{"id":423898,"date":"2018-03-10T02:23:41","date_gmt":"2018-03-10T07:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.google.com\/articles\/CBMiImh0dHBzOi8vd2hjLnVuZXNjby5vcmcvZW4vbGlzdC8xOC_SAQA?oc=5"},"modified":"2026-09-09T15:41:01","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T19:41:01","slug":"rock-hewn-churches-of-lalibela-ethiopias-new-jerusalem-in-stone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/423898","title":{"rendered":"Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela: Ethiopia\u2019s New Jerusalem in stone"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <strong>Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela<\/strong> are among Africa\u2019s most extraordinary sacred monuments\u2014eleven medieval churches carved from living red volcanic rock and still used for Orthodox worship. UNESCO inscribed the site as a World Heritage property recognizing both architecture and living faith.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" height=\"780\" width=\"780\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-357178\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Lalibela.jpg?fit=780%2C780&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela: Ethiopia\u2019s New Jerusalem in stone\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Tradition attributes the complex to King Lalibela of the Zagwe dynasty, who sought to create a \u201cNew Jerusalem\u201d after pilgrimage routes to the Holy Land were disrupted. Churches such as Bete Giyorgis (St. George) draw pilgrims especially at Genna (Ethiopian Christmas) and Timket.<\/p>\n<p>Conflict, tourism pressure, and conservation shelters have all shaped recent site management. For Ethiopian and global readers, Lalibela remains the flagship of highland Christian heritage.<\/p>\n<h3>Sources<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/whc.unesco.org\/en\/list\/18\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">UNESCO \u2013 Rock-Hewn Churches, Lalibela<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/whc.unesco.org\/en\/statesparties\/et\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">UNESCO World Heritage Centre \u2013 Ethiopia<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rock-Hewn Churches, Lalibela&nbsp;&nbsp;UNESCO.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":357178,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-423898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Lalibela.jpg?fit=263%2C192&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-1Mh4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423898"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":599639,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423898\/revisions\/599639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}