcanic tuff — carved by Ancestral Puebloans of the U.S. American Southwest.
For our second week, we traveled to northwest China, where an emperor ordered the construction of the Terracotta Army, a giant subterranean mausoleum — crafted from clay and earth, buried beneath the footprint of an ancient empire.
Last week we headed to the desert of Peru, to visit the Nazca Lines — a series of monumental geoglyphs etched on the desert surface by carving and clearing away rocks and pebbles to reveal the light earth beneath. These enormous drawings, some more than 2,000 years old, were carefully constructed across centuries. And many archaeologists around the world are still pondering why.
This week, we are exploring subterranean churches built from a single slab of stone: the Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela.
Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela, Ethiopia
Location: Lalibela, Ethiopia
Time period: 12th to 13th century
Virtually visit the Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela via Google Earth
Virtual Tour
Standing in the Ethiopian highlands, about 2,500 meters (or 8,200 feet) above sea level, in the town of Lalibela — named after King Lalibela (reigned 1185–1225 CE) — you’ll likely first notice the rugged mountains, fertile valleys, and the region's signature red-brown earth.
If you look closer, something might catch your eye: what appears to be sunken structures hidden in the rock below.
These are not natural formations — they are 11 monumental churches, carved entirely into the earth, connected by a labyrinth of tunnels, trenches, canals, and courtyards.
The churches are literal monoliths: carved not from stone blocks, but from single masses of volcanic rock. They weren’t built from the ground up — instead, they were excavated from the top down, an architectural method both ingenious and rare.
As described by UNESCO: “The churches were not constructed in a traditional way but rather were hewn from the living rock of monolithic blocks. These blocks were further chiselled out, forming doors, windows, columns, various floors, roofs etc. This gigantic work was further completed with an extensive system of drainage ditches, trenches and ceremonial passages, some with openings to hermit caves and catacombs.”
Sacred and enduring, the Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela are widely regarded as some of the most awe-inspiring examples of underground architecture in the world.
And they aren’t frozen in time — these are living churches, still in active use for prayer, pilgrimage, and worship.
How Were the Rock-Hewn Churches Created? Why Are They Unique to Lalibela?
The Lalibela churches are nestled in the Ethiopian highlands, a landscape shaped by ancient volcanic activity. For millions of years, eruptions deposited ash and lava across the region, forming layers of volcanic rock. Much of this rock — reddish-brown in color — is volcanic tuff, a soft but durable rock that proved ideal for carving.
Without modern machinery, the Rock-Hewn Churches were carved by hand. Using iron chisels, hammers, picks and other tools, generations of Ethiopian artisans painstakingly chiseled freestanding buildings of astonishing scale, symmetry, and spiritual depth.
In addition to their skill, the unique geology of Lalibela made this achievement possible. Volcanic tuff is soft when first exposed to air, allowing it to be carved, and it hardens over time, helping the structures endure.
Though erosion has taken its toll, the fact that these churches still stand — and remain in active use — is a testament to communal devotion, craftsmanship, and cultural continuity.
But it wasn’t just geology that made the Rock-Hewn Churches possible, it was also vision.
The churches were conceived as a “New Jerusalem” in Ethiopia, a sacred refuge for Ethiopian Orthodox Christians during a time when pilgrimage to Jerusalem was not possible.
While archaeologists continue to debate the exact timeline of construction, what’s clear is that the churches were built over different periods, requiring enormous labor, skill, sacrifice, and coordination. They reflect not only deep faith, but a shared commitment across generations.
For example, Betä Giyorgis — perhaps the most famous church — was designed in the shape of a cross, when viewed from above.
These are not just buildings. They are monuments carved from belief, quite literally rooted in the earth. Their existence speaks to a faith both grounded and enduring, passed down and preserved over generations.
“A Living Heritage”
The Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela are not frozen in time. In contrast to many other World Heritage sites, these buildings are alive — not preserved by being sealed off, but preserved by being used.
Far more than historical sites or tourist attractions, they are active places of worship. Each year, up to 100,000 pilgrims journey to Lalibela, turning this small mountain town into a vibrant spiritual center. Inside the churches, daily prayers and rituals take place — many unchanged for centuries.
Since some parts within the churches are restricted to priests only, the local clergy have not only upheld centuries of religious practices but have also taken responsibility for conserving the physical structures — tending to the very walls and ceilings carved more than 800 years ago.
As Fasil Giroghis, Professor of Architecture at Addis Ababa University, reflects: “Lalibela is what we call the climax or the highest point, of rock excavation… to see a work of such amazing architecture done more than 800 years ago. It’s a very religious place. It’s a place of pilgrimage. It has a very unique place in the history of Ethiopian architecture, but also the architecture of the world… And I hope that the next generation uncovers more of the meanings that are inscribed in stone there.”
In this light, the Rock-Hewn Churches offer many layers: a window into the past, a center of present-day devotion, and an inspiration for the future generations, inviting us to continue building on a legacy — one literally carved into stone.
Next week, we continue our global field trips — visiting another place on Earth where people shaped the land and the land shaped them in return.
Stay tuned!
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