[music playing] NARRATOR: 1,000
miles from Jerusalem is another Holy Land, Ethiopia. There are countless
bodies all before me. I've never seen anything
like this in my life. NARRATOR: Rugged and isolated-- You see this? It's bat hell. NARRATOR: It's a secret vault
of ancient Christian mysteries. Inside this small
guarded church is the final resting place
of the Ark of the Covenant. NARRATOR: Hidden in
subterranean monuments. We're inside the
rock that they carved. Yes, inside the rocks. NARRATOR: And 9,000
feet in the air. You fall off
that, you are gone. NARRATOR: Christ's
underground kingdom is revealed on Cities of
the Underworld, Ethiopia, Secret Holy Land. [music playing] I'm Don Wildman. I'm in Addis Ababa,
capital of Ethiopia. It's called the
cradle of humanity. It's one of the oldest
nations on Earth. Little is understood about
the vast kingdoms that ruled this land for
thousands of years. But during biblical times,
their remote highlands were an important safe haven for
refugees escaping persecution and war in faraway lands. Relatively little study
has been done here, so as this developing land moves
slowly into the 21st century, many of its deepest
and darkest secrets can still only be found
in the underground. Today, Ethiopia is a remote,
landlocked East African nation, a religious time
capsule, so isolated that Christians
here still worship in ways that would be familiar
to Jesus's first disciples. Christianity began to
spread from Jerusalem into the ancient world
in the second century AD, as believers preach the gospel
and converted new members. The first conversions
in Ethiopia were in the fourth century,
and the new religion caught on. By the 12th century,
Christianity was the dominant religion here. Its holiest city, Lalibela,
was a pilgrimage site modeled on Jerusalem. [music playing] This is the village of Lalibela. And while it might not
look like it today, this was once the seat of
a huge ancient kingdom. At this time, this
is the 12th century, the world was a
radically changing place. Muslim armies had captured
and conquered a huge swath of North Africa and
the Middle East, including the holy
city of Jerusalem. As a result, Christians
here were completely cut off, isolated from the
rest of the Christian world. The king here, King
Lalibela, set out to create a new Jerusalem,
here in the underground. [music playing] I'm meeting up with a guy named
Fikru Woldegiorgis who's lived here all his life in Lalibela. Hey. I'm Don. NARRATOR: Every year
at Christmas time, 70,000 pilgrims journey to the
small farming town of Lalibela because of the vision of the man
who ruled here 800 years ago, King Lalibela. Lalibela was the
devout Christian leader of the Zagwe Dynasty, a
royal family as powerful as the Medicis. During his reign, Ethiopia
was relatively peaceful, but the holy land
was a war zone. As Saladin's Muslim army
and European crusaders battled for control,
pilgrimages to Jerusalem became nearly impossible
and Ethiopians were cut off from the spiritual
center of their religion. Then according to church
lore, King Lalibela had a dream in which
God called on him to build a new Jerusalem,
a safe place of worship for his people. Ah, look at that. The roof of the church
is actually the ground. NARRATOR: St George is one of
11 churches sunken up to 50 feet beneath the surface of the Earth
and the layout of the churches honors the key moments in
the life of Jesus Christ. A cluster of six
churches to the north stand for Jerusalem,
the city of his death. Four to the south
represent his birthplace, Bethlehem, and between them
runs an artificial chasm named the River
Jordan, after the spot where Jesus was baptized. All of them are connected by a
warren of subterranean tunnels and trenches. Today, these churches are
known as the Eighth Wonder of the World. This is the way down? So the Zagwe's moved their
capital here to the south, and King Lalibela
decides to create a new Jerusalem,
digging underground. [music playing] So there's actually a
service going on right now. These churches are all
still very much active. What they're doing
here this morning, they've been doing 1,000 years. Tell me about this rock. Tufa. NARRATOR: In Jerusalem, builders
had limestone, wood, and marble at their disposal. Here, they had durable
easy-to-carve tufa rock, and they made the most of it. Digging down to depths
between 35 and 50 feet from the surface, the
12th century builders extracted stone from
all sides of the church, leaving a monolith
inside a man-made canyon. Then they carved out the
inside of the building, like a pumpkin, and carefully
crafted the exterior details. They've gotten exact
angles and precise corners. If they, I mean, if you
made a mistake while you're doing this, it was-- NARRATOR: Church chronicles
dating back to the 15th century claim that angels helped
