Lalibela

Lalibela is a town in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia, located in the Lasta district and the North Wollo Zone, and is a tourist site for its famous rock-cut monolithic churches. To some Christians it is one of Ethiopia's holiest cities and a centre of pilgrimage. The churches date from the 7th to the 13th centuries and are traditionally dated to the reign of the Zagwe king Gebre Meskel Lalibela, who ruled about 1181 to 1221. The town, traditionally known as Roha, was founded during the Zagwe dynasty under his rule, and its layout and the names of its major buildings are widely accepted by local clergy as a symbolic representation of Jerusalem. The rock-hewn churches were declared a World Heritage Site in 1978. The historian David Roden Buxton established the generally accepted chronology of the churches.