We split the churches in to two trips. One afternoon trip and again the following morning.
It was a hiking adventure within an amazing tour of something that is truly hard to explain until you are in it. It was up and down, nothing even and lots of 900 old steps of just worn crevices to use as steps in the stone. Got my exercise.
We headed north for one more adventure. This is the area where most of the "troubles" come from. So once we were on the ground and moving we saw a significant military presence and several check points we went through.
Beautiful views as we went further up the mountain - roughly 8200 feet above sea level. A friend of Dawit's helped us get booked in to a very cool hotel for the night - with amazing views of the valley below.
We came to see the churches. Lots of theories on their ages and how they got built but it falls in the range of roughly 900 years ago - some say angels helped carve them. It is thought it was built as the second Jerusalem.
The part that makes it all so fascinating is that the are carved from the top down. Solid rock not structures that are build up with stone/wood.
Even got tuk tuk rides over to the site.
