BETA GEBRIEL-RUFAEL

The "House of Gabriel and Raphael" is a hypogeum church which, according to some researchers, was excavated by pagans and then transformed into a religious site. The irregular shape of the space, composed of three rooms with no real religious symbolism, is evidence that the site was converted into a sanctuary. The impassable ditch, over which a recent footbridge has been built, creates a veritable fortress with cisterns, wells and probably other rooms whose usefulness is still debated to this day. Seen from the outside, the disproportionate façade, pierced by axoumite-style arcades and then by small, similar but slightly pointed windows, forms a strange whole. Access to the upper part of Bete Gebriel-Rufael is via a steep path leading to a single, low doorway.
The massive, coarser workmanship of this secular ensemble could date it to a period before the north and south churches. Perhaps it was intended as a safe place to store all the treasures awaiting distribution to the various sanctuaries. It's easy to imagine that the craftsmen "cut their teeth" here before beginning to carve the sacred places, which could not suffer from approximations. Inside, the main pillar is 16 m high. There are two chapels dedicated to Raphael and Gabriel, and an altar with an inscription in Guèze that is a dedication by King Gebre Mesqel Lalibela to the Archangel Gabriel, dedicating this altar to him.