BAHIRDAR UNIVERSTY

INSTITUTE OF LAND
ADMINSTRATION
DEPARTEMENT OF ARCHITECTURE

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE IV

THE ZAGUE DYNASTY

GROUP MEMBERS
EYUEL SOLOMON
FASIL MAMO
HILELOUL DEMELASH
HILINA KASSA
MEKLIT GIRMA
LIDIYA GEREMEW
MERON WERKINEH
MERON GETACHEW

SUBMITTED TO INS. ELZALMON

 THE ZAGUE DYNASTY
The region of Lasta was the place of origin of the Agaw ethnic group, to which the
Zagwe Dynasty that ruled Roha and the surrounding region for about 120 years
between 1150 and 1268 (or 1270) belonged….
▪ The Zagwe gathered together the religious and political heritage of the Christian
Aksumite Empire. Their area had been dominated by the Aksumite kings for centuries,
and a ruling class of Agaw ethnicity may have grown up under their reign….
▪ The Zagwe established their first capital in the town of Adefa, very near to the place
named Lalibela today. They built a powerful reign and were also able in creating
external relationships and in maintaining links to the outer world…
▪ The Zagwe Dynasty reached its apogee under King Lalibela (1185- 1225). ▪ One
tradition says that Lalibela spent 25 years in Jerusalem, where he came into touch
with the Jewish and Western world. At that time, Christianity was involved in the
Crusades. After returning to his homeland, Lalibela started the construction of the
"New Jerusalem", to reproduce the place of Christ's Death and Resurrection…
▪ But it may have been King yimrahane Christos, predecessor of Lalibela, who
inaugurated the tradition of building rock-hewn churches, and increased the contacts
with Egypt and pilgrimages to the Holy Land which aroused in Ethiopia a strong
interest in Israel. This may have generated the desire to have Holy Land inside the
country later on
Those medieval churches which have been preserved to our days were mostly
constructed in remote places among steep mountains.
Churches inside rock can divided into the following three main types
Type 1 built up cave churches which are ordinary buildings placed inside a natural cave
for protection or seclusion.
Type 2 rock hewn cave churches which are cut in wards from a more or less vertical
cliff face, sometimes using and widening an existing natural cave. In some cases, only
the sanctuary part into rock and the front parts are constructed of built-up masonry.
Most of many rock churches in Tigre belong to one variety or another of this type the
principle as much has been used also in other countries, for churches as well as for
non chiristian temples.
Type 3 rock hewn monolithic churches which always imitate a built-up structure but
are cut in one piece from the rock and separated from it all around by trench.
It is mostly the churches in and near Lalibela which belong to this type and there are,
altogether, not even twenty of them.
Other countries have not constructed churches in this particular manner.
THE TECHNIQUE FOR EXCAVATION OF ROCK HEWN
CHURCHES
PATTERN OF CHISEL MARKS
The position of the mason during cutting work can sometimes be clearly deduced from
the chisel marks because these marks were often not polished away afterwards.
The normal method seems to have been kind of sideway chiseling as shown above
perhaps for the reason not to break away chips deeper than the intended.
With this method, the marks are from the narrow edge of the chisel.
The frontal position occurs less commonly and gives a rather different pattern of
marks from the broad of the tool.
Certain chisels used at Lalibela seem to have had tips with broad edge and section as
the full-size figures drawn here.

PROGRESS OF EXCAVATION
one possible theory is that churches of type 1 and type 3 as classified on the previous
page were excavated would have been safest to cut one trench down to full depth first
in order to make certain that there was good rock down the whole face.
workers could then cut in wards through the main western door and hollow out the
church regularly inside, preceding symmetrically along the straight central axis.
by a system of cutting in terraces, not much of scaffolding and ladders would be
needed.
THE BASILLICA PLAN
the type of plan and section called the basilica originated in Rome.
It may have been developed in the beginning as a method for getting daylight into the
center part of large assembly rooms by raising the middle part, the nave ,the allow
space for rows of windows above the lower aisles on the sides.
By the time this building shape was brought to Ethiopia, it was probably regarded in its
whole as the proper shape for Christian church.
Part of the concept was that the church should be oriented., with the holiest part
towards the east. The Mediterranean custom of the terminating the sanctuary part with
one or three semicircular apeses was seldom followed in the early Ethiopian
churches.
There are also other details, particularly in the exteriors, which indicate that the

square shaped arksutite type of construction imposed it self on the imported basilica
plan.

