The Wonder of Lalibela's Drainage System


The Churches of Lalibela are rock-hewn churches in Lalibela Ethiopia built by king Lalibela to depict the holy land, Jerusalem. Lalibela built the churches by hewing monolithic rocks from the top to the bottom making the churches unique in the world for being the only buildings constructed from the roof to the basement, not the other way round as conventional buildings are built.
Lalibela is an astonishing work of construction but what more astonishing is the advance drainage system that all the churches have.  Most of the Churches are literally carved out of stone from the top part down to the basement making them below the surrounding landscape. We all know that water drains all the time from high elevation to the lowest and if it doesn’t have access to flow to the next lowest point it will accumulate.  We all know that even in this age basements have water problems because most of the time our basements are below the surface and we have to use advanced waterproofing to prevent water sipping into them and even deploy pumps to drain water out to keep our basements dry. Even though Lalibela’s churches are mostly below the surface they don’t have any drainage problem whatsoever. Every drop of rainfall or underground water in some cases flows out. The drainage system is so advanced it is not just limited to one building or two it incorporates all the churches and their surrounding landscape making an astonishing work of engineering by people who built the churches a thousand years ago.  



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