The town of Lalibela, named after the holy King Lalibela, is well known for it's churches carved out of living rock, below ground. "Amazing. Amazing." It is believed by the Ethiopians that the churches were carved at night by angels as the village lay sleeping. The churches in Lalibela were made to function as pilgrimage sites, providing an alternative to the trek across the Sahara to Jerusalem. Lalibela is also called "New Jerusalem."
Castles in the royal enclosure of King Fasiledes founded in 1636.
Landscape on the road trip going to Gondar. Beautiful children of Ethiopia posed for the tourist. Rectangular houses with triangular roofs made out of eucalyptus branches and mud, standard in this part of Ethiopia. That mountain that looks like a thumb is called the Gold Thumb.
I loved the town of Harrar. A walled-in city where the influence of the Muslim aesthetic is clearly prevalent. Everywhere I looked I saw my paintings. We had a great guide named Solomon who called me mamarazzi. It was the most visually inspiring place in Ethiopia for me.
First trip out of Addis. Flew to Divi Dawa. We bargained for three tuk-tuks to take us to the square to bargain for a van and a guide to take us to Harrar
First day in Addis Ababa, outside my apartment window. Addis is an unfinished construction site, note the church in the background. Priests chanting in the language of Guz over the loudspeaker from four in the morning until who knows when. The people in Ethiopia are very religious, mostly Christian.