Stairs to an upper gallery may be in the corner space to the left in the narthex. The
largest church room was in the Mediterranean are% conceived ES a longitudinal space
with two or more rows of columns. In the old Ethiopian churches, it is more often
square, -influence from the principle of "equal-equal" again?
The sanctuary becomes three-divided and lends itself to be a symbol of the Holy
Trinity, but the Ethiopian concentration on one tabot per church causes the sanctuary
to be conceived as one unit rather than as containing three altars. The two spaces on
the Bidea are not always open towards the main church.

ORIGION OF ETHIOPIAN BASILICA

The question of possible models for the early Ethiopian churches has not yet beer, thoroughly
penetrated by specialists, particularly not concerning the M1JLAV variations of rock churches
from Tigre which have been published and have become available to historians only in the last
few years.
the models were probably several and it have been from somewhere in the Eastern
Mediterranean countries and for along the rift Valley which in the early Christian period had
rainy more important churches than can be easily imagined in our days when few of them
remain.

The first country to adopt Christianity as a state religion was Armenia, which, country
corresponds nowadays to the border areas where Iran and the Soviet Union meet. Armenia
converted to the Christian faith already in 288-301 P.D. If we look. at Armenian church plans
like that of St. Gaiane from around 630 AD.
we can feel that we are in the neighborhood of a model the Ethiopian type of basilicas. The
larger number American churches, however, were of the style which was copied also for the 77-
esent-day Armenian church in Addis Ababa.
A ROCK CHURCH IN TIGRE
Wikro Maryam (Enda Maryam WeKro) situated about 25 km in a straight line to the
southwest of Adigrat, constructed probably within the period 1100 - 1310 A.D.

EGLISE DE WEQRO MARYAM

The lay-out of the rock churches in Tigre is some-times - as in this case -so original
that no direct model for the design may have been used, although the details -belong
to the common stock of architectural forms in such churches.
ZAGUE DYNASITY BUILDERS OF THE LALIBELA CHURCHES 914 -
1266 A.D.
There are no contemporary documents of the Zagwe Period preserved which could
explain how the Lalibela churches were constructed.
Preserved portable objects such as processional crosses, more than the churches
themselves, are evidence that art at Lalibela had its own character different from
other periods of Ethiopian Christian art. The cross shown here (above, right) has a
pattern along the rim at the top which seems to symbolize the "Crown of Life" (and not
"Christ and His Twelve Disciples" as has also been suggested).

Tie imaginary picture of cutting of rock churches by adze is from a manuscript of the
previous century only. The adze may have been used as a tool for making wall
surfaces smooth as the final operation, but the main excavation was rather by chisel
and other breaking tools.
LALLIBELA CROSSES
Some designs of the Lalibela Period are very Original and may have freely curved
ahapea like the one ehawn here to the left.

