3 CHAPTER 1: PRE AKSUMITE

ARCHITECTURE
Earliest Art (example of a cave painting in Ethiopia)
● Cave=Porcepic near Dire Dawa
● 400,000 years ago
● notable=exquisitely accurate rendering of animal forms –Antelope, Jackal, and hyena

Pre Axumite Arch

● Old days Arch
● The temple of Yeha (highly precise limestone blocks)
● Obelisks of Axum (Mysterious granite)
● The rock-hewn churches of Tigray and Roha

● Confusion about who designed and constructed

● Ethiopian history is majorly based on oral tradition
● No rich written documents with explanations
● Some scholars description= imported and full of influences
● whether the people of the Daamat (D’mt) Kingdom were indigenous to the Horn of Africa
(majorly Ethiopia and Eritrea), or they were Sabean people from the Arabian Peninsula in
what is today Yemen.
● Remains of the period's architecture are found exceptionally well preserved in
significant numbers around Yemen and almost none in Ethiopia.
● The landscape of the Yemeni region is more sandy and suitable for good
preservation; the Ethiopian landscape is not
● Problem of Finance and Instability in Ethiopia for significant research and
archaeological excavations
● Conclusion
● Daamat (D’mt) Kingdom; though indigenous it might be influenced by Sabean culture from
across the Red Sea

Ancient route from Axum to Red sea

Sabeann(Intermediate) Arch (500 b.c. to 100 a.d.)

Ethiopian-Sabean Period (500 - 300 B.C)
● Influence
● Strongest pre-Christian cultural influence= Bronze Age and early Iron Age
● The Semitic influence= ancient kingdoms of South Arabia (on N highlands of Ethiopia)
● Influences from the East
 ● South Arabians brought with them the Sabean syllabury
(modified version= script in which both Ge’ez and Amharic
(200 – 300 A.D))
● Evidence
● Sabean inscription on stone from South Arabia
● Sabean inscription altar found not far from Aksum in
Ethiopia and dedicated to the Sabean god Almuqah
● Techniques of carving probably originated the early
civilization in South Arabians
● Progression
● Sabean script becomes geez script
● Ethiopic script born around 200 - 300 A.D
● Character of Sabean script
● cu lines and circles or parts of circles
● many verticals
● Character of Geez script
● written with a blunt red pen
● broad down-strokes narrow sidestrokes
● towards the right
● written into stone
● essentially straight

● Characteristics of pre-axum arch

● precisely carved stone block buildings
● blocks laid out without mortar
● Typical examples:
● Temple of Yeha (60kms NE of Axum (30kms NE of the town of Adwa))
● Yemeni areas
● almost no houses are preserved
● because of the climatic effects, radiation, building material strength and also due
unrest between kingdoms
Model of a house
● found near Axum (1959) by archaeological excavation
● Made of burnt clay
● oldest preserved reproduction of an Ethiopian dwelling
house
● similar with the traditional hidmo type (flat topped) farmer’s
houses as constructed in Tigre still today

● Types of pre-axum arch

● Altars
● Inscriptions
● Stele
● Temples
● Secular structures
● Tombs
● Monuments (dated from the 5th century BC by study of the letter-forms used on
them (paleography) and seem to appear in Ethiopia at about the same time as
they do in South Arabia)

YEHA “TEMPLE OF THE MOON”

● Oldest well-preserved building
 ● built more than 2500 years ago, in Sabian times
● The earliest high civilization
● The oldest known sacred site in Ethiopia
● Yeha (the capital of the PreAxumites (Daamat (D’mt) Empire)) lies abroad
● Location Characteristics
● well-watered valley
● deep fertile soils
● Surrounded and sheltered by mountains to the northeast of Axum
● Use
● Later = converted and used as a Christian church for several years
● Arch Characteristics
● Construction mat= Masonry of dressed stone
● Regular rectangular blocks of silicified sandstone
● Found at Adigrat
● Up to 3 m length blocks were used to construct the wall, with no mortar
● Courses are equal and about one foot high
● Consists of a single oblong Chamber
● Area=18.5m by 15m and Height=12m
● Walls:
● inner and outer leaf with the short ends of throughgoing binders being visible
● outer faces appear to have largely escaped erosion and gives a very
sturdy impression
● 3 layers of stone
● Exterior layer= dressed smoothly and is long
● Second layer=not seen from both sides, not dressed or decorated, small
stones used as a core
● Interior layer =dressed smoothly
● thickness= 60cm
● Wall Characteristics
● Smooth
● superbly dressed with great precision
● Long well-cut blocks
● straight
● Tight joints
● Perfect corners
● Slabs of stone with Sabean engraving
● The floor tiles are precise (1m * 1m, 1m * 0.5m or 0.5m * 0.5m)

