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83-631: Lalibela ( Amharic : ላሊበላ , romanized :  Lalibäla ) is a town in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia . Located in the Lasta district and North Wollo Zone , it is a tourist site for its famous rock-cut monolithic churches designed in contrast to the earlier monolithic churches in Ethiopia. The whole of Lalibela is a large and important site for the antiquity, medieval, and post-medieval civilization of Ethiopia . To Christians, Lalibela

166-523: A holy language by the Rastafari religion and is widely used among its followers worldwide. Early Afro-Asiatic populations speaking proto- Semitic , proto- Cushitic and proto- Omotic languages would have diverged by the fourth or fifth millennium BC. Shortly afterwards, the proto-Cushitic and proto-Omotic groups would have settled in the Ethiopian highlands, with the proto-Semitic speakers crossing

249-524: A pidgin as early as the 4th century AD to enable communication between Aksumite soldiers speaking Semitic, Cushitic, and Omotic languages, but this hypothesis has not garnered widespread acceptance. The preservation in Old Amharic of VSO word order and gutturals typical of Semitic languages, Cushitic influences shared with other Ethio-Semitic languages (especially those of the Southern branch), and

332-418: A Syrian influence. Stuart Munro-Hay notes that during the reign of Gebre Meskel Lalibela , many Coptic Egyptians emigrated to Ethiopia and may have assisted in construction of the churches, or at least those that date to his reign. Many foreign travelers such as Manuel de Almeida and Hiob Ludolf credited most of the monuments to Egyptian architects, with Francisco Álvares finding that many locals considered

415-448: A period of 20 years. In the map, many new location names and several verbatim descriptions were taken directly from de Conti's account. The "trustworthy source" whom Fra Mauro quotes is thought to have been de' Conti himself. The book of travels of Marco Polo is also believed to be one of the most important sources of information, in particular about East Asia . For Africa, Fra Mauro relied on recent accounts of Portuguese exploration along

498-788: A ship, or junk, from India crossed the Sea of India towards the Island of Men and the Island of Women, off Cape Diab , between the Green Islands and the shadows. It sailed for 40 days in a south-westerly direction without ever finding anything other than wind and water. According to these people themselves, the ship went some 2,000 miles ahead until – once favourable conditions came to an end – it turned round and sailed back to Cape Diab in 70 days". "The ships called junks (lit. " Zonchi ") that navigate these seas carry four masts or more, some of which can be raised or lowered, and have 40 to 60 cabins for

581-669: Is Italian for miles , a unit that was invented by the Romans but which had not yet been standardized in 1450. If miglia is taken as the Roman mile, this means the circumference would be about 34,468 km. If miglia is taken as the Italian mile, the stated circumference would be about 43,059 km. The actual meridional circumference of the Earth is close to both these values at about 40,008 km or approximately 24,860 English miles. So

664-751: Is a South Ethio-Semitic language, along with Gurage , Argobba , Harari , and others. Due to the social stratification of the time, the Cushitic Agaw adopted the South Ethio-Semitic language and eventually absorbed the Semitic population. Amharic thus developed with a Cushitic substratum and a Semitic superstratum . The northernmost South Ethio-Semitic speakers, or the proto-Amhara, remained in constant contact with their North Ethio-Semitic neighbors, evidenced by linguistic analysis and oral traditions. A 7th century southward shift of

747-579: Is an abugida , and the graphemes of the Amharic writing system are called fidäl . It is derived from a modification of the Ge'ez script . Each character represents a consonant+vowel sequence, but the basic shape of each character is determined by the consonant, which is modified for the vowel. Some consonant phonemes are written by more than one series of characters: / ʔ / , / s / , / tsʼ / , and / h / (the last one has four distinct letter forms). This

830-663: Is because these fidäl originally represented distinct sounds, but phonological changes merged them. The citation form for each series is the consonant+ ä form, i.e. the first column of the fidäl . The Amharic script is included in Unicode , and glyphs are included in fonts available with major operating systems. As in most other Ethiopian Semitic languages , gemination is contrastive in Amharic. That is, consonant length can distinguish words from one another; for example, alä 'he said', allä 'there is'; yǝmätall 'he hits', yǝmmättall 'he will be hit'. Gemination

