Where time stands still

Ethiopia's northern highlands are a window on a land that time has forgotten. Over the course of two millennia, kings and emperors created a legacy of palaces, churches and monasteries.

Many of the sites are found in and around Lake Tana, Gonder and Aksum. However the jewel in Ethiopia's north is the poor, mountain village of Lalibela, set in a rocky and arid landscape dotted with groves of twisted olive trees.

Its churches constitute the most remarkable part of what Ethiopians call "the historic tour" - a several-day circuit through ancient Christian kingdoms that flourished in the northern highlands beginning in the 4th century. According to legend, Syrian monks crossed the Red Sea then and converted the Aksumite king, Ezana, from paganism to Christianity. Over the following centuries, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church spread throughout the country.

For decades, however, access to the historic sites, and to Ethiopia in general, has been subject to the vagaries of politics, war and famine. In the five relatively calm years since the end of a savage war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, its former territory, tourists have returned to Ethiopia.

Lalibela has remained essentially unchanged for a millennium, and its ancient Christian churches, carved out of reddish limestone by royal craftsmen at the end of the 11th and the beginning of the 12th centuries, remain one of the world's best kept secrets.

The largest of these churches, the 33-metre-long rock-hewn Medhane Alem (Saviour of the World), is roughly one-third the size of the Parthenon in Athens. Inside a priest clutches a 900-year-old processional cross. This national treasure, believed to have healing powers, belonged to King Lalibela - the ruler who is thought to be responsible for building the 11 spectacular churches in this mountainside town.

The priest shows me biblical texts written on goat-skin parchment as old as the cross. I'm struck by the detail and colour of the illuminated pages. There are images of Christ, the Virgin Mary and martyred saints. In other countries, these ancient relics would be off limits to the public, but at Medhane Alem church, visitors come into direct contact with history.

Lichen-spotted Bet Gyorgius, named after Ethiopia's patron saint, St. George, is Lalibela's most impressive monument. The church, in the shape of a Greek cross, was carved into a volcanic slope, creating the illusion of having sunk into the ground under its own weight. It also has what is probably the finest exterior detailing of any church in Lalibela and a striking courtyard dug around the outer walls. Inside a priest blesses suppliants, as has been the custom here for centuries.

A couple of days later I travel to the mountain-top monastery of Debre Damo, home to Ethiopia's oldest church, one established by Syrian missionaries.

My interest is caught by the 24-metre climb up an ox-hide cord dangling from the monastery's eagle-nest entrance.

Our guide climbs the sheer mountain wall effortlessly. By the time I reach the timber and stone gate, I am winded. "For you it was like 70 metres," our guide says with a laugh.

Maybe, but the trip down will be easier. In the meantime, led by a bearded abbot, we visit the stone and timber church. We are only allowed to view the cramped ante-room containing ancient biblical texts wrapped in fabric. Its floor is covered by prayers rugs. Hidden behind a heavy curtain is the main body of the church - strictly off limits to the 4WD crowd.

Our tour includes a look at the monastery's natural cisterns, used to gather water during the rainy season, and stone niches containing the sun-bleached skulls of dead monks. The monks here avoid contact with the outside world. (No women are allowed to set foot on the grounds of Debre Damo.)

In stark contrast to Ethiopia's northern highlands is the country's wild and exotic south, with its concentration of strangely beautiful micro-cultures, including the Dasanech, Bume, Karo and Hamar tribes.

The Hamar are widely considered the most beautiful among the inhabitants of the Lower Omo Valley because of their long limbs and graceful gait. Hamar women cover their tight ringlet hair-dos in a mixture of cow butter and ochre to create a shiny appearance. Add cowrie-shell necklaces and dazzling bead sashes and the result is stunning.

Many Dasanech women wear a feather inserted through a piercing in their lower lip, and elder women cover their faces and naked torsos with shiny, ochre paint. The Bume adorn their bodies with decorative scar patterns, and highlight their eyes and cheekbones with colourful dots.

Karo, however, are masters of body painting. They incorporate a variety of materials, including yellow mineral rock, black charcoal and pulverized red iron to decorate their bodies for feasts, dances and special celebrations. Heavy chalk markings used to imitate the spotted plumage of guinea fowl are a favourite design.

All the tribes in the Lower Omo Valley are fascinating, but the Mursi are in a league of their own. The women wear giant lip plates that are considered a beauty mark. This fashion statement attracts adventure travellers to the village of Hail Wuha, located on the edge of a red earth escarpment in one of the most isolated and inaccessible regions of Africa.

On our drive to the village, we see such herbivores as dik-diks (Africa's smallest antelope, about the size of a newborn deer), Grant's gazelles and gerenuks - whose long necks give them an appearance similar to giraffes. At one point we narrowly avoid hitting a magnificent kudu with spiralling horns that leaps across our path.

When we arrive at the village, Yohanes Tsegaye, our driver from Addis Ababa, says, "Remember, take only what you need." It's good advice because the Mursi are very business-like in their dealings with tourists.

Soon I'm surrounded by a crowd of Mursi women and children, who appear as a blur of floppy lip plates, painted faces, decorative scar patterns, naked torsos and animal skins. They tug at my clothing, wanting me to take their photos so they can earn a modelling fee.

Few outsiders venture this far into the Ethiopian bush, but those who make the effort to visit the majestic Omo Valley, near Ethiopia's borders with Sudan and Kenya, are rewarded with stunning scenery and exotic tribal encounters. (Before entering the Omo region, be sure to stop at a bank to stock up on one-birr notes so you can pay those nagging photo fees.)

New York Times contributed to this report

IF YOU GO

Getting there: Ethiopian Airways has several flights per week from Washington's Dulles Airport to Addis Ababa. For more information visit www.flyethiopian.com. Several other airlines, including Continental, Emirates, Alitalia and Egypt Air, fly from New York to Ethiopia with a single stop.

Touring around: Ethiopian Airways flies from Addis Ababa to all the main destinations in the north, Gonder, Lalibela, Aksum. It's the best way to go; the mountain roads are not in good shape.

Toronto-based Africa Adventure and Study Tours (AAST) Inc. specializes in adventure travel to Africa and Asia. A comprehensive 19-day package to Ethiopia costs $3,590 U.S. (land only, single supplement $495 U.S.). Details: www.africaadventures.ca, 1-866-564-1226.

Where to stay: Hilton Addis Ababa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital. Rooms begin at $195 U.S. per night, double occupancy. Details: www.hilton.com, 011-251-(0)-11-551-8400.

For more information about Ethiopia, contact the country's embassy in Ottawa by email at infoethi@magi.com or see the website, www.ethiopia.ottawa.on.ca.

Canadians can obtain an Ethiopian visa on arrival at Addis Ababa's airport.

Ethiopia's high season runs from October to May. The rainy season is from June to September.