the workers here build this massive and miraculously
precise church, and 10 others like it, removing 150,000
tons of rock over 23 years. Over 100 clergymen
live here today, just as they did in the
12th century administering the rights of birth and death. [music playing] So all around here,
I'm noticing these holes. Oh, yeah. So these were
filled with coffins? NARRATOR: The bodies
of the faithful, who may have come here to
die in this sacred spot, have no names. There are no written records
for Lalibela from the time, only legends orally passed
down through generations. We are allowed to join the
followers of St. George's Church, but we must pay
the proper respects. So you take your shoes
off at every church? All right. Let's go inside. Ah, it's beautiful. Wow. So this is all an
open space here. We're inside the rock
that they carved. NARRATOR: Unlike the
church in Rome, Alexandria, or Constantinople, the Ethiopian
Orthodox rites were virtually untouched by the outside
world for almost 1,000 years. They are a window to a time
when early Christianity was just evolving from ancient Judaism. Here the beliefs are Christian
while many of the traditions are Jewish. Just as in Orthodox synagogues
today, women and men are kept separate during services and
all the worshippers sit facing the Holy Land of Jerusalem. Every Jewish temple holds the
sacred scrolls of the Torah, while every church in
Ethiopia has a replica of the Ark of the Covenant. The chest reputed to hold the
original tablets inscribed by God with the Ten
Commandments and given to Moses. OK. So there's a stronger
tie to Judaic traditions. Interesting. NARRATOR: We can still see
how people worshipped here 800 years ago. But there are no hard
facts about these churches. One mystery lies under the
northwest cluster of churches known as Jerusalem. So St. George is
one of 11 churches. They're all organized
in clusters. Further up this way is
a whole other group. NARRATOR: This group of
six Rock-hewn Churches are all connected by a labyrinth
of tunnels and trenches. Can I pull this off? Can we go in here? NARRATOR: Rarely used today,
their original purpose is unknown. Did the builders dig down
for engineering reasons or was there some
threat, real or imagined, that drove them out
of sight underground. There's a tunnel
going down here, but there's another
one up above. So basically, it's
a whole labyrinth of connections, each one
leading to another church. Whoa. There's about 150 bats
in this old place. Oh, man, we gotta go down there. Oh, it's just too cool. You want to just squeeze
the camera through and I'll just help you
get it through here? I got it. Got it. OK. Yeah, you see this? It's bat hell. So look at this
round room in here with a single pillar
in the middle. Frank, I'm a little freaked
out by this bat thing to tell the truth. That door is blocked
off now, but that goes through to the
Church of Golgotha. You gotta wonder why it was
so important to this culture to be underground. I mean, on one hand,
it was a practicality because they had so much of
this good rock to work with. They could carve
an entire complex. They never needed any trees. Perfect. But there had to have
been another advantage. NARRATOR: We know
the role that faith played in building Lalibela,
but the rest remains a mystery. [music playing] According to legend, 800
years ago, King Lalibela had 11 churches carved
out of solid rock here in northern Ethiopia. Conceived as a new Jerusalem,
the elaborate churches have been sacred pilgrimage
sites for nearly 1,000 years. But a leading expert on Lalibela
believes they may have served another darker purpose. Now remember, the
churches of Lalibela are arranged in
different clusters. Those down in that area are more
for typical religious purposes, but these over here, closer
to us, these look a lot more like fortresses. [music playing] NARRATOR: The vast church
complexes in Lalibela were built in three
distinct sections. The areas I had already seen
with Lalibela expert Fikru were clearly designed and
built as places of worship. But it seems as if some of the
four churches at the southeast end of the complex were
built centuries earlier, not to welcome pilgrims, but
to withstand a siege. One of the clues
is a tunnel system that connects the
southeast cluster to the rest of the complex. [music playing] Look at this tunnel, it
goes straight down here. There's a debate whether this
is military or not up here, but it sure has look of it. [music playing] How long is this tunnel? 55 meters. Over 150 feet and
connecting through to here. Yeah. In ancient times, I mean, these
underground passages provided a perfect defense, because
if you were being attacked, the army attacking you would
have to come in single file. So it would break down the
attacker to one man at a time, much easier to defend. NARRATOR: The long tunnel
