Words by Tariq Zaidi: Pilgrims surround the Church of St George in Lalibela, Ethiopia. Shaped like a Greek Orthodox cross, the Church of St George is perhaps the most famous of Lalibela's 11 churches. It was painstakingly excavated out of the rock, some 40 feet down, with hammer and chisel and built after King Lalibela's death by his widow as a memorial.
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Pilgrims waiting to emerge from inside a tunnel at Bet Girogis or the House of St George, Lalibela. This hand-carved, 12th century church is connected to 12 other churches by a series of tunnels, designed to protect medieval worshipers from attacks, but also to symbolize the movement of pilgrims from darkness to light.
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Here the priests of Lalibela look out of an intricately carved window of their church to the crowds below. Every church in Lalibela has a resident priest who wears ornate brocade robes and carries a large processional cross.
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A priest from a church in Lalibela shows off an illuminated manuscript depicting Jesus, St George and other religious figures. Behind him is an intricate crucifix carved out of stone. The 13 churches of Lalibela are home to some of Ethiopia's most sacred artifacts.
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In a prayer room at the House of St George, Lalibela, two priests wait for the day's pilgrims to arrive. Up to 100,000 worshipers travel to these medieval hand-carved churches during times of celebration, to be blessed by the priests and to touch and kiss the sacred walls.
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Pilgrims prostrate themselves in front of a tapestry of St George -- the patron saint of Ethiopia -- in one of Lalibela's ancient churches. Light shining in from the window projects a cross on to the floor, just one example of how these structures, hand-carved some 800 years ago, still work in harmony with their environment.
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Many pilgrims who flock to Lalibela spend hours, if not days, praying and sleeping inside the hand-carved churches. Up to 100,000 faithful, many of whom are blind or have disabilities, consider a blessing here to be something that must be done in one's lifetime.
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Pilgrims wait inside a darkened room, praying, meditating, chanting or singing. Light streams in through a hand-carved cross in the wall.
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A pilgrim reading a bible and pressing his cheek to the holy walls of a church at Lalibela. Up to 100,000 pilgrims travel to this devotional site every year, many of them on foot and without shoes.
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Two pilgrims emerge from a tunnel in one of Lalibela's stone churches.
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In Lalibela life feels largely untouched by the centuries. Two nuns, wrapped in devotional white robes and carrying prayer staffs.
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A group of pilgrims pray and read their bibles by candlelight around the churches. During the great feasts of the Ethiopian Orthodox calendar, such as Christmas Eve, all-night ceremonies can last up to 20 hours and many thousands of pilgrims, who have traveled here from all over the country, camp outside to be close to the action.