Church of Saint George Ethiopia

Legendary

This stone church was carved downward into the surrounding volcanic rock.

Photo by Rod Waddington

The Church of Saint George wasn't built up from the ground. Workers carved it downward, cutting straight into a single block of solid rock until a whole church appeared inside the earth.

Look at it from above and you'll see a perfect cross shape sunk 15 meters into the ground. The roof sits level with the land around it, so you can walk right up and look down at it.

The church was carved around 800 years ago in the town of Lalibela, in northern Ethiopia. A king named Lalibela ordered the work in the late 1100s or early 1200s.

King Lalibela had a big goal. He wanted to build a new Jerusalem right there in Ethiopia.

Jerusalem had fallen to a Muslim army in 1187, which made the long journey there dangerous for Christian travelers. So the king decided to bring the holy city to his own people instead.

Workers carved 11 churches in total, all from the rock of one volcanic hillside. They used only hammers and chisels, cutting away tons of stone by hand.

Many of the churches carry names borrowed from Jerusalem. A nearby stream was even named the River Jordan, after the famous river in the Bible.

Inside the Church of Saint George, a curtain hides the holiest part of the building. Behind it sits a replica of the Ark of the Covenant, the chest that once held the Ten Commandments.

Every Ethiopian Orthodox church keeps a copy like this. Ethiopian tradition says the real Ark is kept far away in the city of Axum.

The churches became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. They aren't museums, though. Priests still hold services here every single day.

Walk down the narrow trench that circles the church to reach its doorway. Look for paintings of Saint George fighting a dragon on the walls inside. Visit during the festival of Timkat in January, when thousands of pilgrims dressed in white fill the trenches and rooftops.