# Lalibela ## Intro Lalibela was a Christian king of Ethiopia who ruled from about 1181 to 1221. He belonged to the Zagwe dynasty, a line of kings from the Agaw people that ruled between the old kingdom of Aksum and the later Solomonic emperors. Ethiopians remember him above all as the king behind the famous churches carved down into solid rock at the town that now bears his name. Tradition says he wanted to build a "New Jerusalem" in Africa, so that Ethiopian Christians could make a pilgrimage at home. How much of the carving happened in his reign is debated. Some archaeologists think parts of the site are centuries older and that later generations credited all of it to the great king. What is not in doubt is that Lalibela ruled a Christian kingdom, corresponded with the church of Alexandria, and gave Ethiopia one of the wonders of Christian architecture. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church honours him as a saint. ![A massive rectangular church carved from red rock, surrounded by squared pillars, standing in a trench beneath a modern protective canopy](/codex/assets/lalibela-bete-medhane-alem.jpg) *Bete Medhane Alem ("House of the Saviour of the World"), one of the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela, under its protective shelter. Photo: Sailko, CC BY 3.0 ([Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lalibela,_chiesa_di_bete_medhane_alem,_esterno_08,0.jpg)), resized.* ## In full Gebre Meskel Lalibela ("Servant of the Cross," regnal name; personal name Lalibela) was the best-known king of the Zagwe dynasty, which ruled the Christian highlands of Ethiopia from its centre in Lasta from roughly the twelfth century until 1270. His reign is conventionally dated c. 1181-1221. He is traditionally credited as patron of the eleven monolithic rock-hewn churches at Roha, the town later renamed Lalibela after him, laid out with biblical place-names (including a channel called the Jordan) as a symbolic Jerusalem. That design is often linked to the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin in 1187, which made pilgrimage harder for Ethiopian Christians. The chief narrative source is a later hagiography, the *Gadla Lalibela* (Acts of Lalibela), alongside land grants from his reign edited by Carlo Conti Rossini and an account of a visit to his court around 1210 by an embassy from the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria. He is venerated by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, with a feast on 12 Sene (19 June in the Gregorian calendar). ## How Lalibela is known: evidence and tradition | Source | What it gives | Weight | |---|---|---| | Land grants from his reign | Documentary evidence of his rule and religious patronage | Contemporary documents | | Embassy of the Coptic patriarch (c. 1210) | An outside account of his court and his successors | Near-contemporary, external | | *Gadla Lalibela* | His birth, the bees, exile, Jerusalem, the angels who helped carve the churches | Later hagiography, tradition | | Francisco Álvares, *Verdadeira informação* (1540) | First European description of the churches; local priests said they took 24 years to build | Sixteenth-century eyewitness of the site, not of the building | ### The tradition - **The bees.** The *Gadla* says that at his birth a swarm of bees surrounded the child, and his mother read it as a sign of future rule; the name Lalibela is explained as "the bees recognize his sovereignty" in Old Agaw. - **Exile and Jerusalem.** Threatened by his brother, the reigning king Harbe, Lalibela is said to have gone into exile and spent years in Jerusalem before returning. - **The vision.** Tradition says God, or Christ, showed him a vision and commanded him to build a new Jerusalem; angels worked by night alongside the workmen by day. ### The historical frame - Taddesse Tamrat inferred that Lalibela took the throne by force while his brother was still alive. - His queen, Masqal Kibra, is remembered in several traditions, including one that she had the church Bete Abba Libanos cut as his memorial. - Relations with the Egyptian church were close but sometimes strained, as with the departure of Abuna Mikael after a dispute over episcopal authority. ## The churches and the debate over dating Lalibela's name is attached to the whole complex, but archaeologists disagree about when each church was cut. See [Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela](/codex/rock-hewn-churches-of-lalibela/) for detail. In brief: - **Traditional view**: built in Lalibela's reign as a planned New Jerusalem. - **Buxton's view**: the stylistic sequence suggests the