● Preservation of walls through time

● Due to the thickness of the walls
● Precision of stone blocks used in the makeup
● Were they melting the stone?.......Molded and shaped stones

OTHERS
● Apart from Yeha more than 30 additional Pre-Axumite sites are known
● Collectively named as Hawelti- Melazzo and
● Location= about 15km south of Aksum

Aksum Chronology
 700- 50 400/4 After
Post-
Pre-
400 Proto- Early
BC- Classi Middle
50- Late 700
Aksu 400- Aksu 150- Aksu 550- Aksu
End
BC Aksu Erecti
150 c
Axum From
550 Aksu
From AD of
mite 50 BC onmite 400/4 mite 700 mite
coinag
mite ADof Aksu
until
50 AD
Ezana
AD mite
Kaleb
AD
the mite to e until
the to
famou Kaleb the
conve Coina
s stele (The rise of
rsion ge
began begin Zagw
of ends
ning e
Ezana
of the Dynas
era of ty
Christi (630 -
anity) 1137
AD)

Axumite Arch (100-1000AD)

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
● Powerful kingdom of Axum rise (100-1000AD)
● Flourished in northeastern Africa( majorly Ethiopia and Eritrea)
● Capital= Aksum
● First civilization of historic Ethiopia
● Wealthy trading
● Strong military power (King Ezana around 350 AD)
● Spread of Islam in the 7th C. AD isolated Aksum, confining Aksumite influence to its immediate
surroundings
● Mid-7th C.AD= no longer a powerful state
● Disintegrated= 10th century.

