Home Destinations Africa and Middle East Israel Jerusalem Sights Ethiopian Monastery

Ethiopian Monastery Review

Read our Jerusalem sights reviews. Or post your own.

Jerusalem Categories:

• Overview
• Sights
• Restaurants
• Hotels
• Entertainment
• Shopping
• Travel Tips
• Features
• Fodor's Choice
• Deals

WHAT'S NEARBY

• Sights
• Church of the Holy Sepulcher

• Restaurants
• Nafoura

• Entertainment
• Church of the Redeemer

Ethiopian Monastery

Fodor's Review:

Stand in the monastery's courtyard beneath the medieval bulge of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and look around. Views of the churches of Christendom crowd in. An Egyptian Coptic monastery is through a gate close by, and the skyline is broken by a Russian Orthodox gable, a Lutheran bell tower, and the crosses of Greek Orthodox, Armenian, and Roman Catholic churches.

The robed Ethiopian monks live in tiny cells in the rooftop monastery. One of the modern paintings in their small, dark church depicts the visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon. Ethiopian tradition holds that more passed between the two than is related in the Bible – where it is said that she came to "prove" his wisdom "with hard questions" (I Kings 10) – and that their supposed union produced an heir to both royal houses, who eventually brought the precious Ark of the Covenant to Ethiopia. There (say the Ethiopians) it remains in a sealed crypt to this day. The script in the paintings is Gehz, the ecclesiastical language of the Ethiopian church.

Get Advice From Other Travelers

• Fresh sights from the old city of Jerusalem
  0 responses; most recent on 09/02/2008, 10:32 pm
• Hotels Jerusalem/Tel Aviv
  1 responses; most recent on 08/16/2008, 01:30 am
• Novotel Hotel in Jerusalem
  2 responses; most recent on 08/12/2008, 09:30 pm
• What to wear in Cairo and Jerusalem
  6 responses; most recent on 08/12/2008, 10:58 am

Visit the Travel Talk forums for help on planning your trip >>

Buy the Guidebook

• 
  $21.95

• 
  $22

Get the Fodor's Newsletter

Read the current issue
For more travel ideas, tips, and deals, sign up for the Fodor's newsletter here. Browse previous issues.