After our mountain top experience at Debre Damo (well, for half of us, at least) the evening before, we were (as mentioned previously) dropped off at our hotel for the night in Axum. It was at said hotel that I had the also previously mentioned most perfect pizza experience of my life. Just the most delicious, simple, fresh and thin slice margherita from a wood fire oven. Colonialism (not full blown take-over, however. The Italians tried really hard, though) works in mysterious ways. Anyhow, we woke to the braying of those beasts of burden pictured in the middle left of the picture below, and the breaking up of concrete right outside of our window that would eventually become the burden of those beasts. We woke to all of that, but also in the heart of a once mighty empire, the remains of which we were to see that one day we had in Axum.
MJ sighting in the lobby of our perfect pizza hotel on our way out to see the sites
As well as this wooden bar wonder stuffed into one of the corners.
This lowly Stelae toppled shortly after it was hoisted up, or so people think. Been crumpled quite a long time in that northern Ethiopian sun
Its erect counterparts lording over its ruins
Underneath the crumbled Stelae, we toured some recently excavated burial chambers
Tomb spaces, light/shadow play
Skylights like Forestierre
Our guide telling us of Axumite royalty death cells
Dog pile at the base of a Stelae
We wandered through a museum exhibit on the Stelae/Axum in general and then exited through the door below. Melissa went first and screamed her surprise at the large stuffed cat positioned, most likely, to elicit this reaction among the Faranji who frequent those ancient lands/that museum
Up until quite recently, in the grand scheme of things at least, the land on and under which we saw all of those ancient wonders was a proverbial ratking of human habitation
We stared at the diminutive building in the center of the picture below for quite some time and theorized about the contents it housed. It warranted so much attention from us because it is where the ark of the covenant is housed (according to long held beliefs). One dood looks after the ark (it is his life long duty to do thus) and one other dood brings him food throughout his days and when the keeper of the ark dies, his food paige takes his place and so on and on it has gone/will go.
A large orthodox church built during the reign of Ras Tafari
Inside mural telling of the ark coming to Ethiopia atop some monks
Harp of David on another wall
A dark photo of Debre Damo himself with the snake that helped him get to the mountain top and establish his monastery city there
Tri-un god heads, the whole worlds in their hands
As would happen at most of the churches we encountered on that trip, we were shown some shockingly old bibles. The one pictured below was at least five hundred years old and each goat skin page accounts for one dead goat.
One goat, per page
Cobbling a road together, by hand, outside of the church
Steve and an errant lamb, finding shade
Conversing
Drove a little out of town to another ancient site, Dungur. The Queen of Sheeba purportedly oversaw the building of this massive site, and lived there for some time.
Succulent trees!
Mazework of rock, directed by (matriarchal) power
Melissa turns the corner as we made our way out of Dungur, and soon Axum herself for points further Southeast.
After our morning and afternoon in Axum, we set out for the next part of our trip, which would be stationed at the Gheralta Lodge. The drive there from Axum was one of the highlights for us all, with vistas like the one below opening before us continually, passing through little villages along the way that we felt we could spend weeks in exploring and learning from
The pressures of scheduling, though, forced me to snap photos out of the window of our moving van, trying to, in some way, remember the magic of each of these beautiful rock stacked communities.
Orthodox cross and slim dirt thruway, all very indicative of our journey to Gheralta
In the late afternoon, we were deposited in the unbelievably serene, beautiful grounds of the Gheralta Lodge. Reserving our rooms at the lodge dictated exactly when we would be embarking on our trip to Momma Africa. After arriving, it became readily apparent why all of the rooms of this place fill up so far in advance. Besides how gorgeous the entirety of the place was, it seemed to be the only option in the area, so very close to the clusters of ancient rock hewn monasteries in the Gheralta range.
Succulent forest right outside our window
Exploring the grounds/geologic features of the lodge
Exci Ted dance moves upon arrival, thanks to the 35mm and thrift store camera M brought on the trip
Gheralta Lodge left, outskirts of farmland/Hawzien right
Another photo out of the lens of Melissa's camera
The Gheralta Range herself, where at least two of the rock hewn monasteries we would later explore reside. We would commence our explorations of them the following day
Each of the evenings that we spent there provided mind blowing, extended sunset displays like the one below
We rock perched our sunset session well past its dipping below the horizon
Our first night there was "Ethiopian cuisine" night and our excitement burst forth in us gripping Injera from the pile below and grabbing as much Tej as we could find from the surrounding tables
One of a few bottles of home brewed Tej purloined from the tables around us
Delicious, and mostly vegan (by default)
The propietor of GL drawing up some "maps" for our trek the next day. Steve is trying to make sense of the mad cap scribbles being made by said proprietor with an over sized marker.