913-501: Is called an abugida ( አቡጊዳ ). The graphemes are called fidäl ( ፊደል ), which means "script", "alphabet", "letter", or "character". There is no universally agreed-upon Romanization of Amharic into Latin script . The Amharic examples in the sections below use one system that is common among linguists specializing in Ethiopian Semitic languages. Amharic has been the official working language of Ethiopia, language of

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996-463: Is in Africa.' ልጁ Lǝǧ-u the boy ተኝቷል täññǝtʷall. asleep is ልጁ ተኝቷል Lǝǧ-u täññǝtʷall. {the boy} {asleep is} 'The boy is asleep.' ( -u is a definite article. Lǝǧ is 'boy'. Lǝǧu is 'the boy') አየሩ Ayyäru the weather ደስ däss pleasant Fra Mauro map The Fra Mauro world map is a major cartographical work. It took several years to complete and

1079-452: Is indeed the center of the inhabited world latitudinally, though longitudinally it is somewhat to the west, but since the western portion is more thickly populated by reason of Europe, therefore Jerusalem is also the center longitudinally if we regard not empty space but the density of population". (Text from Fra Mauro map) The European part of the map, closest to Fra Mauro's home in Venice, is

1162-477: Is known around the world for its churches carved from within the earth from "living rock," which play an important part in the history of rock-cut architecture . Though the dating of the churches is not well established, most are thought to have been built during the reign of Lalibela, namely during the 12th and 13th centuries. Unesco identifies 11 churches, assembled in four groups: The Northern Group: The Western Group: The Eastern Group: Farther afield, lie

1245-469: Is mostly heard as the affricate sound [ t͡sʼ ]. The rhotic consonant is realized as a trill when geminated and a tap otherwise. The closed central unrounded vowel ⟨ə⟩ /ɨ/ and mid-central vowel ⟨ä⟩ /ə/ are generally fronted to [ ɪ ] and [ ɛ ], respectively, following palatal consonants , and generally retracted and rounded to [ ʊ ] and [ ɔ ], respectively, following labialized velar consonants . The Amharic script

1328-416: Is not indicated in Amharic orthography, but Amharic readers typically do not find this to be a problem. This property of the writing system is analogous to the vowels of Arabic and Hebrew or the tones of many Bantu languages , which are not normally indicated in writing. Ethiopian novelist Haddis Alemayehu , who was an advocate of Amharic orthography reform , indicated gemination in his novel Love to

1411-547: Is one of Ethiopia's holiest cities, and a center of pilgrimage . Ethiopia was one of the earliest nations to adopt Christianity in the first half of the 4th century, and its historical roots date to the time of the Apostles . The churches themselves date from the 7th to 13th centuries, and are traditionally dated to the reign of the Zagwe (Agaw) king Gebre Meskel Lalibela (r. c.  1181–1221 ). The layout and names of

1494-513: Is reasonably accurate. Some of the islands named in the area of the southern tip of Africa bear Arabian and Indian names: Nebila ("celebration" or "beautiful" in Arabic ), and Mangla ("fortunate" in Sanskrit ). These are normally identified as the "Islands of Men and Women" mentioned under § Indian Ocean . According to an old Arabian legend as retold by Marco Polo , one of these islands

1577-544: Is said by both these and those, and that they had therefore sailed 4,000 miles". Fra Mauro also comments that the account of the expedition, together with the relation by Strabo of the travels of Eudoxus of Cyzicus from Arabia to Gibraltar through the southern ocean in antiquity , led him to believe that the Indian Ocean was not a closed sea and that Africa could be circumnavigated by her southern end (Text from Fra Mauro map, 11, G2). This knowledge, together with

1660-582: Is spoken as a first language by the Amharas , and also serves as a lingua franca for all other populations residing in major cities and towns in Ethiopia . The language serves as the official working language of the Ethiopian federal government, and is also the official or working language of several of Ethiopia's federal regions . As of 2020, it has over 33,700,000 mother-tongue speakers and more than 25,100,000 second language speakers in 2019, making