The cross proves that there survived also at Lalibela the traditional geometrical
patterns and division "equal-equal" giving repetitions 2, 4, 8, 16... with crosses inside
crosses.
The Lelibela designs had inmost been forgotten for centuries but memory of them is
now being revived. The one here below, for example, has been copied for a postage
stamp and for lamp shades of the Hilton Hotel, A. Abeba.
The cross with bent sam3 as sometimes seen in Lalibela is hardly the swaastika (a
sun symbol) as used in Europe and India but rather the ordinary cross from
interwoven geometrical and continous patterns, as common ire the Medieval Period
both for Christian and designs.
Pl.. and sections oil the following pages oonser.1.5 the Lalibela rook churches are ...Sly
from the book published in 190 on One It...lien surveys made in April ma mad, 1939, by a
grew, headed by Alessandro Augusto Monti della Corte, with 0110 &Lonnie so surveyor
and Lino Bianchi Barriviera as artist.
NAMES OF THE CHURCHES IN LALIBELA
Bet Medhanialem
Bet Maryam
Bet dingil
Bet meskel
Bet kidus Mikael
Yesilase bet keristian
Bet giyorgis
Bet amanuel
Bet merkoriyos
Aba libanos
Ye gebriel ena ye rufael bet kerystian
Lalibela plan of the main Maryam group of churches

Lalibela section of bet Maryam

Lalibela drawing of bet medhanialem church

Roof was probably decorated by the senior masons while they were waiting for the lese skilled
mason to excavate the walls and start hollowing out the interior.
Lalibela drawing of the medhanialem alem church
Sections on the longitudinal direction

Main proportion in the horizontal direction

In the upper part (arch: ceiling: arch) 1:5:1:5
In the lower part (pillar: void: pillar) 2:5:2:5

Lalibela mikeal golgota group of church

Plam approximately scale 1:540
Section approximately scale 1:260
 1, bet Mikael
2, bet golgota
3, Selassie

1.elevated seating places used by

the king in the ancient time
2. elevated seating places used
by the king in the ancient time
3. Adams tomb
4. Selassie
5. golgota

Golgota church has bas-reliefs in the niches and is one of the very few cases of person
duplicated in sculpture in old Ethiopian architecture.
Lalibela amanule church

The amanule church has a very regular and classic design through not a built-up church but a
copy sculptured in monoethnic rock, it shows with particularly clearness the combination of
plan and section of a Mediterranean or eastern basilica with the structural techniques of
axumite palace or temple. Such combination must have been characteristic of medieval
Christian architecture in the Ethiopian, as far as can be judged from the persevered rock
churches.

The amanule rock churches can be directly compared

with built up structures like the debre damo church.

Lalibela the irregular bet merkorios

Plan approximately 1:525 scale
1. The large trench surrounding the group
2. Rectangular courtyard
3. Present church of merkorios
4. Courtyard of bet amanule
5. Subterranean connecting tunnel

Merkorios is not orientated not shaped like church. It may originally have been some
important secular type of a building.
The open rectangular area in the plan has shallow round holes along its edge and in the
center, which would fit for some kind of tent poles.
A dark tunnel connecting the interior of bet merkorios and bet amanuale.
Deep trenches in front of merkorios were excavated recently and objects were found,
including shackles for the feet of prisoners.
 Lalibela bet gebreal and bet
rufael
Plan and section scale approximately 1:670 and
1:280

Same arguments here as for bet merkorios

regarding the lack of orientation and possibility
that it was not intended as church from the
beginning.
The present double church of the archangel
gebreal and rufael is, however, conceived to give a most imposing and monumental
impassion when approached from outside.
Lalibela abba libanos, church in a cliff face
Plan scale 1:200, wall diagram scale 1:50

Abba libanos is a typical “minimal completed

basilica”. It has no upper gallery an therefor the
staircase part was not excavated.
This church is correctly oriented west-east even
though excavation in this case started from a
southerner cliff face and proceeded “sideways” first.
The diagram shows the idealized patterns of part of an external wall of abba libanos. The
example is typically of the proportioning with quite simple rationes which was normal for
structures in Axum and Lalibela.
The lowest row practically always consists of the rectangular “aksumote” type of
windows with a more ornamental outline when constructed of carpentry in actual
built-up structures.
The grid if 27.27 centimeters, probably drive from the human body e.g., “across
twelve fingers” possibly conceived as three times the unit “four fingers of one
hand”.
 Lalibela bet giorgis

Bet giorgis with its cruciform plan is in

several respects the technically most
advanced rock church in Lalibela, and very
well cut in good and even rock.