work ran beyond one reign, perhaps into the fourteenth century. - **Phillipson's view**: some structures (Bete Merkorios, Bete Gabriel-Rufael, Bete Danagel) may have been cut centuries earlier, around 600-800, perhaps as fortifications or palaces, and later converted and associated with the king. These positions are not in a contest about whether the churches are Christian or African. They are, without question, both. The question is how long it took. ## Significance ### 1. A Christian African kingdom in the age of the Crusades While Western Christians fought over Jerusalem, an African Christian king answered its loss by building a Jerusalem at home. Lalibela's reign shows an Ethiopian church that was self-governing in practice, in touch with Alexandria, and creative in its own right. See [The Crusades](/codex/the-crusades/). ### 2. Continuity between Aksum and the Solomonic emperors The Zagwe kings are the bridge between the [Kingdom of Aksum](/codex/kingdom-of-aksum/) and the Solomonic dynasty that took power in 1270. Solomonic writers later portrayed the Zagwe as usurpers, and the [Kebra Nagast](/codex/kebra-nagast/) served that claim. Modern historians treat the Zagwe as a legitimate Christian dynasty in its own right. ### 3. Pilgrimage and living worship Lalibela remains a working Christian site, not a ruin. Priests serve in the churches and great numbers of pilgrims gather at Genna (Ethiopian Christmas) and Timkat (Epiphany). ## Tensions - **Builder or patron of a tradition?** The codex records Lalibela as the traditional builder and notes the archaeological case for a longer, multi-phase history. It does not resolve the question. - **Regnal dates.** Dates around 1181-1221 are conventional; Zagwe chronology is uncertain and some lists differ. ## Scholarship Published academic works this page draws on, each matched to a publisher, index or library catalog record. - David Roden Buxton, *The Abyssinians* (1970). [Open Library](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL6339658W) - Jules François Célestin Perruchon, *Vie de Lalibala, roi d'Êthiopie: texte éthiopien publié d'après un manuscrit du Musée* (1892). [Open Library](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL18132542W) - David W. Phillipson, *Ancient churches of Ethiopia* (2009). [Open Library](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL15101158W) - Taddesse Tamrat, *Church and state in Ethiopia, 1270-1527* (1972). [Open Library](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL12615011W) ## See also - [Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela](/codex/rock-hewn-churches-of-lalibela/), the monuments credited to him - [Ethiopian Orthodox Church](/codex/ethiopian-orthodox-church/), which venerates him - [Kingdom of Aksum](/codex/kingdom-of-aksum/), the older Christian kingdom the Zagwe succeeded - [Kebra Nagast](/codex/kebra-nagast/), the Solomonic text that cast the Zagwe as usurpers - [Coptic Orthodox Church](/codex/coptic-orthodox-church/), the patriarchate whose embassy visited his court - [The Crusades](/codex/the-crusades/), the wider context of Jerusalem's loss in 1187 - [Africa and Christianity](/codex/africa-and-christianity/), master hub ## Common questions this page answers **Q: Who was King Lalibela of Ethiopia?** A Christian king of the Zagwe dynasty who ruled about 1181-1221, also known by his regnal name Gebre Meskel ("Servant of the Cross"). He is credited with the rock-hewn churches at the town now called Lalibela and is venerated as a saint. **Q: Did King Lalibela build the rock-hewn churches?** Tradition says he did, with the help of angels, as a New Jerusalem. Many historians accept that the main complex took shape in his era, while some archaeologists argue that parts were cut centuries earlier or completed after him. The question is how long the work took, not whether it is Ethiopian and Christian. **Q: Why did Lalibela build a New Jerusalem?** Tradition links it to a vision in which he was told to build a second Jerusalem. Many historians connect it to Saladin's capture of Jerusalem in 1187, which made pilgrimage harder for Ethiopian Christians. **Q: What does the name Lalibela mean?** According to his hagiography, the name means "the bees recognize his sovereignty" in Old Agaw, after a swarm of bees that surrounded him at birth. **Q: Was the Zagwe dynasty Christian?** Yes. The Zagwe kings ruled a Christian kingdom in the Ethiopian highlands, received their bishops from the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria, and endowed churches. Later Solomonic writers called them usurpers, but their Christianity is not in question.