1743-503: Is unknown who provided him with the drawings. According to the Futuh al-Habaša of Sihab ad-Din Ahmad, Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi burned one of the churches of Lalibela during his invasion of Ethiopia. Sihab ad-Din Ahmad (Arab Faqih) provided a detailed description of a rock-hewn church "It was carved out of the mountain. Its pillars were likewise cut from the mountain." Ahmed then gathered

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1826-504: Is written is the truth, and there is much more than what I have written, and I have left it that they may not tax me with its being falsehood. And because no other Portuguese went to these works except myself, and I went twice to see them from what I had heard of them. I swear by God, in Whose power I am, that all I have written is the truth". Although Ramuso included the plans of several of these churches in his 1550 printing of Álvares' book, it

1909-482: The Bugna district . The rock-hewn churches were declared a World Heritage Site in 1978. There is some controversy as to when some of the churches were constructed. According to local tradition, in Ethiopia prior to his accession to the throne, Gebre Meskel Lalibela was guided by Christ on a tour of Jerusalem , and instructed to build a second Jerusalem in Ethiopia. Accordingly Lalibela (traditionally known as Roha)

1992-633: The Ganges , the Yellow , and the Yangtze are depicted. Cities include Baghdad , Beijing , Bokhara , and Ayutthaya . The Fra Mauro map is one of the first Western maps to represent the islands of Japan (possibly after the De Virga world map ). A part of Japan, probably Kyūshū , appears below the island of Java, with the legend "Isola de Cimpagu" (a misspelling of Cipangu ). The description of Africa

2075-476: The Giants . "As it is shown, Scotia [Scotland] appears contiguous to Anglia, but in its southern part it is divided from it by water and mountains. The people are of easy morals and are fierce and cruel against their enemies; and they prefer death to servitude. The island is very fertile in pastures, rivers, springs and animals and all other things; and it is like Anglia." Scandinavia is the least accurate part of

2158-640: The Philippines . The islands are generally thought to be mythical. The Indian Ocean is accurately depicted as connected to the Pacific. Several groups of smaller islands such as the Andamans and the Maldives are shown. Fra Mauro puts the following inscription by the southern tip of Africa, which he names the "Cape of Diab", describing the exploration by a ship from the east around 1420: "Around 1420

2241-478: The Sinai Peninsula into Asia . A later return movement of peoples from South Arabia would have introduced the Semitic languages to Ethiopia. Based on archaeological evidence, the presence of Semitic speakers in the territory date to some time before 500 BC. Linguistic analysis suggests the presence of Semitic languages in Ethiopia as early as 2000 BC. Levine indicates that by the end of that millennium,

2324-465: The monastery of Ashetan Maryam and Yemrehana Krestos Church (possibly eleventh century, built in the Aksumite fashion, but within a cave ). The churches are also a significant engineering feat, given that they are all associated with water (which fills the wells next to many of the churches), exploiting an artesian geological system that brings the water up to the top of the mountain ridge on which

2407-504: The total number of speakers over 58,800,000. Amharic is the largest, most widely spoken language in Ethiopia, and the second most spoken mother-tongue in Ethiopia (after Oromo ). Amharic is also the second most widely spoken Semitic language in the world (after Arabic ). Amharic is written left-to-right using a system that grew out of the Geʽez script . The segmental writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units

2490-809: The British cartographer William Frazer made a full reproduction of the map on vellum. Although the reproduction is exact, minor differences are seen between the Venetian original and the British copy. The Frazer reproduction is currently on display in the British Library in London. In this article, some images are from the Venetian edition and some are from the Frazer reproduction. A number of historians of cartography, starting with Giacinto Placido Zurla (1806), have studied Fra Mauro's map. A critical edition of

2573-521: The Ethiopian army recaptured the town. The town was recaptured again by Tigrayan forces on 12 December. On 19 December, Ethiopian state media announced the town was recaptured for a second time, though it was unclear when. In early November 2023, Lalibela was the site of fierce fighting between the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) and Fano fighters. The town is currently under Ethiopian control. The architecture of

