Lalibela

Gebre Meskel Lalibela, whose throne name means Servant of the Cross, was born in the 1150s in the Lasta region of northern Ethiopia, the son of Zan Siyum and a member of the Zagwe dynasty. His birth name, Lalibela, is said to mean the bees obey him, recalling a story that a swarm of bees settled on him as a baby without harming him. As a young man he claimed visions and spent time as a hermit.

In about 1180 he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. On his return, and with the support of the clergy, who opposed his half-brother Harbay's contacts with the papacy, he reluctantly took the throne, and Harbay abdicated and recognised him. Lalibela reigned from about 1181 to 1221, although some sources date his reign from about 1185 to 1225, and became known as the greatest of the Zagwe kings.

His reign is remembered for peace and charity, and for good relations with the sultan Saladin, which eased pressure on Christians in Egypt and protected the Ethiopians in Jerusalem. But his greatest achievement was in his capital, Roha. He is credited with the creation of a complex of eleven monolithic churches, carved down into the volcanic rock, from the top, in the shape of a new Jerusalem in Ethiopia, connected by tunnels and passages, courtyards and water channels.

The churches, the best-known of which is the cross-shaped Bete Giyorgis, Church of Saint George, are carved from a sloping mass of red volcanic rock and, because the whole complex is carved below ground level, it has survived intact. The tradition says Lalibela had a vision commanding him to build the sacred city, and one account says that the work took 24 years. Art historians believe some of the churches may be older or younger than his reign, and that they were built over a longer period.

Lalibela was buried in one of the churches, Bete Golgotha, and the city that grew up around the site, called Roha, was renamed Lalibela in his honour. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church reveres him as a saint, and his churches remain a place of pilgrimage. In 1978 the rock-hewn churches were among the first sites to be inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List.