Some 4 hours drive from Axum – plus a further 2 hours stiff uphill walk from the point where the road ends – lies the spectacular monastery of Debra Damo, situated on an isolated cliff top in one of the wildest parts of Tigray.
Damo is unique and unforgettable although, as with most Ethiopian monasteries, women are not allowed to enter it. Even so, there is a daunting obstacle to the monastery: the only means of access is a climb of 25 meters up a sheer cliff. Monks lower a safety rope which visitors tie around their waists. Then they use a second, thicker rope to climb with. Some may reflect, as they make their way to the top, that because of this arduous, dangerous ascent the art treasures of Debra Damo have remained intact through the monastery’s 1400 tumultuous years of history.

when the history channel is not showing yet another nazi documentary (yawn), it’s pure crack.

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