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2656-469: The Ethiopianist tradition they are often transcribed with a dot below the letter. The notation of central vowels in the Ethiopianist tradition is shown in angled brackets. The voiced bilabial plosive /b/ is phonetically realized as a voiced labial approximant [β̞] medially between sonorants in non- geminated form. The fricative ejective / sʼ / is heard as a fricative ejective [ sʼ ], but

2739-527: The European section. A legend describing Norway and Sweden describes tall, strong and fierce people, polar bears and St. Bridget of Sweden : "Norvegia [Norway] is a very vast province surrounded by the sea and joined to Svetia [Sweden]. Here they produce no wine or oil, and the people are strong, robust and of great stature. Similarly, in Svetia the men are very fierce; and according to some, Julius Caesar

2822-636: The Faith by means of St. Gregory the pope, who sent them a bishop called Augustine." This account is likely based on the Historia Regum Britanniae , a famous book created in the 1100s that writes about the early kings of England, famous for being one of the first texts to include King Arthur . It outlines the same story stating that Brutus , the descendant of the Trojan hero Aeneas , flees Rome to conquer Britain from its native inhabitants,

2905-523: The Grave by placing a dot above the characters whose consonants were geminated, but this practice is rare. Punctuation includes the following: One may construct simple Amharic sentences by using a subject and a predicate . Here are a few simple sentences: ኢትዮጵያ ʾItyop̣p̣ya Ethiopia አፍሪካ ʾAfrika Africa ውስጥ wǝsṭ in ናት nat is ኢትዮጵያ አፍሪካ ውስጥ ናት ʾItyop̣p̣ya ʾAfrika wǝsṭ nat {Ethiopia} {Africa} {in} {is} 'Ethiopia

2988-592: The Lalibela churches are also accessible online. Amharic language Amharic ( / æ m ˈ h ær ɪ k / am- HARR -ik or / ɑː m ˈ h ɑːr ɪ k / ahm- HAR -ik ; native name : አማርኛ , romanized :  Amarəñña , IPA: [amarɨɲːa] ) is an Ethiopian Semitic language , which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages . It

3071-675: The Moors overran this country they wished to destroy these churches, but could not either with crowbars, or with the gunpowder which they exploded in them, doing no damage at all." In 1882, French explorer Achille Raffray was given an Ethiopian manuscript at Lalibela, which adds that the King Lalibela and his wife Meskal-Kebra brought from Alexandria (Egypt) and Jerusalem about five hundred workers whom we still refer to them as Europeans, headed by someone named Sidi-Meskal. However, according to Monti della Corte (1940) Raffray's translation of

3154-541: The Saxons, Saints Gregory and Augustine : "Note that in ancient times Anglia [England] was inhabited by giants, but some Trojans who had survived the slaughter of Troy came to this island, fought its inhabitants and defeated them; after their prince, Brutus, it was named Britannia. But later the Saxons and the Germans conquered it, and after one of their queens, Angela, called it Anglia. And these peoples were converted to

3237-449: The alphabet used for writing the Geʽez language. There are 34 basic characters, each of which has seven forms depending on which vowel is to be pronounced in the syllable. There are also 49 "wa" letters, which form compound sounds involving "w." All together, the alphabet has some 280 letters. Until 2020 Amharic was the sole official language of Ethiopia. The 2007 census reported that Amharic

3320-537: The center of gravity of the Kingdom of Aksum and the ensuing integration and Christianization of the proto-Amhara also resulted in a high prevalence of Geʽez sourced lexicon in Amharic. Some time after the 9th century AD, Amharic diverged from its closest relative, Argobba , probably due to religious differences as the Argobba adopted Islam. In 1983, Lionel Bender proposed that Amharic may have been constructed as

3403-480: The center of the world and not showing a physical location for the biblical Paradise. The maker of the map, Fra Mauro, was a Camaldolese monk from the island of Murano near Venice . He was employed as an accountant and professional cartographer. The map was made for the rulers of Venice and Portugal, two of the main seafaring nations of the time. The map is very large – the full frame measures 2.4 by 2.4 metres (8 by 8 ft). This makes Fra Mauro's mappa mundi