One of the sophisticated details is that wall thickness increases step by step down
wards but the increases is hidden because it is made when passing the horizontal
bands of the exterior as explained in here.

The interior of bet giorgis has arches of the normal

Lalibela types and also dome, which is unusual in Lalibela but
rather common in the churches of Tigre.

Site plan of bet giorgis according to surveyed

reconstructed ideal plan of roof and celling showing
co-ordination of the exterior with the interior.
Decisive for proportions of the plan seems to have
been that interior space in the cross arms are
proportions 2.3. the analysis below is expressed in
units of about 90-100mm which corresponds to
“across four fingers”. Measurements in Lalibela seem to fit best with a 12 system of counting.
Lalibela windows

Most of the windows in Lalibela can be analyzed in terms of easily understandable structural
elements. When the decoration is purely architectural it may consist of small columns with
bases and capitals, joined by arches. The columns often much shorter than normal and pattern
becomes something like the examples in the right-hand corner above.
If only the vocodes of such decoration is regarded, as will be the case when light through the
window is observed from the interior side, theses decoration may create “keyholes” and other
original shapes which are not immediately easy to recognize as derived from structural
elements.
When the decoration does not consist of structural element’s, it usually depicts variations of
the Christian cross, as in the examples.
Even in the built-up churches there were sometimes monolithic ornamental fillings of stone in
windows made of timber.

As said before, ancient proportions in Ethiopia were usually very

simple. Sometimes, as in this example from gebriale and rufael church
at Lalibela, one must analyze in a particular way in order to arrive at a
result which is simple enough to be convincing.
Measuring and taking ratios with a different approach, as in the lines
with the question makes, may give results which cannot be
interpreted.

Lalibela windows with a history

 The window from bet giorgis ha a “flowering” or “flowering” ornamentation which seems very
different from the structural or geometrical character of almost all other window at Lalibela.
When models were not taken from existing buildings, then another source of inspiration which
could be used by the builders in Ethiopian during medieval periods was ornamentation in
illuminated manuscripts. The architecture of medieval paintings, however, was seldom the
same as the architectures actually constructed.
In this particular case, there is a very striking correspondence between the top of the giorgies
window and the decoration on the roof of” the fountain of life”. the latter is an often-published
Ethiopian painting persevered in a manuscript dating from a little after 1400 A.D.
This “fountain” was probably copied from byzantine models which, in there turn, are known to
have been inspired from some HELLENISTIC “tempietto” or small round temple.
If this is the correct clue, then it seems to lead us back through many centuries as far as the
decorated capitals of some pagan Greek temple hundreds of years
before Christ.

Doors with history

Wooden arch with carved ornaments doors of the old churches at yeha.

Richly carved old doors leaf from the church of Guna guan
Lalibela trenches
Much work on rock excavation at Lalibela was spent on the surrounding and connecting
trenches. Recent re excavation have made it more obvious than before that there was an
extensive system of such trenches processional road and circuits through which the churches
could be reached by going up to them and not down.
At one point in the artificially excavated part of “yordanos valley” a high monolithic stone cross
was spared out of the rock during the cutting of the trench.
ROCK CHURCHES OUTSIDE LALIBELA
Although most of the architecture of to rock churches can be recognized as belonging to a
common store of traditional, there is considerable variety in the total composition of a whole
churches.
examples from lasta
bilbla giorgis is situated at one day travel be mule towards the northern west of Lalibela
this rock is quit simple and may be among the oldest in lasta. Inspire of the great simplicity of
the plan, there can be no mistake about this being a church: there ARE the three doors in
traditional positions with the north and south entrance’s nearer to the west entrance than to
the sanctuary, which is towards the east as it should be, although the cutting of the church
started from the south.

