Tour Guide, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
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The story of Father Yemata and his Church in the Sky
One day in the 5th century AD, Father Yemata decided to take a walk south from his home in Egypt. The Red Sea wind on his back, he walked until the sands of the Sahara turned to the rich greens of Africa. Here, among Ethiopia’s northern mountains, he founded one of Christendom’s first churches, quarrying it out of the rock.
The church was known as Abuna Yemata Guh – ‘Guh’ meaning dawn, for locals say it dates back to the morning of all time. Stepping inside today, the church appears much as it ever has, painted apostles watching each other through mists of incense, puddles of melted candle wax on the floor and the wind sighing beneath the little timber door. It is a place of the utmost sanctity and tranquillity. That is, but for one small consideration – taking just three paces outside that same timber door means certain death.
Abuna Yemata Guh is a church like no other: perched at the top of a vertical spire of rock, with sheer, 200-metre drops on all sides. Father Yemata, it seems, liked a dose of extreme sports with his divinity. Getting to the church means toehold climbs (minus ropes), shimmying along narrow ledges, all the while trying not to look down at drops prone to induce squeaked requests to go home.