Image 1: The rock hewn, monolithic churches of Lalibela The 11 churches are a designated UNESCO Works Heritage Site and the big ugly covers were erected in the 1990's to protect them;Image 2: Entrance to the churches The churches were constructed as monolithic structures in the 12th Century by excavating the building out of the soft volcanic tufa;Image 3: Bete Medhane Alem (House of the Saviour of the World) The largest monolithic church in the world;Image 4: Inside the Bete Medhane Alem church The insides of the churches were excavated out of the rock and decorated;Image 5: Biete Maryam (House of Mary) All the churches are still consecrated and in daily use;Image 6: The decorated ceiling of Biete Maryam ;Image 7: Biete Maryam (House of Mary) ;Image 8: The entrance to the churches ;Image 9: Biete Giyorgis (Church of Saint George) Probably the most famous of the churches, it was the last to be built and the most ornate and finely executed of the 11.;Image 10: Biete Giyorgis ;Image 11: Biete Giyorgis ;Image 12: Landscape around Lalibela A bit of dust bowl in the dry season, but apparently all green when it rains;Image 13: Biete Abba Libanos (House of Abbot Libanos) ;Image 14: Biete Amanuel (House of Emmanuel) We were there in week before Easter - which in the Orthodox Ethiopian church is a week after the "normal" Easter, as the Ethiopian year is still based on the Julian calendar which is about 7 years of sync with the Gregorian calendar;Image 15: The Eastern Group of churches With the town of Lalibela in the background;Image 16: Biete Gabriel-Rufael (House of the angels Gabriel and Raphael) Which may, or may not, have been a royal palace built for King Lalibela, after whom the town is named;Image 17: Fasilides' Castle in Gondar Fort Built in the 17th Century;Image 18: Gondar Fort ;Image 19: Gondar Fort ;Image 20: Lion cages Apparently they were occupied up until the 1990s;Image 21: Fasilides' Bath They flood this huge outdoor pool every year for Epiphany;Image 22: Fasilides' Bath ;Image 23: James Bruce's library in the Qusquam complex built by Empress Mentewab in the 18th Century. James Bruce? He's the Scottish chap who "discovered" the source of the Blue Nile in 1770;Image 24: The ceiling of the Debre Birhan Selassie (Trinity and Mountain of Light) church in Gondar ;Image 25: The Simien Mountains ;Image 26: ;Image 27: An Erica tree Erica being heather of course;Image 28: ;Image 29: ;Image 30: ;Image 31: Leyla, Rashida, Joanna and David ;Image 32: ;Image 33: Gelada baboon Lots of these beasties in the mountains living in large family groups, grubbing for roots;Image 34: ;Image 35: Giant lobelia Lobelia rhynchopetalum, a species of giant lobelia endemic to Ethiopia;Image 36: ;Image 37: ;Image 38: ;Image 39: ;Image 40: ;Image 41: Lobelias, heather trees and old man's beard ;Image 42: The seed stem of the lobelia The lobelia flowers, produces this seed stem, then dies…;Image 43: Take away the lobelias, reduce the heather trees to a few inches in height, ignore the fact this part of the world is around about the 4,000m mark… And this picture could have been taken in the Pennines;Image 44: Lobelias ;Image 45: ;Image 46: Gelada and baby ;Image 47: ;Image 48: ;Image 49: A lobelia in flower ;Image 50: ;Image 51: ;Image 52: Walia Ibex An endangered ibex endemic to Ethiopia;Image 53: Walia Ibex Only around 500 are thought to be left;Image 54: Spiky leaves of the false tomato plant