Rod Waddington, Tigray, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0
Sacred Landscapes of Tigray: With over 50,000 natural, cultural and historical heritages, Ethiopia has some of the world’s richest heritage sites. Notable among these are the sacred landscapes of Tigray which include a large number of chapels, semi-caved churches, caves and caverns, dating from the 5th to 14th centuries and hidden in the folds of the mountains. These sites are a testament to a people and religion that has been practiced for centuries in a landscape that has little changed.
The landscapes provide important services in regulating air and water quality; are a refuge for biodiversity and provide barriers protecting people from natural disasters such as landslides, mudflows, or rockslides. Equally, these sites contain clues to help us better understand the history of the world and the evolution of species. Due to recent conflicts, there are fears that the heritage sites in Tigray and many parts of Ethiopia could be damaged.