The roof of the 13th century rock-cut Church of Bet Giyorgios in Lalibela, with its crosses carved in relief, is one of the great iconic images of Ethiopia, and rightly so.

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The cross-shaped roof of Bet Giyorgis sits flush with the surrounding ground — you can walk up to the edge and look straight down twelve meters to the church entrance. The nested Greek crosses carved in relief look almost mathematical from this angle. The craftsmen who cut them got the proportions nearly perfect on the first try, with no option to add material if they missed. © A. Davey from Where I Live Now: Pacific Northwest, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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