The next morning, early sun and lounging to enjoy our surrounds before we headed out to take in the first cluster of rock hewn churches closest by.
At the site of the first one, permanent scripture perch
Rust house
And, at last, our first true rock hewn church viewing after a monk was roused to unlock it for us
Adorable monk reading scripture while the Faranji explored his churches innards
Three G-ds at the entrance
M peers back at the entrance
Hard to get a sense of that hand dug cavern church
Devil chained, far below three-gawd back at the entrance
Front gate fullness
Zorched Amharic and door stitches
Brief pause to relflect and then...
...re-shoeing and getting ready for stop number two (of four or five that day. Quite overly ambitious in our churching that day)
Locking it back up
See? Everywhere, even on monk-foot
Color, shape, life among death
Dirt and stone patterns of whence we came
Well worn footfalls leading up to church number two
View taking before ducking into the monastery
Outskirts of Medhane Alem Kesho
Medhane Trager frontal
Melissa, from the inside looking out
Cave entrance with our monk guide leading the pack
Monk doorlock trickery
Standing on the outside, he unlocked the door for us from the inside using an ingenious, if not baffling, system of wooden dowels and string
Breezeway before the inner-sanctum
On the last of my battery power, I took this photo of the torch the monk used to show us the innards of the church. Like an absolute camera dunce, I only brought one battery with me on this trip and commenced our day of church exploration with my battery power not at full power. This was not the first time I made this mistake on the trip, as you will see in a later post (well, as you will not see, I suppose). Not pictured here are the next two or three churches we went to after Medhane.
Except, of course, some photo-randoms from the thrift store lense (and glorious 35mm quality) Melissa brought on the trip. I don't remember the name of the church we are gathered outside of below. It's interesting/depressing how my digital memory bank becomes so inextricably entwined with my brain memory bank. Alas, we move on into more of these picture-memory outliers.
Grainy church innards and ancient wall art reactions
From the inside of what I think was the last church of that jam packed day, out of the blinding/insistent Northern Ethiopian sunlight just outside of that porthole.
Lil spaces connoisseur
And the rickety way down from them
We really over did it the day before with church going exploits and so we decided to stay around Gheralta/Howzen for the day the next day, exploring locally, resting and letting Steve acquaint himself with the drone that he brought on the trip.
Melissa and I ventured outside of the luxurious grounds of GL to take in some of Hawzien
Signage on the way to town
Split barrel donk
Amharic (well, probably Tigrinya) scrawl
Nature Always wins
City scene/seen
In the late 80's, Ethiopia's Military government (the "Derg"), lead by Mengitsu, bombed its own people in Hawzen. Mengitsu's attack on the people of this northern Tigrean town utilized napalm and the monument below, in the middle of Hawzien, memorializes that horrific event.
Much more peaceful up there during our visit
Human lamp sighting on the way back to GL
Back at the lodge, Melissa and I dug into our respective tomes. I brought Dune, sensing that it would an appropriate for the part of the world we would be experiencing. Now and forever, the mindscape of that book will be enmeshed with our experience in the horn of Africa.
Melissa digs into some Farah, also quite apropos for our then surroundings
Assembling the drone, mid afternoon light pouring into the Elkins/Cieslikiewicz side of our domicile
View from a room
View inna room
The Sisyphean task of journaling experience as close as possible to them being experienced
Rock work from the inside
Bales atop
Rock pile to be eventually turned into more rooms for Faranji
As another evening approached, we climbed the nearby perch to take in another sunset display
Stopping midway up to let it all soak in
Most of the Gheralta Lodge and their gardens
This young lady came up to hang out with us and was entranced by the crossword puzzle that Melissa was working on. She stayed with us up there until the sun was well under the horizon
Stoke
Corner room, towards the end of our off day in and around the lodge. Rested and refocused, we prepared for the next day's excursion into the Gheralta range
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