In the highlands of northern Ethiopia, at an altitude of 2,500 meters, stands one of the most extraordinary architectural complexes in the world. Lalibela — named after the 12th-century king who is said to have commissioned it — is a cluster of eleven monolithic churches carved directly out of the rock. Each church was excavated from the living stone, top to bottom, so that the roof is at ground level and the building descends into the earth.
These churches are still active places of worship. On major holy days, thousands of pilgrims fill the trenches and tunnels connecting the churches, dressed in white, carrying candles. The liturgy is sung in Ge'ez. The priests carry processional crosses that are centuries old. The manuscripts kept in the sacristies of these churches are older still.
Lalibela was constructed as a "New Jerusalem" — a pilgrimage destination for Ethiopian Christians who could not travel to the Holy Land. Every feature of the complex corresponds to a feature of the biblical Jerusalem: the trench that surrounds the upper group of churches represents the River Jordan. The red-dressed stone symbolizes the blood of Christ. A church at the center of the complex is the tomb of Christ himself.
In the monasteries of this region — and in similar ancient communities around Lake Tana, in Tigray, in the Bale mountains — Ethiopian monks have preserved manuscripts for centuries. The Book of Enoch. The Book of Jubilees. The Books of Meqabyan. These weren't dead texts. They were read, copied, studied, and prayed over in living communities across an entire civilization.
What they preserved, we now offer to you.