system in the southeast cluster leads to the Gabriel and Rafael
churches, which are completely surrounded by a
hand-carved trench, ranging from 15 to
over 50 feet deep. So this looks like
a defensive wall. I mean, this is carved out. Right? And this waterway here
would have been like a moat. Yeah, a perfect
defense posture here. NARRATOR: In the 12th century,
when King Lalibela built his new Jerusalem in the
remote mountains of Ethiopia, his Zagwe kingdom was relatively
isolated from the turmoil gripping the Holy Land of
Jerusalem, 1,400 miles north. But 500 years earlier
in the seventh century, Arab armies were on
the march to the north and internal strife was
crumbling the once great Aksumite Empire who ruled here. And it seems as if some parts
of the southeast cluster were built in that
turbulent time. This looks like a drawbridge. NARRATOR: Like a
medieval castle, this church only has one
way in, a bridge 50 feet up, another clue pointing
to military origins. And like a fortress
prepared for a long siege, it may also have had
its own water supply. My lord, how
deep is this thing? Yeah, that's what that is? NARRATOR: In the rainy
season, this cistern could collect enough water
to last the people here for months. If this was as much
a fortress as a church, then that could have been
a water supply for a siege. But it's totally unique and
other churches don't have it. Makes you wonder, huh? NARRATOR: Today, the only
access to the cistern is 50 feet below the churches
in one of the numerous water channels that snaked
through the entire site. This is so cool. All right. So keep in mind, this is the
dry season we're in here. Rainy season, we can't
walk through here. This would be all full of water. NARRATOR: Most of the year, this
is an arid region where water can be more precious than
gold, but in the rainy season, sudden storms could wreak
havoc with flooding. So building a massive hydro
engineering system that could move floodwaters
out while collecting some of the life giving water made
Lalibela's isolated existence possible. The complex collects and stores
huge reserves of both rain and artesian spring water. And if the people here
were afraid of attack from outsiders or infidels,
an enormous reservoir of water would be essential. All right. Wow. Look at this church. Incredible. Now, who knows, really, what
they were using this for. I mean, these could be defensive
walls for military use, but this is the cistern. Now, this is completely
unique in Lalibela. From what Fikru tells
me, this entire floor here is all a cistern space. Beneath it is almost
30 feet across. Check it out. See? That's me right there, hello. So this is going
underwater and we're going to see if we can
look at the underwater of the underworld. There she goes. Oh, yeah, that's cool. I mean, all of this is
filled with fresh water, and we're in the
dry season and you could enable a whole population
of people, maybe even soldiers, maybe a defending army who
is being besieged inside of this church slash fortress. This is the water that
would keep them alive. NARRATOR: These channels
still work, collecting and distributing
water, but we may never know if they were intended
for irrigation or defense against some long
vanished threat. Check it out. Look at this. All these strange spaces. This is a river channel
also hand carved rock-hewn. Right down here would have
steered all this rainwater right through this channel
and down to the river Jordan. Everything seems to be
speculation in this place because the records are gone,
rock can't be carbon dated, no one knows. I mean, Lalibela,
still a total mystery. [music playing] NARRATOR: In the time of Jesus
Christ, while the Roman Empire was spreading across the world,
there was another mighty empire on the rise, the
Aksumites of Ethiopia. I'm heading to a mountainous
region more than 300 miles north of Addis to
the city of Axum. Now a small farming town, it
was once the rich capital city of a mighty empire
that dominated much of northeastern
Africa for 600 years. Tradition has it that
the Aksumite kings traced their lineage back
to King Solomon and even claimed
that his son brought the Ark of the Covenant, at the
time, a Jewish relic believed to have mysterious powers to
Ethiopia in the 10th century BC. The Aksumites link
to King Solomon as evidenced by
their exclusive claim to the Ark of the Covenant
did two important things. One, it helped give their
kings legitimacy to the throne, and two, it helped create an
entirely singular unique brand of Christianity. Now some of the only clues left
of this one time world power are located right across the
street in the field of obelisks and inside the mysterious
tombs of a lost empire. [music playing] I'm meeting with a guy
named Bulabrahan Brahana. He's one of the best experts
in this area on the relatively unknown history of
the Aksumite Empire. Bulabrahan.
