^{page 1 note 1} Deutsche Aksum Expedition, vol. ii by Krencker, , Berlin, 1913Google Scholar. Abbreviated D.A.E.

^{page 2 note 1} Corte, Monti della, Lalibela, le chiese ipogee e monolitiche e gli altri monumenti medievali del Lasta, Rome, 1940Google Scholar. Abbreviated Monti della Corte.

^{page 2 note 2} See p. 23.

^{page 3 note 1} Kammerer, , Essai sur l'histoire antique d'Abyssinie, Paris, 1926Google Scholar.

^{page 4 note 1} D.A.E., pp. 96–106.

^{page 5 note 1} Ibid., p. 100.

^{page 5 note 2} Ibid., p. 107. The interesting subject of the cornertowers shown in this reconstruction is discussed below (p. 20). The remarks on columns and capitals (p. 37) are also relevant.

^{page 5 note 3} Ibid., pp. 10-30.

^{page 6 note 1} D.A.E., pp. 7–10, 105, 168–94. See alsoGuida dell' Africa Orientale Italiana, Milan, 1938, p. 274 (abbreviated Guida)Google Scholar. I must here acknowledge my indebtedness to this excellent guide-book on the lines of Baedeker through which I was first made aware of several buildings mentioned in this paper.

^{page 8 note 1} D.A.E., pp. 7 and 9.

^{page 9 note 1} D.A.E., pp. 7–9.

^{page 9 note 2} See discussion at p. 37.

^{page 10 note 1} D.A.E., pp. 182–94.

^{page 11 note 1} D.A.E., p. 105.

^{page 12 note 1} See discussion of friezes, p. 41.

^{page 12 note 2} De Vogüé, , La Syrie Centrale, Paris, 1865-1877Google Scholar. See especially pls. 15–17.

^{page 13 note 1} Clarke, Somers, Christian Antiquities in the Nile Valley, Oxford, 1912Google Scholar. See especially p. 90 and pls. xxv and xxvi.

^{page 13 note 2} D.A.E., p. 194.

^{page 13 note 3} Guida, p. 295.

^{page 14 note 1} D.A.E., pp. 195–8.

^{page 14 note 2} Guida, p. 203.

^{page 14 note 3} Ibid., p. 294.

^{page 15 note 1} Narrative of the Portuguese Embassy to Abyssinia during the years 1520–7, by Father Francisco Alvarez, trans. Stanley, Lord of Alderley, . London, Hakluyt Society, 1881 (abbreviated Alvarez), p. 119Google Scholar.

^{page 15 note 2} Monti della Corte, p. 154.

^{page 15 note 3} Ibid., p. 156.

^{page 20 note 1} According to some accounts, he reigned from 1110 to 1150.

^{page 20 note 2} D.A.E., pp. 108, 119–21.

^{page 21 note 1} D.A.E., pp. 112–21.

^{page 21 note 2} For plan see Monti della Corte, p. 156.

^{page 21 note 3} Alvarez, p. 118.

^{page 21 note 4} Salt, , A Voyage to Abyssinia and Travels in the Interior of that Country, etc., London, 1814, p. 302.Google Scholar

^{page 22 note 1} Alvarez, pp. 122–30. The writings of Alvarez make fascinating reading. He has been quoted by most writers on Ethiopia and I have refrained only with regret from quoting him again in this paper.

^{page 22 note 2} Rohlfs, , Land und Volk in Afrika, Bremen, 1870Google Scholar.

^{page 23 note 1} Raffray, , Les Églises Monolithes de la Ville de Lalibela (Abyssinie), Paris, 1882Google Scholar.

^{page 23 note 2} At p. 30, after referring in contemptuous terms to Ethiopia as ‘the protégée of London and Geneva, overthrown by the renewed power of Rome’, the author proceeds: ‘In fact, as at first in Aksum and Adulis, as later on at Gondar, wherever, in a word, we encounter something great, beautiful, or lasting in Ethiopia, we have to do, always and solely, with the expression of a genius and a technique which are foreign, not native.' This is apropos of Lalibela. Evidently the author was blinded by prejudice, for even his own text, defective though it is, provides evidence to confute so false a view.

The author claims that he and the other members of his party were accorded ecclesiastical rank by the chief priest at Lalibela and thus enabled to enter the sanctuaries of the churches. The priests would never willingly have allowed what they could only regard as a desecration, and must have submitted under pressure.

One gathers also that the Italian party despoiled the churches of some of their valuables. This amply explains the virtual impossibility, to-day, of persuading the priests to show their remaining treasures.

Among errors in this volume the most surprising is the mistaken identification of three effigies of saints from the Golgotha chapel (pis. xiv and xv). The accepted name of each is inscribed in Ghiz characters which are legible on the photographs themselves.

^{page 23 note 3} Findlay, , ‘The Monolithic Churches of Lalibela in Ethiopia’, Bulletin de la Societe d'Archeologie Copte, vol. ix, 1943Google Scholar. His chapter ii must be used with caution as it contains many errors.

^{page 24 note 1} A good general idea of the place is to be gained from Monti della Corte's Lalibela.

^{page 26 note 1} Good photographs in Monti della Corte, pis. VIII, IX, and x.

^{page 27 note 1} Monti della Corte, pis. xiv and xv, but see note, p. 23. I did not see this Deposition myself. The Italians observed also some smaller figures in relief, making nine in all.

^{page 27 note 2} The form of these altars is apparently copied from that of the small portable altars often preserved in Ethiopian churches.

^{page 27 note 3} Monti della Corte, pp. 58-60 and pl. xvi.

^{page 28 note 1} Monti della Corte, pl. xx.

^{page 28 note 2} Alvarez, p. 81.

^{page 28 note 3} D.A.E., pp. 136-40.

^{page 29 note 1} The dimensions given in the Chronicle are 125 X 92 ‘els’. If, as is believed, the el was about ½ m. this gives 62·5 X46 m. or 206 X 152 ft. The eastern end of the church had two additional chapels which were probably included in the latter measurement. Subtracting 2/7 of 152 on their account we are left with the basic dimensions of 206 X 108 ft. which accord well enough with the ratio 9: 5 required in a building of nine bays and five aisles.

^{page 29 note 2} D.A.E., pp. 136-40.

^{page 30 note 1} Ogee windows alone: Golgotha; Ghiorghis. Ogee openings with pilasters: Gabriel; Abba Libanos; Bilbala Cherkos.

^{page 30 note 2} Monti della Corte, pp. 84-107.

^{page 30 note 3} In Monti della Corte a photograph of this same interior is erroneously attributed to Bilbala Ghiorghis.

^{page 31 note 1} D.A.E., pp. 18-19.

^{page 32 note 1} Monti della Corte, p. 173.

^{page 32 note 2} This identification is not quite certain; the church mentioned may be another in the same area.

^{page 33 note 1} Mordini, , ‘La Chiesa Ipogea di Ucro (Amba Seneiti) nel Tigrai’, Annali dell' Africa Italiana, 2nd year, no. 2, 1939Google Scholar.

^{page 33 note 2} Copies in Cambridge University Library and the British Legation, Addis Ababa.

^{page 33 note 3} Azaïs, and Chambard, , Cinq années de recherches archeologiques en Éthiopie, Paris, 1931, p. 166 and pls. XLVIII and XLIXGoogle Scholar.

^{page 36 note 1} D.A.E., p. 26.