02

In the 12th and 13th centuries, the unique churches of Lalibela were hewn from bedrock, creating myriad positive and negative forms of light and dark. Their windows, often symbolically in threes, likewise visually and emblematically balance embrasures and frames. The faithful see in ogival openings, for instance, the narrow path to salvation (Bet Giyorgis) and in rounded arches God’s covenant of the rainbow (Bet Maryam). Deep below ground level, priests and deacons sit in contemplation, their white garb gleaming against the courtyard’s shadowed walls, the stone reverberating with the chanting of young acolytes.

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