- Hi there, nice to meet you. How are you doing? You, too. So this was the center
of the Aksumite Empire? Yes. NARRATOR: Like Egypt, Axum
was one of the ancient world's great empires for 600 years. From the first century AD
to the seventh century AD, they mastered major trade
routes between India and the Mediterranean
and across the Red Sea, exporting luxury goods like
ivory, spices, and gold. Proof of the Aksumites'
wealth and power is here, a field of over
120 towering obelisks, including the largest monolithic
stone in the ancient world. The grave markers
of Aksumite royalty. Erected sometime
in the 400 years after the birth of Christ,
they weigh up to 500 tons and each was cut
from a single stone and hauled here, some say by
elephants, from miles away. So these monuments, these
obelisks, are massive. Why are they here? They are here to marks
tombs for the royal family. OK. NARRATOR: Rising up to 80
feet, each stone was typically supported by a foundation
measuring roughly 10% of its total height and
bolstered on two sides by gigantic horizontal stones. Surrounding the
central foundation are several underground
rooms used to entomb the dead and seal away incredible riches. War and lack of resources
have made archaeology a luxury in modern Ethiopia,
and 90% of these tombs are still unexplored. This is insanely huge. NARRATOR: Like the
pyramids in Egypt, this elaborately carved stele
marks the final resting place for a King who is as
formidable as any pharaoh. So these are the windows,
these are the beams. So this is,
essentially, the replica of a palace, a royal palace. Aksumite royal palace. For the royals who
are buried beneath it. Yes, exactly. NARRATOR: These massive stones
were only grave markers. It was in the rooms below that
they would spend eternity. [music playing] Beautiful. Now, these are
the chambers here. The chambers here. There's 10 of these. Yeah. And each one of these chambers
would be a burial place? A burial and a
treasury, as well. OK. Because even before they
keep the dead of their King, they were used as a store
where they keep the treasures. And after the death of
the king, the treasures were used for the
life after death. So this is like an Egypt. They would build these tombs
before the King actually died. - Yes, exactly.
- OK. If you're upstairs, looking
around at this field, you see stele, stele, all
these obelisks everywhere in this huge field,
each one of them is the marker for
a grave beneath. Only 5% of them
have been excavated. Now, they have fully excavated
some of these places, but you know who got here
first were grave robbers. NARRATOR: Many burial chambers
had treasure rooms beside them. The grave robbers would make
their way into the tomb, then cut a hole through the wall
to get to the valuable ivory and gold next door. Imagine what you see
is now an empty room filled with ivory tusks,
gold, iron, silver, everything that this King would represent
himself with in the afterlife. This is how prosperous
the Aksumites were. NARRATOR: These burial rites
ended in the fourth century AD when the Aksumite King's adopted
Christianity and a Jewish relic they had possessed for centuries
became their greatest treasure, the Ark of the Covenant. Rumors have placed this precious
artifact all over the world. But this is the land of
King Solomon's son, Menelik. And many believe he
brought the Ark home. Legend says it's still here
today in this small church just across the road from
the pagan tombs. Living inside that church
is the guardian, a monk whose entire life is dedicated to
the protection of the Ark and praying by its side. Ethiopians have been assigning
monks this duty for almost 3,000 years. Indeed, in three
millennia, no one has been allowed to see the
Ark except the guardians. Not kings, not Popes,
not even heads of state, no one has been allowed inside. NARRATOR: By the 6th century AD,
1,400 years after the Ark may have first arrived here, the
Western World was in chaos. The Roman Empire had
fallen, and Europe was mired in the horror of the dark ages. But the Aksumite
Empire was at its peak. And just a mile from
the pagan obelisks, their Christian King Kaleb built
a magnificent final resting place, a tomb that may have
lured the relic hunting Knights Templar searching for the
Aksumites' greatest treasure. I can already feel this is
a much grander, deeper tomb than the others. This is the last, maybe,
the last Aksumite King's tomb. Really? We have which belongs
to the son of King Kaleb. This is the room for the
grave with three sarcophagus. Right One for him, and for his wife,
and for his son or daughter. And one sarcophagus is
different from the others because it's with a cross
with Aksumite hand cross. Carved in the end there. We do have one Aksumite
cross right here. It does look like
a Templar cross. Exactly, exactly. But Templars were 11th century,
but this is even the Aksumite used in the coin in the
