A monolithic church or rock-hewn church is a church made from a single block of stone. Because freestanding rocks of sufficient size are rare, such edifices are usually hewn into the ground or into the side of a hill or mountain. They can be of comparable architectural complexity to constructed buildings.
Lalibela is a town in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Located in the Lasta district and North Wollo Zone, it is a tourist site for its famous rock-cut monolithic churches designed in contrast to the earlier monolithic churches in Ethiopia. The whole of Lalibela is a large and important site for the antiquity, medieval, and post-medieval civilization of Ethiopia. To Christians, Lalibela is one of Ethiopia's holiest cities, and a center of pilgrimage.
The emperor of Ethiopia, also known as the Atse, was the hereditary ruler of the Ethiopian Empire, from at least the 13th century until the abolition of the monarchy in 1975. The emperor was the head of state and head of government, with ultimate executive, judicial and legislative power in that country. A National Geographic article from 1965 called imperial Ethiopia "nominally a constitutional monarchy; in fact [it was] a benevolent autocracy".
Abune Tekle Haymanot was an Ethiopian saint and monk mostly venerated as a hermit. He was the Abuna of Ethiopia who founded a major monastery in his native province of Shewa. He is significant for being the only Ethiopian saint popular both amongst Ethiopians and outside that country. Tekle Haymanot "is the only Ethiopian saint celebrated officially in foreign churches such as Rome and Egypt." His feast day is 30 August, and the 24th day of every month in the Ethiopian calendar is dedicated to Tekle Haymanot.
Wollo was a historical province of northern Ethiopia. During the Middle Ages this province name was Bete Amhara and it was the centre of the Solomonic emperors. Bete Amhara had an illustrious place in Ethiopian political and cultural history. It was the center of the Solomonic Dynasty established by Emperor Yekuno Amlak around Lake Hayq in 1270. Bete Amhara was bounded on the west by the Abbay, on the south by the river Wanchet, on the north by the Bashilo River and on the east by the Escarpment that separate it from the Afar Desert.
The Zagwe dynasty was a medieval Agaw monarchy that ruled the northern parts of Ethiopia and Eritrea. The Agaw are a Cushitic ethnic group native to the northern highlands of Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea. It ruled large parts of the territory from approximately 1137 to 1270 AD, when the last Zagwe King Za-Ilmaknun was killed in battle by the forces of the Amhara King Yekuno Amlak. The Zagwe are most famous for their king Gebre Meskel Lalibela, who is credited with having ordered the construction of the rock-hewn monolithic churches of Lalibela.
Yekuno Amlak ; throne name Tesfa Iyasus was Emperor of Ethiopia, from 1270 to 1285, and the founder of the Solomonic dynasty, which lasted until 1974. He was a ruler from Bete Amhara who became the Emperor of Ethiopia following the defeat of the last Zagwe king.
The Agaw or Agew are a Cushitic ethnic group native to the northern highlands of Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea. They speak the Agaw languages, also known as the Central Cushitic languages, which belong to the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family, and are therefore closely related to peoples speaking other Cushitic languages.
Debre Libanos is an Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo monastery, lying northwest of Addis Ababa in the North Shewa Zone of the Oromia Region. It was founded in 1284 by Saint Tekle Haymanot as Debre Atsbo and was renamed as Debre Libanos in the 15th century. He meditated in a cave above the current monastery for 29 years. The monastery's chief abbot, called the Ichege, was the second most powerful official in the Ethiopian Church after the Abuna.
Debre Dammo ,The monastery is known as Däbrä Dammo in Tigrinya, and as Däbrä Damo in later Amharic appellations. also spelled Debre Damo, Dabra Dāmmo or Däbrä Dammo), is the name of a flat-topped mountain, or amba, and a 6th-century monastery in Tigray Region of Ethiopia. The mountain is a steeply rising plateau of trapezoidal shape, about 1,000 by 400 m in dimension. It sits at an elevation of 2,216 m (7,270 ft) above sea level. It is north of Bizet and northwest of Adigrat in Central Zone, Tigray, close to the border with Eritrea.
Kaleb, also known as Elesbaan, was King of Aksum, which was situated in what is now Ethiopia and Eritrea
Lake Hayq is a freshwater lake of Ethiopia. It is located north of Dessie, in the Debub Wollo Zone of the Amhara Region. The town of Hayq is to the west of the lake.
Dil Na'od was the last King of Aksum before the Zagwe dynasty. He lived in either the 9th or 10th century. Dil Na'od was the younger son of Ged'a Jan, and succeeded his older brother 'Anbasa Wedem as negus. According to E. A. Wallis Budge, "The reign of Delna'ad was short, perhaps about ten years." However, James Bruce has recorded another tradition, that Dil Na'od was an infant when Gudit slaughtered the princes imprisoned at Debre Damo, his relatives, and forced some of his nobles to take him out of his kingdom to save his life.
Abuna Aregawi was a sixth-century Syrian monk and canonized by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, as well as by the Ethiopian Catholic Church, as well as the Eritrean Orthodox Church. He is one of the Nine Saints, who came from the Roman Empire to Ethiopia, and are credited for founding many monasteries and churches and was the main force behind installing monasticism in Ethiopia.
Debre Libanos of Ham is the second-oldest monastery in Eritrea after Debre Sinia. It is part of the Eritrean Orthodox Church. It is a strict monastery, where the monks are expected to plow the fields. This monastery should not be confused with the Däbrä Libanos monastery of Ethiopia.
Eastern Christian monasticism is the life followed by monks and nuns of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Church of the East and some Eastern Catholic Churches.
Coptic monasticism was a movement in the Coptic Orthodox Church to create a holy, separate class of person from layman Christians.
Bete Amhara was a historical region located in north-central Ethiopia, covering most of the later Wollo Province, along with significant parts of North Shewa. The state had 30 districts, including Ambassel, Lakomelza, Laikueyta, Tatakuyeta, Akamba, Ambassit, Atronsa Mariam, Genete, Feresbahir, Amba Gishen, Gishe Bere, Wasal, Wagada, Mecana-Selasse, Tabor, Tedbaba Mariam, Zoramba, Daje, Demah, Ephrata and Ewarza. The region is the source of much of Ethiopia's clothing, eating culture, language, and education.
Giyorgis of Segla, also known as Giyorgis of Gasicha or Abba Giyorgis, was an Ethiopian Oriental Orthodox monk, saint, and author of religious books.
The history of Ethiopia in the Middle Ages roughly spans the period from the decline of the Kingdom of Aksum in the 7th century to the Gondarine period beginning in the 17th century. Aksum had been a powerful empire during late antiquity, appearing in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea and mentioned by Iranian prophet Mani as one of the "four great kingdoms on earth", along with the Sasanian Empire of Persia, the Roman Empire, and China's Three Kingdoms. The kingdom was an integral part of the trade route between Rome and the Indian subcontinent, had substantial cultural ties to the Greco-Roman world, and was a very early adopter of Christianity under Ezana of Aksum in the mid-4th century. The use of "Ethiopia" to refer to the region dates back to the 4th century. At its height, the kingdom spanned what is now Eritrea, northern Ethiopia, eastern Sudan, Yemen and the southern part of what is now Saudi Arabia. However, by the 7th century, the kingdom had begun a slow decline, for which several possible political, economic, and ecological reasons have been proposed. This decline, which has been termed the "Post-Aksumite Period", saw extreme loss of territory and lasted until the ascension of the Zagwe dynasty.
