Historical route

The “Historical Route” is one of the most interesting roundtrips you can make in Ethiopia. On the Historical Route you will discover the rich past and ages old civilization which was the foundation of nowadays Ethiopia.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE HISTORICAL ROUTE

LALIBELA

If you don’t have time to follow the whole Historical Route, you should certainly not miss Lalibela!

The 11 rock hewn churches which where built in the 13^th century by order of King Lalibela are rightly being considered as the 8^th wonder of the world.

Through narrow paths below ground level you walk and climb from one church to another and you try to imagine how 40.000 workers with hammers and chisels with much patience have hewn out the churches one by one from the pink rocks. First the chiseled out a trench to free a huge piece of rock from its surrounding and they shaped it into a perfect Church. These Churches are living monuments of a living faith which still stands as firm as a rock in the difficult life of many Ethiopians.

AXUM

This is the second highlight on the Historical Route.

The 20 – 33 m. high obelisks are hewn out of 1 piece of rock and erected around the beginning of our era to show the power and greatness of the Kings of the mighty kingdom of Axum. There are also many royal tombs of Kings who died between 0 -600 a.d. and some stones with inscriptions in Greek, Ge’ez and Sabean which describe some of the glorious deeds of the kings.

In the beautiful new archeological museum many interesting excavations show that much of Axum’s glorious past is still hidden under the ground.

Axum is also the spiritual capital of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. It is said that the original “Ark of the Covenant”, built by Moses to keep the stone tablets with the 10 commandments, is kept here hidden already for ages!

GONDAR

Following the Historical Route you will also visit this 17^th century capital where King Fasiladas and his successors have built different impressive castles in a mix of portugese, Arabic and Indian style. Although nothing has been left from the luxurious interiors, the compound with its castles, banquet hall, library and other buildings gives a good impression of life at the Ethiopian Court in the 17^th century.

LAKE TANA

The surprises on the Historical Route are not limited to only a few places. In lake Tana 20 Churches and Monasteries are built on islands and peninsulas from the 13^th - 17^th century. Many of them have a wealth of treasures such as ages old handwritten Bibles and other holy books, religious ornaments such as silver crosses in different shapes and richly decorated priest garbs. A boat trip to some of these islands is a worthwhile experience!

ROCK HEWN CHURCHES OF TIGRAY

A less known highlight of the Historical route is a spectaculair climb to some of the more than 120 rock hewn Churches of Tigray which are hidden in the rough mountain landscape and only 50 years ago discovered by western outsiders. It is astonishing how these architectonical pearls have been hewn out sometimes more than 1000 years ago on such inhospitable places. But just because of that reason, these Churches have survived many wars and attacks and are kept intact until today.

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