Christianity has left a sumptuous legacy of churches. There are the best known ones such as those in Lalibela where tourists are rushing around. And then there are the others.

 

Discovered only in the 1960s and 1970s in the Gheralta Mountains, they are renowned for their rock paintings and their vertiginous accesses.

 

Abuma Yemata is reached after a spectacular barefoot ascent. Carved out of the rock on a narrow turn over a 200m high wall, the church is not there to impress the few tourists who have ventured so far. Several times a week, the whole village climbs up to participate in religious ceremonies closer to God. The paintings are perfectly preserved, but above all it is a place of life and no memories. Everything sounds real here. The visitor feels honored.

 

Further on, on a very vertiginous ledge, perched 300m above the plain, the tiny gate of Aba Daniel Korkor opens onto the void. The panorama encourages meditation.