They come from all over, walking for days, often barefoot, to
this holy place of ancient ritual and devotion. But this isn’t
Jerusalem, or Mecca, it’s Lalibela in Ethiopia, site of 13 intricate
monolithic churches, hand-chiselled out of the town’s red
volcanic rock nearly 900 years ago.
Photographer Tariq Zaidi travelled to Lalibela, an otherwise
nondescript village in the mountains of northern Ethiopia, to
document these extraordinary churches and the pilgrims who
flock to them.
In Ethiopia, where nearly two-thirds of the population is
Christian, Lalibela is almost as important as Jerusalem. One of
the first places in the world to become a UNESCO heritage site,
and indeed one of the wonders of the world.
www.tariqzaidi.com
