Ethiopia

This is a gorgeous coffee table book. It’s massive (10” x 13.5”, and 2” thick). There are 520 glossy pages full of photographs. There’s minimal text on each church, just enough information to introduce it. Some of the photo captions mention fascinating tidbits that are worth reading (like notes on when certain images started being portrayed in churches. For example, images of the Deposition of Christ (Christ being taken down from the Cross) only show up after the Jesuits started preached in the country in the late 1500s). In a few cases I was disappointed by how few photos there were of a particular monument. Abba Garima, an important monastery and forbidden to women does not have a single image from inside the church, nor is there an explanation for this (like they were unable to enter/photograph it). In contrast, the monastery of Debre Damo, also off limits to women, has some excellent photographs of the buildings and ceiling. The photos themselves are clear with a lot of detail. It’s obvious a lot of work went into them (as mentioned in the 'notes on photography' at the back of the book). If you are interested in Ethiopia, the expanded Christian church, architecture or religious art, this book is worth the price.

Marvellous book with wonderful photos. Fascinating insight but helps that I have been to some of these churches and worked in Ethiopia for a short while.

El libro está perfecto. Ha cubierto mis espectativas.

This book is amazing and far exceeded my expectations. I could not find many fully illustrated resources on Ethiopia’s ancient architecture, or Africa’s ancient architecture for that matter, and stumbled across this book. Its sheer size is impressive at 500+ large pages.Its pictures are vivid and capture the beauty and imagination of Ethiopia’s ancient architecture all while describing each site’s history and deep rooted ancient Christian customs, in some cases describing a connection to Israel and the Bible. A little pricey, but worth it.

A visual feast.