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3486-568: The characteristics of the traditional earth houses and analysis of their state of conservation. His report described two types of vernacular housing found in the area. One type are a group he calls the "tukuls", round huts built of stone and usually having two stories. The second are the single-story "chika" buildings which are round and built of earth and wattle, which he feels reflects more "scarcity". Angel's report also included an inventory of Lalibela's traditional buildings, placing them in categories rating their state of conservation. This rural town

3569-601: The church. The third text, in Ge'ez, appears to have been written during the reign of Lebna Dengel (1508-1540). Contrary to Raffray's claims, there is no mention of Sidi-Maskal or foreign builders in the texts. During the Second Italo-Ethiopian War , Haile Selassie made a pilgrimage to the churches at Lalibela, at considerable risk of capture, before returning to his capital in April 1936. Italian forces captured

3652-489: The churches contain significant Aksumite influences, as Stuart Munro-Hay notes that the church of Biete Amanuel displays a stone imitation of wooden architectural features, which can still be seen in some of the ancient churches of Tigray and Eritrea . The framed doors and windows appear as a repeated motif, since they seem to mimic the shape of stelae in Aksum , examples can be seen in the arcading of Biete Gabriel-Rufael ,

3735-757: The churches sometime during the reign of Dawit I (1382–1413). Its name was first used in a European publication in Fra Mauro map made in Venice 1457-59, written as Lalabeda . A Portuguese priest, Francisco Álvares (1465–1540), accompanied the Portuguese Ambassador on a visit to Dawit II in the 1520s. After Alvares described the unique church structures he wrote: "I weary of writing more about these buildings, because it seems to me that I shall not be believed if I write more because as to what I have already written they may accuse me of untruth, therefore I swear by God, in whose power I am, that all that

3818-407: The churches to be mainly the work of foreigners. However, Stuart Munro-Hay argues that since the architecture of the churches were built in the Aksumite style, the foreign influence seems to have largely been limited to "decorative techniques". David Buxton further attests to this by pointing out that "there are clearly signs of Coptic influence in some decorative details", however he is adamant about

3901-481: The churches. He concludes by stating that had Ahmad al-Ghazi burned a church at Lalibela, it was most likely Biete Medhane Alem ; and if the Adalites was either mistaken or misled by the locals, then the church he set fire to was Gannata Maryam, "10 miles [16 km] east of Lalibela which likewise has a colonnade of pillars cut from the mountain." The next reported visitor to Lalibela was Miguel de Castanhoso , who

3984-643: The city rests. Lalibela is also home to an airport ( ICAO code HALL, IATA LLI), a large market, two schools, and a hospital. According to the 2007 Census Data, the population was 17,367, of whom 8,112 were males and 9,255 were females. Based on previous figures from the Central Statistical Agency in 2005, the town had an estimated total population of 14,668 of whom 7,049 were males and 7,619 were females. The 1994 national census recorded its population to be 8,484 of whom 3,709 were males and 4,775 were females. Three-dimensional site scans of

4067-479: The convention of describing the continents surrounded by water within the shape of a disc. In one of the texts, the map includes an estimate of the circumference of the earth: "Likewise I have found various opinions regarding this circumference, but it is not possible to verify them. It is said to be 22,500 or 24,000 miglia or more, or less according to various considerations and opinions, but they are not of much authenticity, since they have not been tested." Miglia

4150-498: The core inhabitants of Greater Ethiopia would have consisted of dark-skinned agropastoralists speaking Afro-Asiatic languages of the Semitic, Cushitic and Omotic branches. Other scholars such as Messay Kebede and Daniel E. Alemu argue that migration across the Red Sea was defined by reciprocal exchange, if it even occurred at all, and that Ethio-Semitic-speaking ethnic groups should not be characterized as foreign invaders. Amharic

4233-523: The courts, the language of trade and everyday communications and of the military since the late 12th century. The Amhara nobles supported the Zagwe prince Lalibela in his power struggle against his brothers which led him to make Amharic Lessana Negus as well as fill the Amhara nobles in the top positions of his Kingdom. The appellation of "language of the king" ( Ge'ez : ልሳነ ነጋሢ ; "Lǝssanä nägaśi," Amharic : የነጋሢ ቋንቋ "Yä-nägaśi qʷanqʷa") and its use in