4th century AD, that's why we call it Aksumite work. NARRATOR: This cross, almost
identical to the crusader symbol, predates it
by seven centuries. It could be a coincidence or it
could prove Europeans were here looking for the Ark. Many claim the Knights Templar
dug for it under the temple mount in Jerusalem and searched
the ancient Jordanian city of Petra. They may have come
to Axum, as well. So why did the
Templars come here? They know that through the
legend, the Ark of the Covenant was transported to Ethiopia. Said they came here to
search for the Holy Grail and for the Ark of the Covenant. So they adopted some
elements like a cross like these which they call
it the Knight Templars or the Crusader's Cross. Fascinating. That's where this is from. Cool. NARRATOR: Did the predecessors
of the Knights Templar come here searching for the Ark? And did they find it? Or is the greatest treasure in
Christianity still locked away in a small church
in a dusty town? The answers may be lost in time,
like the once great but now forgotten, Empire of Axum. Everything in this tomb speaks
to the height of the Aksumite Empire. It doesn't get any
better than this. In fact, this King sees the
Aksumite Empire at its height. After this, certain factors
contribute to the downfall. One, the Muslim armies and
the cutting off the trade routes, the sea trade routes,
that the Aksumites have used for their great prosperity. It becomes a landlocked state. So all of these factors
contribute to the decline of the great Aksumite Empire. And what follows
are the dark ages. [music playing] For most of us living in
a modern, secular world, we practice our religion
conveniently, maybe one day a week at best, in places
not so far from home. But starting in
the 11th century, Christians here, and from
places as far away as Egypt, made annual pilgrimages
to this remote region here in Ethiopia to a legendary
church built within a mountain cave where many came to
worship and many came to die. [music playing] NARRATOR: In the central
highlands of Ethiopia, at an altitude of
almost 9,000 feet, lies a scattering of
tiny farming settlements. But nearly 1,000
years ago, this area is thought to have been a magnet
for sick and dying Christians who came here searching
for a miraculous cure or a peaceful end
to their suffering in a mysterious burial site
near a lake of healing waters. The road is very bumpy. Yeah, this is really bumpy. NARRATOR: Our
guide, Fikru, led us to the holy site that
lured thousands here, a church reputed
to float on water. And so you're saying that
this valley, what I'm seeing now is a remote village,
just a few villagers-- Yes. This would have been
thousands of people, a Kingdom. NARRATOR: In 1087, this was the
center of the Christian kingdom of Yemrehana Krestos. According to church
chronicles, he commanded that a church should
be built on top of a holy lake. Whew, wow, that
is quite a hike. So that's the cave there? And the church
is right inside? Incredible. NARRATOR: Some believe the King
was guided to this isolated spot by a vision, but the cave
was also a practical choice. It shelters the church
from the elements, preserving it for
almost 1,000 years. Look at this location. You climb all the way up here,
I mean, no wonder they thought this was a sacred place. [music playing] It's all inside
the cave, isn't it? All inside the cave. Incredible. NARRATOR: Inside
the gated enclosure that covers the
mouth of the cave is the church, the King's
palace, and a graveyard for thousands of
pilgrims who died here. So this building
here is the church. Yeah, this is a church. NARRATOR: The
church was built up in alternating levels
of wood and plaster mixed with stone chips,
like a layer cake. But today, there's no sign of
the lake of mystical healing waters that lured pilgrims
from hundreds, even thousands, of miles away, unless
you know where to look. Oh, there's a door here. Yeah, if you look at there. Oh, yeah. Look at that. OK. So that's the water underneath. Yeah. This is all wet
underneath of here. Yeah, yeah. NARRATOR: Some believe the
original lake was actually swampy ground and
the church foundation a framework of timber or
bamboo that evenly distributed the weight of a building above,
a technique known as grillich. The groundwater trapped
beneath could then be accessed through
hatches like this one. So the legend is true? This is really floating
on a secret lake. So you can see that. Holy water, if you will. Of course. NARRATOR: Even if this muddy
water has no special curative powers, the church itself
receives thousands of visitors a year and is still
in active use today. So we had to shut down filming
temporarily, because there's an active service going on
right behind this fence here. It's actually a baptism of
young baby born in the village. So we stepped away
out of respect. [music playing] The service is now just
concluding inside the Yemrehana Krestos Church. NARRATOR: Once the
