Abba Libanos monolithic Church in Lalibela,Abba Matâ'a

• Ethiopia
• Amhara
• Lalibela

Description

Monolithic Bet Abba libanos church (or Abba Matâ'a). A very distinctive type church that imitates in monolithic stones a cave church. Its four facades are sculpted. 11 Monolithic Rupestrian churches are carved in the rock in Lalibela city, Ethiopia. As the tradition goes, King Gebra Maskal Lalibela gave the order to built them in the beginning of XIIIth century, in order to give Ethiopian Orthodox Christians their own Jerusalem in Ethiopia. Islam expanding, pilgrimages were harder to carry out. The place's topography is a symbolic representation of Holy Land, hence its name of Back Jerusalem