Debre Damo Monastery

Debre Damo sits on an amba, a flat-topped mountain with vertical sides, in northern Tigray, and the only way up is a plaited leather rope hauled down the cliff by the monks, which visitors climb hand over hand with a second rope tied around the waist, about fifteen metres of it. Women are not permitted, nor are female animals, a rule the community has kept for centuries. At the top is a plateau with the church, said to be one of the oldest surviving buildings in Ethiopia and attributed to the sixth-century saint Aregawi, built in the Aksumite style of alternating stone and timber with a carved wooden ceiling. Monks live on the plateau with cisterns for water. The site has been damaged and repaired at points in its long history.

What you actually see

• The rope climb - fifteen metres of leather rope up the cliff face.
• The Aksumite church - stone and timber courses and a carved ceiling.
• The plateau community - monks living on the flat summit.
• Cisterns - the rock-cut water storage that makes the site viable.

When to go

October to March for the track and the climb. The rope is used year round. Mornings avoid the worst heat on the exposed rock face.

Honest expectations

Women are not allowed up, which is absolute and long-standing. The climb is genuinely demanding and frightening for many, with a fifteen-metre drop and a rope that is hard on the hands. There is no alternative route. The approach track is rough and needs a four-wheel drive.

Nearby

Adigrat lies south; Yeha is west.