Day Trip to Debre libanos

Duration

8 to 9 hours

Overview

This 9 hours excursion (extra 1 hour for lunch) takes you to one of the oldest and remarkable monasteries of Ethiopia. The monastery complex sits on a terrace between a cliff and the gorge of one of the tributaries of the Abbay River. None of the original buildings of Debre Libanos survive, although David Buxton suspected "there are interesting things still to be found among the neighboring cliffs." Current buildings include the church over Tekle Haymanot’s tomb, which Emperor Haile Selassie ordered constructed in 1961; a slightly older Church of the Cross, where Buxton was told a fragment of the True Cross is preserved; and five religious schools. The cave where the saint lived is in the nearby cliffs. The Portuguese Bridge, The Jemma River are also the other attractions included on this program.