ARCHITECTURE
● Geographic location and influences
● helped it to be safe from any open conflict with neighbors
● protected by the mountains of north Tigray
● rich in fertile land for agriculture
● Rich in stone for construction of buildings and monuments
● Location of their churches at high places
● Economical Influences: Trade
● Export= Gold, Ivory, Rhinoceros-horn, Hippopotamus hide and slaves
● Import= textiles, knives, swords, luxury goods, cotton and silk
● Gave Axum diverse cultures
● Merchants brought new ideas and goods
● Religious influences
● Symbols of Sabian religion “ the Disk & the Crescent”
● Decoration of Sabian altar= Architectural and depicts “Axumite type of window
carpentry similar to the patterns of the largest stales at Axum
● The pre-Christian period
● Little is known
● After the conversion to Christianity
● Two Christian Syrian monks, Aedisius and Frumentius, introduced Christianity to
Aksum in the early 4th century.
 ● Churches and temples were constructed and carved
● Construction Technique: THE ‘MONKEY-HEAD’
● Typical structural method of the Axumite period and in the later Tigray vernacular
architecture
● Walls
● made of small stone and clay masonry
● Had to be strengthened at narrow intervals with long squared timbers
● held by short round cross (pieces the ends of which became visible as rows of
protruding and smoothly rounded): “Monkey heads”
● Good example= Monastery of Debre Damo
● Window and door frames
● made of timbers cut into each other
● no nails but with shallow recesses and projections
● Construction Materials
● Axumite dry stone masonry Construction
● Large and squarely dressed stones at the corners
● Small broken stones for the main bulk of walls
● Slabs of slates or similar flat stones to cover the many narrow “shelves” which are
formed because the walls are stepped inwards at regular intervals (smaller
ziggurat types)
● Walls are much wider at the bottom higher up
● Granite:
● Used for walls, columns, bases and capitals, doors ,windows, paving
● For the massive flights of steps which sometimes flanked two or three sides of
the pavilions.
● Lime plaster:
● a thick lime plaster was noted on the walls of one room in the large tomb called
the mausoleum at Aksum(munrohay1989), Maryam Nazret.
● fixing stones on the podium of the Aksumite church at Agula
● not regularly used.
● Marble stone and sand stone:
● Adulis= main construction material was porous basalt (same material =stele at
adulis) or sandstone.
● Basalt:
● Polygonal blocks= used for walls
● cut cubes= assembled to form square columns.
● Wooden beams(`monkey-heads‘):
● Square horizontal beam setting the wall supported rounded cross members
embedded in the stone work and forming ties cross the width of the walls
● Design Principle: THE “EQUAL -EQUAL”
● Axumite architecture= simpler proportions
● “Equal-equal” - generates the square, the cube and the 450 angle and the
octagonal shape .
● “Middle-middle” - middle
● “Equi-dimensional” - different from the “Central symmetrical” of the European/
Byzantine tradition
● PRINCIPLE OF PROPORTION
● Proportion isn’t by “the golden section” but by straight forward arithmetical
counting of numbers and units.
● Like 2:3 or 3:4
● EARLY ETHIOPIAN CROSSES
● All four parts of equal length .
● Similar to the Greek cross rather than the Latin cross.
 ● Used on Axumite Coins
● Depicted in drawings/paintings, artifacts or as architectural motifs in windows and reliefs
● ARCHITECTURE
● Contribution fields= architecture and ceramics; original and impressive
● Origin= majorly indigenous, African
● This is because: there are significant examples of Axumite architecture in Ethiopia
constructed at different times during the mentioned period of the civilization;
● Types of Architectural sites
● Stele
● Palaces
● The Funerary Architecture
● The élite domestic buildings of Aksum
● Churches
● STELE
● The multi- storey symbol towers, erected during the 3rd and 4th centuries AD marked
the tomb sites of Aksumite kings (royal tombs) to add to the beauty or glory of the
kings and the kingdom at large.
● Decorations of the largest stele at Axum symbolize building structures.
● The door and the first row of small square windows can be read together as the
ground floor.
● Monumental Architecture (a high level of artistic ability, advanced engineering
and mathematical skills)
● Expression of the desire to build a multistory building
● This ambition is clearly stated in the stele 8 - 10 stories
● These giant stele (single pieces of stone), weighing hundreds of tons each, were
quarried possibly a few kilometers away from Aksum as there are evidences still today,
brought to the burial sites, and raised into place
● The largest stele= 33 m (108 ft) long fell (during an attempt to erect)
● the tallest standing stele= 24 m (79 ft) tall.
● One of the stele was taken to Italy by the fascist Mussolini and returned only years
ago, carved like some other stele to represent the facades of palaces, with false
windows and doors and other decorations;
● PALACES
● Basic architectural characteristic feature in Axumite palaces
● Grand entrance stairs
● Courtyards
● Strong and well dressed corner walls
● Strong stone buttresses
● Multi storey
● Examples Palace at Dugur

● Takha Mariam Palace

 ● Covers an area of 85*120m
● The palace is surrounded by a courtyard
● From the court the palace is Accessed by a grand stair
● Multi story
● THE FUNERARY ARCHITECTURE
● The Tomb of Kaleb and Gebremeskel
● Tomb under the false door

