Now, you are in Ethiopia!: Debre Libanos Monastry

Debre Libanos Monastery

Debre Libanos Monastery is one of the Holliest religious sites in Ethiopia,[1] lying northwest of Addis Ababa in the Semien Shewa Zone of the Oromia Region. It was founded in the 13th C. by Saint Tekle Haymanot (See the images Below). The remains the only native Ethiopian saint popular both domestically as well as outside Ethiopia; he is the only Ethiopian saint celebrated officially in foreign churches such as Rome and Egypt.[2] A lot of tourists visit this holly place every time through out the year. But some say The best time to see this is in the Ethiopian rainy season (July-September).[3] And also many Ethiopians make pilgrimages and some of them seek out its curative holy waters, that is believed to be good for warding off evil spirits and for stomach disorders.[4]

The monastery is one of the biggest in Ethiopia;[5] this is based on both geographical territory, which is extremely vast and number of monks and nuns dwelling there. One of the attractive things in the monastery is that, the monks prepare their foods by using fresh trees to make fires which are burnt without any problems. This is one of the miracles done in the monastery and can be seen by any visitor.

The monastery's chief abbot, called the Ichegea, is the second most powerful official in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewagido Church.[6]

The place is very endowed with breathtaking natural beauties. The monastery complex (which is monumental and pretty awful on the outside, and owns attractive stained-glass windows from inside[7],) sits on a terrace between a cliff and the gorge of one of the tributaries of the Abbay River (the Blue Nile).[8] Current buildings include the church over Tekle Haymanot’s tomb, which Emperor Haile Selassie ordered constructed in 1961; a slightly older Church of the Cross, where Buxton was told a fragment of the True Cross is preserved; and five religious schools.[9]

The site is impressively set beneath a waterfall-rich cliff (many of the monks live in caves up there) on the edge of the large Jemma River Gorge and is a peaceful place to wander.[10] The Giladda Baboons which is found only in Ethiopia can also be seen around the Monastery to add yet another beauty for the place.

Giladda Baboons which are found only in Ethiopia

The present big building of the church was built by Emperor Hailesselasie I with more that one million Birr. The Monastery also has got one of the most interesting church museums in Ethiopia in which besides the usual ecclesiastical items there are Italian guns, giant cooking pots, crowns of past emperors and their wives, musical instruments and an old wooden shackle.[11]

This main church is marvelous in its decorations. There are many mosaics and stained-glass beauties inside the church. Among other things, the Old Testament's main figures like Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Jonas... and the twelve Disciples of Jesus Christ (in the left and right of the church's gigantic windows respectively) and are painted in attractive art.

Fifteen minutes up the hill from the monastery is Tekla Haimanot’s cave, where the saint is said to have done all his praying. It’s also the source of the holy water. A monument in front of the church memorializes the hundreds of innocent priests, deacons, and worshipers who were massacred here by the Italians following an assassination attempt on the notoriously brutal viceroy Graziani in 1937 (he was later imprisoned by the Italians as a war criminal for crimes against humanity).[12] The massacred inhabitants of Debre Libanos by Italians were 297 monks and 23 laymen.[13]

If you want to go and visit or get healed in the place, which I am sure you would like to do I am sure now, you can do it with almost no worries. (See the place on Google Maps.[14]) A Drive 110 kms north from Addis over the Entoto Mountains passing through the Sululta Plains take you to the Monastery of Debre Libanos monastery founded in the 13th century by Abune Tekle Haymanot.[15]

The Portuguese Bridge or The Egg Bridge[16]

The Portuguese Bridge was built in the 16th century.[17]

"There is controversy about the origins of the so-called Portuguese Bridge. According to some, it was built in the 16th century by Portuguese; others say that it was built by Ras Darge (who was Menelik’s uncle) in the 19th century. After crossing the bridge, go to your left by the side of the river until you reach on a large rock suitable to view the 600m waterfall."[18]

See a fascinating picture of the bridge on the following web site.[19]