New Rock-Hewn Churches of Ethiopia

Co-ordinates: 11° 43' 21" N, 38° 57' 18" E

 

Location:

The church is carved into a small bit of rock at the lower part of a north facing slope in a wide valley, northeast of Gašäna. An octagonal built church is found nearby, but both are only accessible by foot either from the plateau above or from the valley below.

 

Church Description:

The sole craftsman is Abba Mänbäru Ǝmmañ Admasu [Abba Mänbäru Nägaš], so far responsible for four new rock churches in the area. Due to insufficient rock overhead and the porous nature of the rock, the church is flooded for much of the wet season and for this reason has never received a tabot. The church is roughly square in plan and includes two entrances and a central arched window to the north. The left entrance is rectangular, while that to the right is arched. A single cruciform column is placed centrally to create a two-by-two bay church. Arches are sprung in all directions and supported by capitals and deep pilasters on all four walls. The ceilings of the two west bays include a central dome with relief carving and hewn seating is found at the base of most walls. To the east of the two north bays is a small square chamber, immediately within the left entrance. To the east of the two south bays, three steps rise to the arched maqdas. The maqdas is rectangular in plan and significantly raised above the church, with a central rock-hewn mänbärä tabätə that, it seems, may in fact never house a tabot.

 

Getting There:

Kidanä Məḥrät lies northeast of Gašäna (north of the road to Wäldəya and east of the road to Lalibäla). The church is only accessible by foot, either from above (from the Gašäna-Wäldəya road) or from the valley below (from the Gašäna-Lalibäla road). Neither path is marked, and it takes some thirty minutes to reach the church from each.

 

Dates Visited:

• 27 July 2019