In Photos: The Ancient Kingdom of Ethiopia

Debre Damo church

Debre Damo, a flat-topped mountain in northern Ethiopia, is one of the country’s most important centres of Christianity. This small, modern church is built in front of the grotto where Aragawi – one of the nine saints, or missionaries, who brought Christianity to Ethiopia – is said to have vanished. Saints were often attributed with disappearance, rather than death. The skeletal remains of monks, protruding from shrouds, can be seen in alcoves in the grotto walls.