WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPH: NIGEL PAVITT
THIS PHOTOGRAPH IS TAKEN FROM ETHIOPIA: THE LIVING CHURCHES OF AN ANCIENT KINGDOM, BY MARY ANNE FITZGERALD AND PHILIP MARSDEN
There are few religious buildings in the world with a more spectacular location than the 6th-century rock-hewn church of Abuna Yemata Guh, in the Gheralta Escarpment of northern Ethiopia. The entrance is reached by a hazardous 180m climb up the pinnacle of Guh — some of it on an almost sheer rock face. There is only one small window; I photographed the priest gazing out as I made my final ascent to the ledge. He cheerfully told me that women and children attend mass and no one has ever fallen off on their way there. The view is as awe-inspiring as the murals decorating the ceiling and walls of the church itself.