Disclaimer: This article was published in 2023. Some information may no longer be current.
A test of faith challenges the souls of all who make the perilous pilgrimage to Abuna Yemata Guh, the monolithic cave church in northern Ethiopia that towers 400 feet above the valley floor.
It was in the fifth century that the Christian priest Father Yemata from Egypt supposedly walked into the Tigray region in the African country and, according to local legend, established a monastery high on a rocky spire, either to reach divine heights or else escape the reach of foes. The church was somehow hewn directly out of the living sandstone, while the spire itself offers protection in the form of sheer cliffs on all sides.
There is only one way to access this monastery, and that is to make the dangerous climb up the spire.
Today, local Ethiopians consider it a test of their faith to scale the almost-sheer slopes barefooted, so as to get a better grip, in a sublime effort to get closer to God. Even young mothers will make the trip carrying their newborns in order to have them baptized.
A monolithic spire towering over a valley in Tigray, Ethiopia, is home to Abuna Yemata Guh, a church hewn from the living limestone. chiakto/Shutterstock
A view of mountains in Tigray, Ethiopia, home to Abuna Yemata Guh, a monastery located high on a limestone spire. Tvede/Shutterstock
A view from Abuna Yemata Guh church, located in Tigray, Ethiopia. Matyas Rehak/Shutterstock
The obscure monastery is still inhabited by some twenty Christian clergymen today, some of whom have lived in these heights for 30 to 40 years, according to The Daily Mail.
The monastic in charge of the temple today, Priest Gebre Rufael Asresseha, has for over 50 years made the precarious climb every day despite the danger. His job is to receive visitors. Although travelers will pass tombs where family members have laid deceased loved ones to rest along the way, local accounts hold that no one has ever died from falling during the journey.
The pilgrimage to Abuna Yemata Guh begins before even reaching the spires themselves. The tiring trek from the valley floor to the cliffside offers ample difficulty before reaching the rocky feet of the monolith. Here, travelers are told by guides to remove their footwear before setting foot and hand into toe-holds polished by centuries of human usage.
On one such sojourn in 2014, photographer Philip Lee Harvey, on assignment for Lonely Planet, commented on how the furious wind “keeps you cool, but it just adds to the nervousness of it all” during the daunting, two-hour ascent.
The climb to reach Abuna Yemata Guh church is fraught with hazards. Tvede/Shutterstock
An aerial view of Abuna Yemata Guh church in Tigray, Ethiopia. Evan Williams/CC BY-SA 4.0
A narrow ledge leads the way to the entrance of Abuna Yemata Guh in the Tigray region, Ethiopia. Matyas Rehak/Shutterstock
The vertical trail is punctuated by a ridiculously rickety makeshift bridge, a 19-foot sheer wall of rock, and a terrifying gap between two titanic spires leading to the last leg of the jaunt.
The home stretch offers little reprieve, for one must traverse a 20-inch lip along the cliff face looking out over an 820-foot deadly drop into the canyon below. There is a sense of being closer to God up here, some have said.
Until finally, one is met by a robed monk at the monastery’s entrance—this being a portal hewn straight into the living rock—and one finds sanctuary within. Perhaps it is from a mix of adrenaline and outright fear of death that visitors breath a moment of sublimity once they set foot inside Abuna Yemata Guh.
Some locals attest to the monastery’s having a godly presence that the hundreds of other hewn rock monasteries littering the Tigray region do not have.
(Left) A monastic greets visitors at the end of a narrow lip that leads to the church's entrance; (Right) Looking out upon the valley far below from the entrance to Abuna Yemata Guh. Left: (Charliefleurene/CC BY 4.0); Right: Felix Friebe/Shutterstock
A monastic rests amid centuries-old paintings within the church Abuna Yemata Guh. Vladimir Melnik/Shutterstock
Tempera-based paintings from the 15th or 16th centuries depict angels and apostles on plaster on the walls of the church. Matyas Rehak/Shutterstock
Tempera-based paintings on plaster depict nine of the 12 Apostles in a decorative Christian motif. Matyas Rehak/Shutterstock
Inside Abuna Yemata Guh, puddles of wax from candles pepper the floor; meanwhile, the carved walls and dome ceiling are decorated with paintings displaying angel figures and nine of the twelve Apostles. The artwork, executed in a tempera technique on plaster, exhibits a style, iconography, and method dating back to the 15th or 16th centuries. Treasured among their keepings, a precious Bible made of goat skin, among other things, has attracted worshipers to come here for centuries.
Taking it all in, while photographing the devout monks bearing candles who call these elevated chambers home, photographer Harvey described it as “the most extraordinary place I’ve ever been” and also “the most inaccessible place I’ve ever been asked to take photographs.”
The head monastic of Abuna Yemata Guh, Priest Gebre Rufael Asresseha, holds up a goatskin Bible, which has brought visitors to the church for centuries. Kanokwann/Shutterstock
Paintings adorn the interior of Abuna Yemata Guh, located in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. Framalicious/Shutterstock
A Christ and Mary motif with apostles on either side on the walls of Abuna Yemata Guh church. Matyas Rehak/Shutterstock
He said, “It was easier getting to Antarctica” but was “worth the effort.”
As the faithful place their lives in the hands of a higher power to get here, so must they make their way back down. Ethiopia is home to some of the most ancient strands of Christendom on Earth, including underground churches and inaccessible monasteries such as this. Perhaps the most highly-esteemed of all, Abuna Yemata Guh may leave visitors with some supreme comfort on their journey home.
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