The historical setting
Lalibela is a town in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Located in the Lasta district and North Wollo Zone, it is a tourist site for its famous rock-cut monolithic churches designed in contrast to the earlier monolithic churches in Ethiopia. The whole of Lalibela is a large and important site for the antiquity, medieval, and post-medieval civilization of Ethiopia. To some Christians, Lalibela is one of Ethiopia's holiest cities, and a center of pilgrimage. Ethiopia was one of the earliest nations to adopt Christianity in the first half of the 4th century, and its historical roots date to the time of the Apostles.
The churches themselves date from the 7th to 13th centuries, and are traditionally dated to the reign of the Zagwe (Agaw) king Gebre Meskel Lalibela (r. c. 1181–1221). The layout and names of the major buildings in Lalibela are widely accepted, especially by local clergy, to be a symbolic representation of Jerusalem.
Origins
There is some controversy as to when some of the churches were constructed. According to local tradition, in Ethiopia prior to his accession to the throne, Gebre Meskel Lalibela was guided by Jesus on a tour of Jerusalem, and instructed to build a second Jerusalem in Ethiopia. Accordingly, Lalibela, traditionally known as Roha, was founded during the Zagwe dynasty under the rule of King Gebre Meskel Lalibela (r. ca. 1181–1221), although it is more likely that the churches evolved into their current form over the course of several phases of construction and alteration of preexisting structures.
David Roden Buxton established the generally accepted chronology, noting that "two of them follow, with great fidelity of detail, the tradition represented by Debra Damo as modified at Yemrahana Kristos." Since the time spent to carve these structures from the living rock must have taken longer than the few decades of reign of Gebre Meskel Lalibela, Buxton assumes that the work extended into the 14th century.
However, David Phillipson, professor of African archeology at University of Cambridge, has proposed that the churches of Merkorios, Gabriel-Rufael, and Danagel were initially carved out of the rock half a millennium earlier, as fortifications or other palace structures between 600 and 800, during the days of the Kingdom of Aksum, and that King Lalibela's name simply came to be associated with them after his death.
Architecture
In a 1970 report of the historic dwellings of Lalibela, Sandro Angelini evaluated the vernacular earthen architecture on the Lalibela World Heritage Site, including the characteristics of the traditional earth houses and analysis of their state of conservation. His report described two types of vernacular housing found in the area. One type are a group he calls the "tukuls", round huts built of stone and usually having two stories. The second are the single-story "chika" buildings which are round and built of earth and wattle, which he feels reflects more "scarcity". Angel's report also included an inventory of Lalibela's traditional buildings, placing them in categories rating their state of conservation.
16th century
According to the Futuh al-Habasha of Shihab al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Abd al-Qādir ibn Sālim ibn Uthmān, Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi burned one of the churches of Lalibela during his invasion of Ethiopia. Sihab ad-Din Ahmad (Arab Faqih) provided a detailed description of a rock-hewn church. "It was carved out of the mountain. Its pillars were likewise cut from the mountain." Ahmed then gathered the monks of Lalibela and had a fire lit in the church, saying to them, "Let one of yours and one of ours enter there". A nun then threw herself onto the fire before being pulled out by Ahmad's soldiers.
However, Richard Pankhurst has expressed skepticism about this, noting that the Royal Chronicles, which record Ahmad al-Ghazi's laying waste to the district between July and September 1531, are silent on his ravaging of the churches. He concludes by stating that had Ahmad al-Ghazi burned a church at Lalibela, it was most likely Biete Medhane Alem; and if the Adalites was either mistaken or misled by the locals, then the church he set fire to was Gannata Maryam, "10 miles east of Lalibela which likewise has a colonnade of pillars cut from the mountain."