Churches cut from red rock
Lalibela
Eleven medieval churches carved downward into reddish volcanic rock, visited by pilgrims wrapped in white.
Why Lalibela is volcanic red
Lalibela is a town in the highlands of northern Ethiopia, at about 2,500 metres. In and around it are eleven churches carved out of solid rock, traditionally credited to King Lalibela, who ruled around the year 1200. Workers cut trenches down into the reddish volcanic rock to free a block, then hollowed it into a church with doors, windows and pillars. The Church of St George is shaped like a cross and stands in a deep pit. The stone is pink to rust red, spotted with yellow lichen. On feast days, above all Ethiopian Christmas in January, thousands of pilgrims gather in white cotton shawls, so the red rock is edged with white. The churches are a World Heritage Site.
Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.
Colours tied to Lalibela
Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Lalibela" on Wikipedia. If you know Lalibela and we have it wrong, tell us.
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🇪🇹 The painted walled cityHararBehind old stone walls, the alleys and house fronts of this Ethiopian city are painted in bright pastels.
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🇮🇳 Land of mirror work and white desertKutchEmbroidery, tie-dye and block print in deep red and indigo, set against the white salt of the Rann.
🇮🇳 The silk cityKanchipuramA temple town in Tamil Nadu whose heavy silk saris pair strong body colours with contrasting gold borders.
🇮🇳 Red earth and a golden sphereAurovilleAn experimental township on red earth near Pondicherry, centred on the golden globe of the Matrimandir.
🇮🇳 Akbar's red sandstone cityFatehpur SikriA Mughal capital built in one red stone in the 1570s and left by the court only a few years later.Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Shekhawati In: Digrajsingh, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Kutch In: Zeel Satyendra Modi, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Kanchipuram In: Ssriram mt, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Auroville In: Kaspar Konrad, Public domain, source
- Fatehpur Sikri In: HibaSiddiqui, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Harar Et: Unknown author, CC BY 2.0, source