Yemerehana Krestos Church
42 KM from Lalibela, Ethiopia 2013
After our long drive through the cultivated hillsides, we arrived at a small village at the foot of a wooded mountain. A trail with a hand rail, thank God!, led up to the Church of Yemerehana Krestos.
The rock churches of Lalibela are of three types. Churches carved out of a single rock (monolithic), churches carved from a rock but not free standing…meaning that one side is still part of the rock and churches built in a cave. This church is in a cave and sits on top of an underground body of water. Water dripped from the roof of the cave’s entrance which was nearly hidden by vines and trees.
Ethiopian Christian Mummy
To one side of the church we could see several mummies. They were exposed to the elements but were still in good condition it seemed to me. The mummies lay on the dirt behind a flimsy barrier. My guide told me that no one really knows who the mummies are or how they were mummified. Remember, though, that Ethiopia is not far from Egypt.