Rock churches outsides Lalibela

Asheten Mariam is rather

irregular. Sometimes the
irregularities in the shapes
were caused by irregularities of
the rock itself.
Genet Maryam is a regular
basilica and resemble medhane
alem in Lalibela by having a
decorated roof and a kind of
colonnade all around.
Genet Maryam is the largest of
the lasta churches which are
not in Lalibela itself, and it is also among the more decorated ones. It is situated about 20
kilometers to the east of Lalibela.
MORE ROCK CHURCHES

Reductions and modifications of the normal basilica plan

Meskel kirstos near Sekota wag

Kamkanit Mikael a few hours walk to north Lalibela

It is relatively easy in rock hewing techniques to make arches and domes. Roofs are usually
much thicker than walls. Ethiopian rock churches are approaches from below, if necessary,
through tunnels, in order to give the same feeling as when going up to built up churches
standing on elevated ground.

YEKKA MIKAEL RUIN OF ROCK CHURCHES IN ADDIS

ABEBA
Once there was started the excavation pf a rock church also near Addis Ababa. It was in the
mountains above the present yekka Mikael churches where there is rock similar kind as I
Lalibela.
Very little is known about the time and circumstances of this isolated construction. Bing
unfinished, this church shows the procedure of excavation used, at least for the particular case.
The ruin is known by the local residents as “washau”, the cave, rather than as yekka Mikael.
SOUTHEREN ROCK CHURCHES
The plan shows adadi Maryam a rock churches which is situated about 70 km to the south west
of Addis Ababa. Its size is about 19.5 times 16 meters.
The expansion of Christianity to southern areas probably took place later than the great church
construction period in and around Lalibela.

NORTHERN ROCK CHURCHES

The many rock churches in Tigre are now getting more known and published and seem to be
the most important group for the architectural history of medieval Ethiopia.

Unfor
tunat
ely,
drawi
ngs
suited for reproduction by electro stencil were not available when this collection of pictures
was prepared.
The king mobile cap
The court of the king of Ethiopia used to be Mobil. The king used to travel zig-zag unpredictable
movements at short notice, but his camp, nevertheless, remained quite firmly organized. As
soon as the king’s own tents had been pitched as the first in a new place, all the others knew
their proper positions in relation thereto.

The painting of the royal tent in a manuscript seems to confirm the statement of proportion
given in a chronicle of lebna dengel’s time, 1508-1540, where it is written that the king’s tent
was sixty cubits long and over fifty cubits high, 27.5*23 meters.
After the rise of Islam there followed almost one thousand years when Christian Ethiopia was
more or less isolated from the outer world. This effect was strengthened by the surrounding
belt of desert scrub and true desert which is shaded I this map.
Mohamed gran of Adel above in a painting from much later time made devastating invasion in
1527 and destroyed much of the Christian medieval heritage of art and architecture in Ethiopia.
The kingdom of Adel, largely with in the boundaries of the present-day empire of Ethiopia,
depended mostly on nomadic people and had no corresponding architecture wealth of its own.
ISLAM + THE PORTUGISE + FIREARMS

The Portuguese assisted Christian Ethiopian against the Muslim forces. The battles were partly
fought with firearms on both sides; the Muslims side acquiring weapons from the Turks. The full
impact of superior weapons and other technological innovations did not, however, reach
Ethiopian 300 years later.
BUILLDING ART OF THE PORTUGESE AND THE JESUITS
APPROXIMATELY 1550-1630