● MAUSOLEUMS

CHAPTER 2: MEDIEVAL ARCHITECTURE OF ETHIOPIA

Fall of the Axum and the beginning of medieval history
● Fall of Axum
● The emergence of regional (local powers)
● The emergence of external powers (The Arab occupation of the red sea coast & the
spread of Islam in boundaries of Aksum empire in 5th c. AD)
● Lost all the trade routes (vital part of her strength)
● Axumite port Adulis was sacked in the 640 A.D
● Axum’s trade declined
● By 643 A.D. the Arabs conquered Egypt and replaced Persians in South Arabia
 Post-Aksumite: The Zagwe dynasty and Solomonic Dynasties
● HISTORY
● Marriage between daughter of the last Axumite King Dil Neod and his general Mera
Teklehaymanot (The founder of Zagwe dynasty)
● Zagwae= Christian name of Mera Teklehaymanot which is Zewge Michael
● ‘Ze’ a Gize word and Agew which is the name of the place
● restored stability, made the central highlands Christian
● The period shows important religious and cultural activity
● “Lalibela” (devoted himself to the building of the churches)
● Often the only contact that Ethiopia had with the outside Christian world was by way of
Alexandria
● KING AND PRIEST LALIBELA (1157- 1197 E.C)
● famous monarch of the Zagwe dynasty
● claims of other churches built by Lalibela, such as Adadi Mariam close to Addis Ababa
at the pilgrim center at lake Zequalla
● study all places of Jerusalem via Egypt then he built 210 churches.
● wrote inscriptions found inside of Bete Michael and Bete Debre Libanos
● died near Bete Maryam while he was praying without suffering

● ARCHITECTURE
● Types of Arch.
● Rock churches – of the Zagwe dynasty
● The king’s tents and camps- of Solomonian dynasty

● ROCK– CUT ARCHITECTURE

● creation of structures, buildings and sculptures by excavating solid rock where it
naturally occurs
● Main use
● temples (like in India)
● tombs (like those in Petra, Jordan)
● cave welling's (like those in Cappadocia, turkey)
● religious worship places (like those in Lalibela)
● Firstly constructed= purpose of defense mechanism
● Royal housing or center of courts
● structure of walling in the thick structure locally called MEFERAREJA in BETE
GEBRIEL
● some materials found in BETE MERKORIOUS
● Rock more than wood and masonry buildings, because, the later were perishable and
easy to destroy
 ● King Lalibela received a vision telling him to build a new Jerusalem which would last
forever, and ordered the building of the churches in the 13th C.
● Early in king Lalibela reign, Salah- Ad- Din (Saladin) had captured Jerusalem,
and for the reason Ethiopians may have felt precluded from making their
traditional pilgrimage to the Palestinian Holy Land
● Today, a cloth – draped featuring the church of Golgotha is pointed as the tomb of
king Lalibela
Types of rock- cut architecture in Ethiopia
● The built-up cave churches
● ordinary structures inside a natural cave
● for protection or seclusion
● Example: Yemrehanna Kirstos near Lalibela

Yimrehane Kirstos: under a huge basaltic cave

Function
● first rock church in lasta area
● Church + palace of residence + tomb of the emperor yimrehane kirstos
● there are remains (bones) of tremendous pilgrims
Construction
● guessed to be between 1087-1127 A.D
● built in Axumite wood and stone construction technique from the ground within a cave
● wall is divided by projections and indentations which also reflect internal division
● columns = large, built up of stone with wooden bracket capitals used to support the
arches
● Windows of various styles (occupy large proportion of the wall), No window are alike
● three doorways in the north, south and west side
● wood came from the local forest and the stone, which looks like the Tekeze sandstone
from the surrounding quarries (guessed)
Quality
● Inside part = elaborated caved wood
● floor = beautiful sandstone
● Interior
● The nave
● The two aisles
● The 4 bays the columns with their details and
● The dome over the sanctuary
● Features of the area
● the forestry
● the surrounding traditional school
● the landscape

● The rock-hewn cave churches

● cut inwards from a more or less vertical cliff face sometimes using or widening an
existing natural cave
● In some cases only the sanctuary is cut into the rock and the front parts are
constructed or built -up masonry
● Example: Abba Libanos in Lalibela

Abba Libanos

Function
● built during “Zagwe”, reign of king Lalibela at the end of 11th century
● one out of the eleven rock hewn churches in eastern group of the entire compound
Construction
 ● carved out from a single block of granite rock
● excavation is started from south and proceed sideway
● separated from the surrounding land on only three sides
●
Quality
● good example for rock hewn cave construction
● roof is merged with the upper part of the cave
● the church is correctly oriented east-west
● minimum completed basilica-plan
● no basilica-section
● because there is no daylight to let in

● The rock-hewn monolithic church

● Built -up structure but are cut in one piece from the rock and separated from it all
round by a trench
● Found in the churches of Lalibela. Other countries have not constructed
churches in this particular manner
● Example:
● Bete Amanuel
● Bete Giorgis

