BY TEWODROS KASSA
Ethiopia is known with its vast cave heritages including the prominent Rock Hewn Churches of Lalibela. Caves can be both natural and man-made. During the ancient times, Ethiopians painted dozens of mysterious paintings on caves and left written footprints with ancient symbols and languages that are difficult to easily interpret now. These ancient paintings on caves are highly valuable to stimulate the tourism sector. In the ancient Ethiopian civilization, there was a significant habit of adorning caves through various paintings and expressing feelings on the walls of the caves.
However, in the past, cave heritages were not promoted and utilized at the desired level for the reason the attention given to these tourism blessings was low. However, efforts are underway to tap the untapped potentials of the sector through organizing all the necessary preconditions. Experts in the sector stressed that the country is endowed with incredible rock-cut churches and cave paintings, especially in the north, east, south and south-central part of the country, and embodying great architectural, aesthetic and artistic significance built over its past. However, these priceless cultural antiquities are frequently confronted with different threats. According to Tourism Ethiopia, one of the best but underrated rock-Hewn Church. Washa Mikael Rock-Hewn Church is chiseled out of a huge single rock and aged more than one thousand six hundred years old. The parish is dedicated to the Arc Angel St. Michael.
“If you are a MICE tourist in Addis Ababa, this place is a worthy visit to have a glimpse of the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela or the churches in the Gheralta Mountains,” it indicated. A maiden Ethiopian Speleologist Nassir Ahmed told the Ethiopian Press Agency (EPA) that he is motivated to conduct successive researches on Ethiopian cave heritages and promote it effectively to utilize for tourist attraction. From 2003-2015 he conducted thorough investigations on cave heritages found in the Oromia State. In this case, he put the detailed information of the caves and registered on Google maps that enable the caves to get international recognition.
Moreover, he published a book on caves tourism potentials that sought to provide sufficient information for the sector researchers and stakeholders. He also named the caves in his name. As he is well acquainted with the nature of caves, he provided descriptions about the situation of the caves and its air condition suitability for visitors. The description clearly explained every aspect of the internal and external parts of the cave. Thus, it gives special opportunities to discover the caves at any time. It also promotes local and international tourists inflow to the area and facilitates the tourism sector.
“The availability of wide and prominent cave heritages in the country has various economic values. Promoting the sector will have a significant role to expedite the sector’s earning if properly promoted and given special attention. Their socio-economic contributions of these heritages are still underutilized due to the lower awareness given to it,” he said. He further said that all the natural and man-made caves dispersed across the country could be used for tourist attraction, physiotherapy treatment, minerals exploration, among other services. The Ogaden caves located from Harar to Bale are the best examples for its vast mineral resources like granite. Accordingly, launching speleology education in the universities of the country will help to increase the sector’s professionals and researchers in the field. A research focused on threats to cultural monuments in Ethiopia conducted by Tsegaye Ebabey assessed that undertaking tangible conservation of rock cut heritages will play an indispensable role to attract more tourists who are interested in the discovery of caves and ancient human footprints.
As to him, there are numerous reasons why the Ethiopian rock-cut cultural antiquities have survived to this day. The primary reason is the nature of the rocks. The rocks from which the churches were excavated were initially impregnable and relatively durable to resist threats than their contemporary building materials. Second, most of the rock-cut churches are established on relatively stable environment which is not exposed to natural hazards such as landslides, earthquake and flood. The other reason is most of the rock-cut churches are living monuments which are still centers of religious practice that have indispensible contribution for the preservation of the churches. However, due to the bondage of time and the overlapping deteriorative factors, the then impregnable rocks are now gradually collapsing due to different threats confronting them. This situation forced them to work on values and ruinous causes and to take responsible preventions or interventions;
otherwise, the great antiquities can be lost within a short period of time. In addition, natural factors are the concrete threats that critically affect conservation of several rock-cut churches of Ethiopia. Natural causes include weathering activities such as high rain fall, flood and dryness, and biological agents such as plants, animals and insects.
In sum, the government and pertinent stakeholders should give due priority to the conservation of cultural heritages because they have a direct relationship with tourism development. An emphasis given to the tourism sector shall also be given to the identification, documentation and protection of cultural antiquities in general and rock-cut churches in particular. Creating enough awareness and successive consultations among the community and other stakeholders on how to manage cultural sites is significant for a better management of cultural values of the country. Cave heritages registration and urgent conservation activities should also be done to sustainably preserve the immutable heritages of the country.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 12 MAY 2023