When relatively peace had been gained after the death of ahmed gragn in 1543, the Portuguese
solders could also assist in constrictions. They introduced some new methods, by working
themselves and also through Indians which were brought from the Portuguese colony of GOA in
India. They taught the art of burning lime, preparing good mortar and constricting true
masonery arches.
Jesuit missionaries were also builders in Ethiopia during the first third of the 17TH century, but
not IN very many cases. They had their own base at “fremona” near Adwa.
However, if the principal originators of the castells and churches at Gondar had been
Portuguese immigrant or Jesuit missionaries from Portugal, sprain and Italy, the the style would
have been more like contemporary baroque architectures in Europe. In reality, it is much more
local in character.
This point is proved by unique examples of old gorgora on the shore of lake tana, where a
church and palace were constructed around 1619-1621 under direct supervision of pero pais, a
Spanish Jesuit. This example is completely different from the other completely different from
the other wise rather uniform gonder style.
EARLY STRUCTURES OF THE “GONDER STYLE”
The palace of guzara situated about 60 km from gonder, and the church of barye dim, situated
about 30 km from gonder, are much earlier example of this particular style than the castells and
churches inside the town itself.
The palaces of guzara is believed to have been constructed arounder 1570, which means two or
three generations earlier than the foundation of Gondar as a more permanent seat for the
Ethiopian government.
Certain sources claim that the church of barye gimb may be of still earlier origin.
THE MIKAEL CHURCH OF BARYE GIMB

View, scale 1:125

Plan, scale 1:111
THE GONDAR PERIOD
After 1630
One reason for building the new capital city, Gondar, at a place rather far to the north,
compared with where the camps of the previous kings had usually been , was that strong
invasion of nomadic people from the south were threatening the safety of the kingdom at this
time.
FASILEDAS PALACE

KING FASILEDES CASTEL GONDAR

The main face of the first and most solidly built palace at gonder is one of the most well known
architectural pictures of Ethiopia.
The interiors have been less often published in books. Little of the original furnishings are
preserved.
CONNECTION WITH THE EAST
16TH-18TH CENTURIES

Similarities between the Christian palace in gonder and Islamic architecture in southern arabia
have been observed but not satisfactorily explained.
It is stated in source contemporary with king fasiledes that he employed an Indians as his chief
of architects. One hunderede years later, the crowen of emperor iyasu2(1730-1755), as copied
here from a manuscript of his owen century, is also reminiscent of Indian statuettes of gods.
Connections as far as india may seem remote, but some indirect influence through trade
objected of art and hand craft and through individual ideanes is quite possible.
Northern india had its greatest period of indo-islamic architecture around 1540-1660(compare
this pictures os mosque in delhi), which means about one centures earlier than the main period
of Gondar architecture.

Some of the
name used
for THE GATES

1. Fit Ber, jan tekel ber, imperial get

2. Wember ber, gate of the judges
3. Teskaro be, funeral commemortations
4. Azash tukure ber, secret gate of A.T.
5. Adenager ber, enigma gate, gate f the spinners
6. Quali ber, gate of queen attendants
7. Imnilta ber, cate of th flute players, Balderas ber, gate of the chief guard of horses
8. Elfign ber, gate of the private chambo
9. Ras ber, kwarenyoch ber, gate for high person
10. Kechin ashawa ber, gate of pigeons
11. Inkoy ber, gate of princess inqoye
12. Gimja/bet Maryam/ ber, gate treasury through yard of gimjabet Maryam church
 MAPS OF GONDER

LATE GONDER ARCHITECTURE

 Youngest buildings with in the imperial compound, around 1750

The little palace of queen Mentuab belongs to the more elegant and decorated of the
Gondar buildings, at least of the preserved ones.

The extract below from the general view explains the location of this palace.

The face shown in the upper picture is the one turned towards the left in the smaller
picture which is a reconstruction and does not agree with all details with the view above
which was drawn from the photo.

Most of the Gondar castles are not in the first place real castles or fortresses primarily
constructed for defense, but rather imposing palaces serving as symbols and as useful
spaces for the imperial court.

Battlements for real defense( open parts narrower than protecting parts) as used in
various parts of the world already thousands of years before the Gondar period in Ethiopia.
 Battlements mostly for decoration and visual expression of power as in Gondar.

GONDER STYLE- UNIFORM THROUGHOUT ITS PERIOD

(17th and 18th)

There are no important differences of architecture between the first large structure in
Gondar, which was Fusillades palace, and the one shown here which is among the late
ones of the Gondar period. This palace was probably built about 1730-1750 and is situated
outside the imperial compound.
The continuity with In the Gondar style is as obvious as its fundamental difference from the
preceding Aksumite- Medieval tradition is also obvious. When the Gondar style of
architecture died out, the older traditions proved again that they were still alive.