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4316-518: The crew of a French transport aircraft carrying supplies before releasing them a couple days later. These attacks significantly reduced foreign tourism to Lalibela, and by 1990 most of the tourists were Ethiopians. In early August 2021, Tigrayan Defense Force fighters captured the town during the Tigray War as a response to the invasion of Amhara forces into the Tigray region . On 1 December 2021,

4399-541: The doorway of Biete Maryam and the windows of Biete Amanuel . However, according to David Phillipson the presence of Aksumite style architecture does not necessarily imply that the churches were constructed during the Aksumite era, as Aksumite features could have been incorporated long after the fall of Aksum, but it does indicate a strong continuity with Aksumite cultural tradition. There is also signs of eastern Christian influences, particularly Syrian and Coptic. The pitched roof and linear moldings of Biete Maryam suggests

4482-657: The era placed east at the top, since east was the direction of the biblical Garden of Eden . Other well-known world maps of the time such as the Ptolemy map places the north at the top. Fra Mauro was aware of the religious importance of the east, as well as of the Ptolemy map, and felt the need to defend why he changed the orientation in his new world map: "I do not think it derogatory to Ptolemy if I do not follow his Cosmographia , because, to have observed his meridians or parallels or degrees, it would be necessary in respect to

4565-514: The major buildings in Lalibela are widely accepted, especially by local clergy, to be a symbolic representation of Jerusalem . This has led some experts to date the current church construction to the years following the capture of Jerusalem in 1187 by the Muslim leader Saladin . Lalibela is roughly 2,500 metres (8,200 ft) above sea level . It is the main town in Lasta, which was formerly part of

4648-574: The map depiction of the African continent, probably encouraged the Portuguese to intensify their ultimately successful effort to round the tip of Africa. Other than Greenland , the Americas were unknown to Europeans in 1450. Greenland is included in the map as a reference to Grolanda . As was generally the case among medieval scholars, Fra Mauro regarded the world as a sphere. However, he used

4731-683: The map shows the Arabian Peninsula , Persia , the Indian subcontinent including the island of Sri Lanka , and the islands of Java and Sumatra , as well as Burma , China , and the Korean peninsula . The Caspian Sea , which is bordering Europe, has an accurate shape, but the outline of Southern Asia is distorted. India has been split in two halves. Major rivers such as the Tigris , the Indus ,

4814-460: The map was edited by Piero Falchetta in 2006. The Fra Mauro world map is unusual, but typical of Fra Mauro's portolan charts , in that its orientation is with the south at the top. One explanation for why the map places south at the top is that 15th-century compasses were south-pointing. In addition, south at the top was used in Arab maps of the time. In contrast, most European mappae mundi from

4897-561: The merchants and only one tiller. They can navigate without a compass , because they have an astrologer , who stands on the side and, with an astrolabe in hand, gives orders to the navigator". (Text from the Fra Mauro map, 09-P25.) Fra Mauro explained that he obtained the information from "a trustworthy source", who traveled with the expedition, possibly the Venetian explorer Niccolò de' Conti , who happened to be in Calicut , India , at

4980-499: The monks of Lalibela and had a fire lit in the church, saying to them "let one of yours and one of ours enter there". A nun then threw herself onto the fire before being pulled out by Ahmad's soldiers. However, Richard Pankhurst has expressed skepticism about this, pointing out that the Royal Chronicles , which mention Ahmad al-Ghazi's laying waste to the district between July and September 1531, are silent about him ravaging

5063-693: The most accurate. The map depicts the Mediterranean , the Atlantic coast, the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea and extends as far as Iceland . The coasts of the Mediterranean are very accurate and every major island and land mass is depicted. Many cities and rivers, and mountain ranges of Europe are included. Two legends on the map describe England and Scotland . They talk about giants,