service is over, we're free to
explore the building and it's medieval frescoes. Salam. Can I use this
flashlight in here? Please. Oh, it's so elaborate. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Yes. Oh, I see biblical symbols
and stories here on the surface. My god, this is incredible. Imagine if you were a pilgrim,
crossing by foot, miles and miles, I mean, thousands
of people would come here. NARRATOR: But the ultimate
proof of the shrine's power is located behind the
church deep in the cave. Over the centuries, the old
and sick have come here, perhaps, they hope the
waters beneath the church would save them or maybe
they knew they would never leave this sacred spot. Here is the final resting place
of King Yemrehana Krestos. The King who built this
church is buried right here? Yes. NARRATOR: But he
is not alone here. The story goes that
people would come in and indeed some would be
almost at a state of death and then would actually stay
here and die here in order to die in this
legendary sacred space. Right underneath my feet,
look over here, another one. There's just going to
be countless bones. NARRATOR: Experts believe
the bones of more than 10,000 people rest here
in this holy cave. Skull, skull, skull,
the teeth, follow it up, then you are looking
at a bone yard. [music playing] I mean, what do you say? I'm speechless. There are countless
bodies all before me. I've never seen anything
like this in my life. Many of the people here
may have come from lands as far away as
Egypt and elsewhere. They couldn't go to Jerusalem. I mean, like Lalibela, this
place served as an alternative. OK? This was in a new Jerusalem. A place for your
final resting place. A place to be closer to God. [music playing] When a Christian missionary
fled from Constantinople to this remote corner of
Ethiopia some 1,500 years ago, he had a vision from God, a
dream of a mountain top church carved from solid rock
where he and his followers could practice his radical
form of Christianity in utter solitude. According to legend, his vision
would move entire mountains and create one of the
most breathtaking and most treacherous places
of worship on earth. Up there, in those
steep, rocky cliffs. NARRATOR: Over 340 miles
from the modern capital Addis Ababa are the
cliffs of Tigray. And hidden inside of them are
the mysterious holy objects of an ancient Christian sect,
the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. [music playing] This underground location
is actually high in the sky, a church carved into
a sandstone cliff about 9,000 feet
above sea level. To get to it, the crew and I
had to climb 2,500 feet, hauling a few pounds of camera gear. Luckily, our guide, Bulabrahan,
who's made this journey more than 30 times, brought
a group of local men to help us accomplish
our mission. So we're going up there. This is just the
approach, and you can see when the whole
thing goes straight up, it's going to be interesting. NARRATOR: The church we were
hiking to is called a Abuna Yemata after the 6th century
missionary who, like John the Baptist, came to the
wilderness to commune with God and spread the faith. And we're the first American
TV crew to make the climb. [music playing] This is by far the first major
face that we're going up here, and look at these holes. These have all been
worn into the rock by thousands of
years of worshippers. Three pieces of we're
going straight up. [music playing] Whew. Whoa, look at that. Down. Oh, heavy. Oh, my god. Got barbells in this. [music playing] You know what's awesome Is
that we got to come back down this thing. [music playing] NARRATOR: The remote church
contains copies of lost books of the Bible, still used by
the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. And buried on the
path along the way are the church's
faithful guardians. Wow. [music playing] Appropriately right
next to the path that anyone on a
pilgrimage would have to pass by these guardians. Ominous, huh? You start to get a sense of
how isolated this really is. I mean, that's really the point,
isn't it, that they really wanted to get away from it all. [music playing] So this spot is the church. This is sacred place where
we take off our shoes. Oh, OK. So from this moment on,
we're in the church. Yes, exactly. I see. [music playing] Top of the world here. Nice. Heaven. Heaven. NARRATOR: The church believes
that over 1,000 years ago, a holy man fleeing persecution
in the Eastern Roman capital of Constantinople
followed this same path and found safety here. This is Abuna-- Yemata. Yemata. Abuna Yemata is the name of
the monk from one of the nine Saints who established this
church of the monastery in the 6th century AD. OK. So 500 AD, this was done. And so they came this high up
for the isolation, I suppose. For isolation, religious
spiritual life only. OK. To get right of
the secular life. And the protection,
obviously, from being so far up above everything.