These drawings show a plan of the ground floor and a reconstructed section of the RAS
GIMB or CASTLE OF RAS MIKAEL SEHUL. It was not built by the Ras after became named,
he lived there at the time when James Bruce visited the town in 1770-71. Bruce later wrote
the only detailed eyewitness account of life in Gondar in the 18th century.
BATH OF FASILADAS

Design is often non symmetrical in Gondar architecture, and also in the pavilion of Fasils
bath.
The walled compound with the large man made pool called Fasils bath is situated in an
open plain where large crowds of people can gather for parades and ceremonies. The pool
is filled with water each Timqat and used still today for this ceremonial gathering.

A circular pavilion of plastered masonry stands alone in the plain outside the compound. It
is popularly known as “the tomb of the horse” but probably intended as the kings station
point when reviewing parades.
KUSKUAM PALACE AND DEBRE TSEHAY CHURCH

The kuskuam compound, secluded as a kind of monastery on a hill overlooking the plain
with Fasils bath, contained the headquarter of empress Mentuab in her later days and was
seen in full use by the traveller James Bruce in 1770-71.
Kuskuam was destroyed and burnt. Is now in ruins and has long been neglected
but its remain are instructive from the technical and architectural points of view.
Arches in Gondar architecture are semicircular or sometimes lower than half a
circle. They often stand out visually by being of a different and more easily out kind
of stone, “wine red” instead of black stone or light plaster as for the walls.
In the simplest case, a window opening may be bridged by three straight stone
slabs (1). The normal arch(2) rests on very characteristics abutments. A more
elaborative arch in steps(3) occurred early, example; Barye Gimb, as well as late
example Kuskuam. The castles in Gondar may also have window shaped as slots of
the kind which in fortresses served when shooting with bow and arrows.

GONDAR ARCHITECTURE

GONDAR ARCHS
CHURCHES OF THE GONDAR PERIOD
The majority of many fine churches in Gondar was destroyed on one time or
another and if rebuilt often became reduced and simplified. As example is Attatami
Qeddus Mikael inside the imperial compound. Once it had a plan comparable to a
palace but re-erected rather simple.
An architecturally important church that has never destroyed and still exists is
Debre Birhan Silassie, it is often published in tourist literatures for its painted
ceilings with the many heads of angles.
GONDAR CROSSES

The cross symbol being a very central theme of the Christian culture, was often
treated in decorative manner during the Gondar period. The influence of these
design still vivid in Ethiopia.
The birth story of the Gondar cross design is not known, but it has been proved at
least , that they are not Portuguese.
Some of the crowns of former Ethiopian emperor now kept at the cathedral in
Aksum are architectural in shape and have crosses of the same tradition as
Gondar ones.
THE ISLANDS OF LAKE TANA

The monasteries and churches on the islands of Lake Tana were more secluded
than the buildings on the main land. They were often successful in hiding and
protecting manuscripts and valuable art objects when there was looting of castles
and churches in and around Gondar. Only a few preserved manuscripts however
are older than the 17th century.
Emperor Fusillades and some of his predecessors were buried on islands in Lake
Tana.
It is planned to restore the most valuable of the churches and to keep them open
for “cultural tourism” in this area of great natural beauty and with good tourist
hotels at Bahirdar.
The cathedral site at Axum is venerated as a particularly holy place. Here may
once have stood a pre-Christian temple. During many centuries there were a
Christian cathedral built in Axumite techniques and said to contain no less than
3815 “monkey heads”. It has five aisles and seven chapels; all was destroyed by
Muslims in 1535. A smaller but still imposing church was re-erected in 1611-1620,
the now standing old Zion cathedral (no 3). This is an early and isolated application
of what became “the Gondar style). Its plan is shown above with its front elevation
according to the impression of a visitor around 1840. The now visible front is rather
recent and expresses little of the cathedral’s vulnerable history. Finally there was
inaugurated in 1965 a second and modern New Zion cathedral. It is designed by
Doxiadis associated in a kind of byzantine style, with the wide dome being the first
large shell of concrete ever constructed in Ethiopia.