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5146-404: The native origins of these churches: "But the significant fact is remains that the rock-churches continue to follow the style of the local built-up prototypes, which themselves retain clear evidence of their basically Axumite origin." In a 1970 report of the historic dwellings of Lalibela, Sandro Angelini evaluated the vernacular earthen architecture on the Lalibela World Heritage Site, including

5229-420: The number of geographically distinct Cushitic languages that have influenced Amharic at different points in time (e.g. Oromo influence beginning in the 16th century) support a natural evolution of Amharic from a Proto-Ethio-Semitic language with considerable Cushitic influences (similar to Gurage, Tigrinya, etc.). The Amharic ejective consonants correspond to the Proto-Semitic " emphatic consonants ." In

5312-586: The rock half a millennium earlier, as fortifications or other palace structures between 600 and 800 A.D, during the days of the Kingdom of Aksum , and that Lalibela's name simply came to be associated with them after his death. On the other hand, local historian Getachew Mekonnen credits Meskel Kibra, Lalibela's wife, with having one of the rock-hewn churches, Biete Abba Libanos , built as a memorial for her husband after his death. Recent archeological excavations of Lalibela finds abundant pottery and faunal remains dating between 900 A.D and 1100 A.D, which indicates that

5395-422: The royal court are otherwise traced to the Amhara Emperor Yekuno Amlak . It is one of the official languages of Ethiopia , together with other regions like Oromo , Somali , Afar , and Tigrinya . Amharic is an Afro-Asiatic language of the Southwest Semitic group and is related to Geʽez , or Ethiopic, the liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox church; Amharic is written in a slightly modified form of

5478-401: The setting out of the known parts of this circumference, to leave out many provinces not mentioned by Ptolemy. But principally in latitude, that is from south to north, he has much terra incognita , because in his time it was unknown". (Text from Fra Mauro map) In another break from tradition, Jerusalem is not shown as the center of world. Fra Mauro justifies the change in this way: "Jerusalem

5561-425: The site was largely a secular settlement before being transformed into a religious center by King Lalibela . Pre-Christian carved animal friezes were also found on the lower walls of the nearby Washa Mika'el cave and Christian paintings were subsequently added on to the upper walls, suggesting that this region was still going through a process of Christianization during this time. Abuna Bartolomeo from Egypt visited

5644-555: The stated range taken in Roman miles is 86-92% of modern measurements, whereas taken in Italian miles is 108-115% of the current measurement. The sources for the map were existing maps, charts, and manuscripts, which were combined with written and oral accounts of travelers. The text on the map mentions many of these travel accounts. Some of the main sources were accounts of the journeys of Italian merchant and traveller Niccolò de' Conti . Setting out in 1419, De Conti traveled throughout Asia as far as China and present-day Indonesia during

5727-431: The three-language manuscript was almost completely incorrect. Utilizing the expertise of A. Van Lantschoot at the Biblioteca Vaticana, the discrepancies were clarified. The first text, written in Coptic (contrary to Raffray's assertion of Greek), is a brief statement attributed to Abuna Bartolomeo, dated during the reign of Dawit (1380-1409). The second text, in Arabic, is serves as a land charter confirming specific rights of

5810-416: The time the expedition left: "What is more, I have spoken with a person worthy of trust, who says that he sailed in an Indian ship caught in the fury of a tempest for 40 days out in the Sea of India, beyond the Cape of Soffala and the Green Islands towards west-southwest; and according to the astrologers who act as their guides, they had advanced almost 2,000 miles. Thus one can believe and confirm what

5893-423: The town shortly after. In 1968, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi accompanied by Emperor Haile Selassie visited the churches, the next year Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard would also visit Lalibela. During the Ethiopian Civil War , the town was the target of frequent attacks by the Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement (EPDM), in 1984 they briefly held ten foreigners captive. On March 3 1985 they briefly captured

5976-477: The tradition represented by Debra Damo as modified at Yemrahana Kristos." Since the time spent to carve these structures from the living rock must have taken longer than the few decades of reign of Gebre Meskel Lalibela , Buxton assumes that the work extended into the 14th century. However, David Phillipson , professor of African archeology at University of Cambridge , has proposed that the churches of Merkorios, Gabriel-Rufael, and Danagel were initially carved out of