- Exactly. All right.
Can we go in? Yeah. Look at this. Sheer rock face right here. You fall off that, you are gone. The length they went to
to put a monastery up here on the top of a mountain. [music playing] Wow. Amazing. I had no idea this was going
to be as spectacular as it is. I mean, it's really
extravagantly painted. What am I looking at here? This is representing
the monk on the horse-- on the back of the horse
which represents the founder of the monastery, Abuna Yemata. One of the nine saints, here
you have the nine saints. All right. NARRATOR: Abuna Yemata
was one of the nine saints who fled persecution
in Constantinople and found sanctuary here
in northern Ethiopia. They followed a religious
doctrine known as Monophysitism which held that Jesus Christ
was entirely divine as opposed to being divine and human
as many Western Christians believed. It was a doctrine
that challenged the Christian leadership,
branded them as heretics, and could have cost
them their lives. Every inch of this
place has a figure on it. Yeah. They are telling
the stories and the, oh, I see the Virgin
Mary here definitely. This incredible artwork. When the nine saints
came to Ethiopia, they brought with them an
entirely new style of painting which became a
biblical teaching tool. Now, do people actually come and
use this place presently now? What makes very
interesting is also children are baptized in here,
so the woman has to come up with this climb-- With their babies. With their babies
on their back. Wow. So you see this church
is quite active every time. All right. Very important to
the local community. Very important,
very important. I see behind you,
there is the priest here, so he is in charge and the
guardian of this space. Yes? Yeah. He the head of the
priests and he is also in charge of the church. And so he's
given us permission to come up here today. Exactly. Thank you very much. NARRATOR: This priest scales
the cliff several times a week, half a mile high, to tend
to his local parishioners and distant visitors, spreading
the church's unique vision of the gospels. So these are all these
bibles and prayer books here. He's going to show us. The priest has opened one up. Can we see inside? These are very, very old. Hand, hand script here,
and hand painted, I guess. Yeah. On what? What is this material? It's a skin. Sheepskin. Sheepskin. Uh-huh. Can I page? Oh, thank you. And this language is which? Ge'ez. Ge'ez. This is the oldest
language in Ethiopia. In Ethiopia. It's like the
equivalent of Latin. - Exactly.
- Poor them. How close is the Ethiopian
Orthodox Church to that which an American would know? Well, in Ethiopia,
the Orthodox Church we have some more books
like this, which are, you know, partially
from the Bible, partly outside the Bible.
- Yeah. For example, you know
miracle of Saint Mary's only in Ethiopia. You don't find somewhere
else in the world. Right. Different customs, of
course, a different language. All kinds of things that a
Western Christian might find strange. Yeah. Really erupted from a
totally unique culture and different religion. Thank you so much. [non-english speech]. When Abuna Yemata came here
with the other eight saints, they brought a totally
unique brand of Christianity to Ethiopia at
one very different from what we're
used to in the West. I mean, it involved different
rituals, different lost books. It really was a whole
unique view of Christianity. And it was mysterious because
it was isolated, cut off from the rest of the world. And that mystery
really continues today. [music playing] NARRATOR: Today, Christianity
has spread to every corner of the world, but here in the
isolated highlands of Ethiopia, you can see how Jesus's early
disciples may have worshiped. A priceless glimpse
into the past safely stored away
in the underground.
