Gishen Debre Kerbe Monastery
Gishen Deber Kerbe is an old monastery, probably one of the most holy sites of the entire orthodox churches in the country. Populary Known as the second Jerusalem,' this church claims to possess a piece of the 'True Cross.' In the reign of Dawit (DavidIII) (1382-1311)", Wrote Sylvia Pankhurst who was a renowned British scholar in Ethiopian studies, "a piece of the 'True Cross' was brought from Jerusalem to Ethiopia. This occasioned much pious rejoicing.
Apocryphal sources, oral as well as written, give different versions of the story. However, all agree on the central theme about the coming of the holy object to this sacred sanctuary. Hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians pay their annual pilgrimage to Gishen on the 1st day of October.
Gishen Debre-Kerbe Monastery is found on an 'amba' (a flat-topped mountain) 74 Kms to the north-west of Dessie. Viewed from air the amba has the shape of a cross as if nature itself has became Christain. The amba is cloven from the rest of the land by deep gorges, about four of them, Which diverge almost symmetrically to four directions. Looking at the cross-section of that mass of land and it seems as if it is made of layers of crosses. Dramatically, the top layer is much elevated to make its own distinct relief-apparently projecting a cross-shaped abma. All sides of the top layer are steep walls, about 15-20 meters high, making it totally unreachable. The stair-way, the only access up to the amba, was chiseled very recently and its more than amazing to think of chuch of that nature could be built upon such an isolated land. According to Merigeta Wolde-kidan Wolde Iyesus, an elderly chief and teacher at the church, the monks had to use a rope fastened around their waist to go up and down the amba.
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