ISLAM

Islam architecture lij relation to Ethiopia has two aspects.

It can be studied as a general oriented style with ornamental designs which
influenced ornamentation of medieval Christian architecture and art. Some of the
geometrical ornaments carved in rock and wood in Ethiopia churched during the
medieval period can hardly be distinguished from the corresponding Islamic
designs. The patterns show above, from the 14th century, are not from Ethiopia but
could easily be related both to its Muslim and Christian sides.
It can also be studied as the architecture relevant for those geographic areas.
Example, Harar, which are part of the present empire of Ethiopia but which had an
early history connected mostly with Islamic culture. Seen from this aspect , Islamic
architecture and design in Ethiopia has not been much published, but it does not
seem to be particularly different from that in other Islamic areas around the Red
Sea and Gulf of Aden.
 DESIGN RULES OF ISLAM
“Islamic art and architecture derived very largely from countries that were
conquered early in the outreach of the new religion.it should be remembered that
the making of any likeness of any creature was forbidden. So that painting and
sculpture were out off at the source. However, certain people notably the Persians,
never did fully accept the dictum against the reproduction in art and animals, birds
and even human angelic forms”.
“oriented art depict an ideal or fairy-like world of the imagination. Convectional
concepts of perspective are not accepted. Islamic art seeks for fineness of line, for
color harmony, and above all design”.

The term arabesque had become common in English to designate a design of

interlacing lines and figures that produce a pattern of intricate beauty. The designs
are used for such widely separated purpose as the embellishment of books or
decoration of great buildings. The Arabic script lends itself in remarkable way to
such decoration. the art of calligraphy was even more highly developed because of
the rule against portraying natural objects”.

“the Arab had in their native land at the emergence of Islam no monumental
architecture. Their buildings were for the most part of sundried brick, with the
trunks of palm trees as supporting pillars. They found however, an architectural
tradition with ages of development in Egypt, Syria and especially Iran. By
combining elements from these ancient cultures they developed an Islamic form
that is still one of the wonders of the world”.
 HARAR TOWN

Harar was probably found by a colony from Hadramaut in south Arabia during the
9th century A.D. the first Ethiopian king to conquer it for a while was Amda Zion I
who reigned in 1314-1344. It was the capital of Muslim rulers such as Ahmed Gragn
from 1520 until 1577. The surrounding city wall was originally built by Nur ibn al-
Wazir, a nephew of Ahmed Gragn, and is thus from the 16th century.
Harar was occupied by Egypt in 1875. It was conquered by emperor Menelik II in
1887 and has continuously remained within the empire of Ethiopia thereafter. The
Suez Canal, opened in 1869, created a new pattern of trade and colonialism in the
red sea. Harar became during a third of a century, Ethiopia’s main gate for
imported goods. Even a community of Indian traders who arrived to Ethiopia
around 1900 settled first at Harar.
 The present Harar consisted of the old Arab influenced walled town and a young
European influenced town on the western side.

ISLAMIC INFLUENCE ON ARCHITECTURE IN ETHIOPIA

The old mosque in and around Harar are largely in ruined and have not been much
published , so it is difficult to find literature.
The Arabic script on the seal of Aba jifar I , the ruler of Jimma in the 19th century
may here serve to remain about the Islamic influence also far in to the south west
of Ethiopia.
Massawa of which is only influenced a small view has along and important history
of connection across the red sea but regarding buildings there is little left of the
old original ones.
Harar itself has also absorbed influence from many directions. Ras mekonen own
palace in Harar can be called eclectic. Meaning selecting and choosing from
different doctrines or sources : liberal and broad in taste or belief”.