Bete Giorgis

Function
● south west on a sloping rock
● Inherited some kind of Axumite construction
● Church, with three subdivisions
Construction
● Cross form and plan
● most technically advanced church in Lalibela and very well cut in good and even rock.
● Sophisticated details = wall thickness increases step by step as it goes downward, but
the increase is hidden because it is made when passing the horizontal band of the
exterior.
Quality
● Length width 12m height
● 3 monumental doors with 3x3 frames
● 9 Axumite windows / 2 of them blind on the ground floor
● 12 oval windows hewn into the upper part of the tower.
● There are 4 three sided pillars interiorly.
● There are : 3 shallow, 3 steep, 3 side steps to the main terrace
● Capital, arches. Domes, over the holy of holies.
● Interior = has arches of normal Lalibela type and also a dome but rather common in
churches in Tigray region

● CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ROCK CHURCHES

● Inspirations
● Blend = Axumite tradition + Early Eastern Mediterranean Christianity
● Rock hewn and based on Basilica architecture styles
● The first country to adopt Christianity = Armenia. Armenian Church plans model for
the Ethiopian type of basilicas
● Basilica (ancient roman building) :- a building with a central nave, column aisle on each
side and typically a terminal semi- circular apse. It is used as a court of justice, an
assembly hall or an exchange
● TECHNIQUES OF CONSTRUCTION
 ● Churches constructed = first carving out a wide trench on all four sides of the rock, then
painstakingly chiseling out the interior
● Popular legend has it that angles came every night to pick up where the work men left
off.
● Bete Maryam: contains a stone pillar on which king Lalibela wrote the secrete of the
building's construction. It is covered with old clothes and only the priests may look on it
● Two groups to the north and south of the river Jordan , with one church, Bete Ghiorgis,
set apart from the rest
● Twelve churches and chapels, including various shrines
● Four churches are monolithic; the rest are excavated churches in different degrees of
separation from the rock
● THE CHURCHES OF LaALIBELA
● There are two monolithic sanctuaries as one that have been recently found, which
makes the total number of churches to be twelve
● Divided into three groups, separated by the river Jordan

● The First Group ( first to be constructed + first to be accessed by visitors from the town
center) (connected with trenches and tunnels)
● Bete Medhane Alem in the east,
● Bete Maryam (sub group including Bete Meskel and Bete Denagil),
● Bete Golgotha (Twined with Debre Sinai) in the center and
● Bete Hawariyat (Twined with Estifanos) in the shape of trapezoidal.
● Well known and distinguished
● Bete Medhanealem: huge size and the large number of pillars both
inside and out.

● Bete Maryam: exterior porches and mural paintings

● Bete Golgotha: bas-relief figures, several altars and the presence of the
tomb of king Lalibela

● Bete Denagil: least impressive and lacking in decorations.

 ● Bete Meskel: smallest.
● Bete Hawaryat: golden colored roof, ways to the endless cave and the
remains of holy people
● The Second Group (oldest Aksumite architecture)
● Bete Amanuele
● Bete Abba Libanos
● Bete Merkorios
● Betlehem
● Bete Gebriel with Rufael
● Distinguished Axum character
● Bete Amanuel: projected and recessed walls typically Axumite style.
● The monumental facades: Bete Gebriel and Bete Abba Libanos (identical
to the Axumite style of architecture)
● Bete Amanuel: the only monolithic
● The Third Group
● The third Group there is only one monolithic isolated church, Bete Giorgis

Solomonic Dynasties
● King YEKUNO AMLAK
● Great advances were made in culture, administration and power, under a number of important
rulers (achieved in spite of the continual fighting with the Muslim sultanates)
● Capital = Tegulat
● Official language = Amharic
● The king’s tents and camps- of Solomonian dynasty
● The architectural history of the kings palaces after Lalibela and before Gondar. (1400-1600
A.D)
● King = white tents (more or less round)
● Others = long with a ridge.
● Large red tent = main reception hall
● King tent= sixty cubits long and over fifty cubits high, 27.5 x 23 meters.