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.  



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Accidents don't Happen For A Reason They Give You A Reason

Image
Accidents don't happen for a reason they give you a reason. In February 2016 I thought I had it all. I was happy with my life, work and everything I do. Everything was going my way exactly the way I want it to go. I was in control. There were no surprises or misfortunes. Physically I was in good shape, I go to the gym at least three times a week, play basketball three days a week, swim almost everyday and mountain biking for two or three times a week. I juggle different responsibilities at work. My colleagues think I was working hard but I had never felt that I was working hard because everything I did was done with passion.  I was high with life, I was invincible, I was on top of everting until that cold February morning which paused everting.  On the morning of, February 16,2016  I had no plan to cycle or do some mountain biking. On the previous night, I had a good run playing basketball and it was a late-night pick-up game at the German Embassy school. S...
Read more

Old Lady of Lalibela

Image
This is about an old lady who had seen a lot in her days. She had been a child, a girl, a woman, a daughter, wife, mother, and grandmother. That doesn't matter anymore now she is just an old lonely woman. What is that she is thinking about? Is it the beauty of her youth or the fate of her Children? Is it about the loss of loved ones and the beautiful old days? Is it the love that she lost years and years ago? Life had been hard on her. Like her, the tree on her background all wrinkled and shrank with age. Like the old dead tree, she will be dead too soon. I wonder if she is worried about or cares about death at all. She is praying with her prayer stick close by but for what is she praying for? Is she really praying or drifting away in nostalgia when she hears the prayer chant of the priests. Chants that she has heard since she was little. Maybe she is doing both cherishing the good old memories and praying to live in paradise after death. I am sure her long years had never bee...
Read more

Reflection of a Half Century

Image
  Reflection of a Half-Century  Part One 1973-1991 The average life expectancy of an Ethiopian is 67.81 years in 2023. It had been as low as 46.13 years in the 90s when war and the high infant mortality rate kept it low. An improvement was made in the 2000s when basic health services managed to reduce the high infant mortality rate. I am living in the United States now which has a life expectancy of 74 years for men. That means I have about two decades to enjoy planet Earth. I am at the beginning of an age where you have more stories to tell. So that is what I am going to do.  Self Portrait 2023. Keeping a tradition of Birthday Portrait.  My generation has gone through so much in a lifetime that life reflects our country’s break from thousands of years of tradition to stumbling into the unknown, experimenting with ideology and theories that had not been proven to work with the country.  I was born in December 1973 during the last days of the last Ethiopian Emper...
Read more