Ethiopia - Lalibela and Gonder

Here's one I took a few days ago of St Georges church:


They really are extraordinary and are carved out of the solid rock.

First dig a big trench straight down like a huge, deep moat. The big chunk left in the middle is the 'church'.

Next start tunelling in at the base to carve out the rooms. They are all therefore one solid piece of roack which is still attached to the ground.

There are 11 of them, none of which are visible from any distance at all as the roofs are level with the ground.


They are all pretty big:


Next was Gonder a real Camelot. These palaces were built in the 1600's. Each new king had to build his own palace:



Amazing.

I've now bailed out of Ethiopia and am in Khartoum, Sudan. It's er, 40 degrees by midday and I'm trying to get a Saudi 3 day transit visa to get to Jordan asap.