6059-437: The various geographical features on the map, as well as related information about them. The depiction of inhabited places and mountains, the map's chorography , is also an important feature. Castles and cities are identified by pictorial glyphs representing turreted castles or walled towns, distinguished in order of their importance. The making of the map was a major undertaking and the map took several years to complete. The map

6142-458: The west coast. The detailed information on the southeastern coast of Africa, was likely brought by an Ethiopian embassy to Rome in the 1430s. Fra Mauro also probably relied on Arab sources. Arab influence is suggested by the north-south inversion of the map, an Arab tradition exemplified by the 12th-century maps of Muhammad al-Idrisi . As Piero Falchetta notes, many geographical facts are reflected in Fra Mauro map for which what Fra Mauro's source

6225-419: The world's largest extant map from early modern Europe. The map is drawn on high-quality vellum and is set in a gilded wooden frame. The large drawings are highly detailed and use a range of expensive colors; blue, red, turquoise, brown, green, and black are among the pigments used. The main circular map of the world is surrounded by four smaller spheres: About 3000 inscriptions and detailed texts describe

6308-422: Was a soldier under Cristóvão da Gama and left Ethiopia in 1544. Castanhoso states: "There are here certain churches cut out of the living rock, which are attributed to angels. Indeed, the work appears superhuman, because, though they are of the size of the large ones in this country, they are each excavated with its pillars, its altars, and its vaults, out of a single rock, with no mixture of any outside stone. When

6391-404: Was founded during the Zagwe dynasty , under the rule of King Gebre Meskel Lalibela (r. ca. 1181–1221 AD), although it is more likely that the churches evolved into their current form over the course of several phases of construction and alteration of preexisting structures. David Buxton established the generally accepted chronology, noting that "two of them follow, with great fidelity of detail,

6474-424: Was is not clear, as no similar information is found in other preserved Western maps or manuscripts of the period. This situation can be at least partially explained by the fact that, besides the existing maps and manuscripts, important sources of information for his map were oral accounts from travelers – Venetians or foreigners – coming to Venice from all parts of the then-known world. The importance of such accounts

6557-423: Was not created by Fra Mauro alone, but by a team of cartographers, artists, and copyists led by him and using some of the most expensive techniques available at the time. The price of the map would have been about an average copyist's annual salary. The studio of Fra Mauro produced two original editions of the map. In addition, at least one high-quality physical reproduction is made on the same material. In 1804,

6640-523: Was not eager to face them in battle. Similarly, these peoples were a great affliction to Europe; and at the time of Alexander, the Greeks did not have the courage to subjugate them. But now they are much diminished and do not have the reputation they formerly had. Here is said to be the body of St. Bridgit, who some say was from Svetia. And it is also said there are many new kinds of animals, especially huge white bears and other savage animals." The Asian part of

6723-477: Was populated exclusively by men and the other was populated exclusively by women, and the two would only meet for conjugal relations once a year. Their location was not certain and the location proposed by Fra Mauro is but one of multiple possibilities: Marco Polo himself located them in the neighborhood of Socotra , and other medieval cartographers offered locations in Southeast Asia, near Singapore or in

6806-475: Was spoken by 21.6 million native speakers in Ethiopia. More recent sources state the number of first-language speakers in 2018 as nearly 32 million, with another 25 million second-language speakers in Ethiopia. Additionally, 3 million emigrants outside of Ethiopia speak the language. Most of the Ethiopian Jewish communities in Ethiopia and Israel speak Amharic. Furthermore, Amharic is considered

6889-606: Was very expensive to produce. The map contains hundreds of detailed illustrations and more than 3000 descriptive texts. It was the most detailed and accurate representation of the world that had been produced up until that time. As such, the Fra Mauro map is considered one of the most important works in the history of cartography. According to Jerry Brotton , it marked "the beginning of the end of early medieval mappae mundi that reflected biblical geographical teaching." It placed accuracy ahead of religious or traditional beliefs, breaking with tradition, for example, by not placing Jerusalem at

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