My Choice Ethiopia Tour

16/10/2020

Visit Tigray, Land of Beauty with History

27/07/2018

If churches were assessed by their risk factor, Abuna Yemata Guh would be our new Sistine Chapel. Perched 650 feet above a steep cliff in Northern Ethiopia, ...

23/06/2018

21/06/2018

The largest lip plate measures 19.5 cm (7.7 in), and was achieved by Ataye Eligidagne, as measured in Ethiopia, in 2014.

A member of the Surma tribe that Ataye lives in previously held this record at 15 cm, but she exceeded it by 4.5 cm. She was photographed by Australian film-maker Abraham Joffe - this photo was included in the 2015 Guinness World Records book.

Normally worn for decoration, for the Surma people of southern Ethiopia the significance of wearing lip plates is a financial one. The process of inserting these plates (made by the women themselves from local clay, which are then coloured with ochre and charcoal and fire-baked) begins approximately a year before marriage and the final size indicates the number of cattle required by the girl's family from her future husband for her hand. For example, a plate measuring 15 cm (6 in) in diameter - the previous record holder - would require a payment of 50 cattle.

The practice of inserting large, circular clay plates behind the lower lips of the women is seen as a sign of true beauty. At puberty, the lip is stretched with a clay plate, and the size increased incrementally. A girl's goal is to reach a plate the size of a teacup saucer, or bigger, before she is married.

20/04/2018

05/03/2018

Travel to the Ethiopia, the birthplace of Coffee, and discover the hidden .

13/02/2018

Proudly a member of Ethiopian Tour Operators Association.

We are proud of our guides in creating exciting and innovative packages. Our travel guides are experts on Ethiopia and will offer ideas in a personal, friendly and efficient manner. You can expect the highest level of professionalism for every tour. Our service includes: Short- holidays and Honeymoo...

18/01/2018

Happy Ethiopian Timket

18/01/2018

In addition to the fasting and colorful feasting , the jubilant processions and the baptismal ceremony, coming as it does in the wedding season, Timket is also known as an occasion for romance and betrothal.

As the massive crowd sing loud with the choirs on the main scene of the holiday for the slow-moving priests who carry the Tabots (Arks), young men and women also accompany the crowd or even take part in the singing. They exchange looks of ‘I like you’ as they keep on moving with crowd. A young man throws a lemon to a girl he chooses to be his fiancee and by accepting his gift she would signal her interest in him.

This is how the traditional communication method has been making couples for the last hundreds of years. Though, today people do not seem to do such things the tradition is still being talked about with more humorous stories.

29/12/2017

My Choice Ethiopia Tour wishes you and your beloved ones a happy, prosperous, and successful new year ahead.

While thanking you for all the good things we had in the past year with you, we remain hopeful to get into real and more fruitful engagement in this new year.

21/12/2017

Ethiopia's Churches in the Sky.

21/12/2017

Genneta Maryam, Lasta

Hewn during the reign of King Yikuno Amlak (1270–85), this church has some of the oldest frescoes in Ethiopia, thought to date to the late 13th century. Its prolific art includes Ethiopia’s oldest surviving Old Testament scenes and images of saints, as well as New Testament themes. This photograph shows the church’s saddleback roof, decorated with a frieze of four low-relief blind arches framing a plain cross.

21/12/2017

Arbatu Entsessa, Aksum

This 1960s stone church is dedicated to the Four Beasts of the Apocalypse, but also the Tetramorph, which is especially venerated in Ethiopia, and represents the four evangelists. Matthew has a human face, Mark is a lion, Luke is a sacrificial ox, and John is an eagle. The walls and ceiling are covered with liturgical pictures originally done in warm earth tones but since repainted using a riot of primary colours.

21/12/2017

Petros and Paulos, Teka Tesfai

This church, like so many in the Gheralta range, is in a spectacular location: on a narrow ledge under an overhanging cliff. Once the only access was a 15-metre climb up a vertical rock face using foot- and hand-holds; now there’s a rickety ladder. The church is a built structure of wood, stone and mortar, but the sanctuary is hewn into the rock. The walls have some lovely late 17th-century frescoes in muted colours in the 15th-century style found at Abuna Yemata in Guh and Yohannes Maequddi.

21/12/2017

Abuna Yemata

A priest is seen looking out of Abuna Yemata church’s only window. Priests cheerfully tell visitors that pregnant women, babies and old people attend Sunday services and no one has fallen off.

21/12/2017

Abuna Yemata pinnacle

Abuna Yemata, one of the nine saints, chose as a hermitage the pinnacle of Guh in the Gheralta range, pointing like a finger towards heaven, and removed from the noise of life. He later founded a church hewn into the rock face. The entrance is reached by a steep and hazardous ascent with hand- and footholds in the rock. In this image, the entrance to the church can be seen on the left, about a third of the way up the pinnacle.

21/12/2017

Daniel Korkor

Daniel Korkor, atop a vertiginous 300-metre precipice, enjoys stunning views, even by Gheralta standards. Its two small chambers are said to have served as a monk’s retreat. Only the larger of the two is decorated. According to one of the monks, it once had a tabot dedicated to 13th-century abbot Abba Daniel, which now resides in Maryam Korkor. A niche in the wall opposite the entrance is where the hermit or monk would have sat. From this vantage point, he could see across the plains, where he came from, and the sky, where he was going.

21/12/2017

Yohannes Maequddi church

Also in the Gheralta mountains, this is the last of the great painted basilicas of Tigray. It is carved out of an outcrop of white sandstone atop a mountain that rises 230 metres from the valley floor. The first part of the vestibule, which is divided in two, has a shallow dome engraved with a cross. Inside, colourful frescoes of biblical scenes, portraits of saints, and geometrical designs cover not only the walls but the ceiling, too.

21/12/2017

Abuna Gebre Mikael

Getting to Abuna Gebre Mikael church in the Gheralta mountains involves jumping from one slab of rock to another in a mountain gully. The interior has two aisles and a central nave and its intriguing Gondarine frescoes are late 18th- or early 19th-century. Gondarine artists were taught by the Jesuits to introduce descriptive narrative scenes, noses, and facial expression. The palette of colours here adds stunning blues, purple, orange and grey to traditional browns and yellows.

21/12/2017

Debre Damo church

Debre Damo, a flat-topped mountain in northern Ethiopia, is one of the country’s most important centres of Christianity. This small, modern church is built in front of the grotto where Aragawi – one of the nine saints, or missionaries, who brought Christianity to Ethiopia – is said to have vanished. Saints were often attributed with disappearance, rather than death. The skeletal remains of monks, protruding from shrouds, can be seen in alcoves in the grotto walls.
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21/12/2017

Bete Giyorgis, Lalibela

Early-morning worshippers head for the most skilfully executed and best-preserved of the Lalibela churches, Bete Giyorgis (House of St George). It is chronologically probably the last of the churches, and legend has it that it was excavated after St George appeared before King Lalibela and claimed he had been forgotten. Its plan is the shape of a Greek cross, with each arm of equal length, a motif echoed on the roof, which is engraved with a triple Greek cross.

21/12/2017

Baptismal waters

On the following morning, crowds gather round a cross-shaped baptismal pool that represents the River Jordan, where Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist.

21/12/2017

The festival of Timqat (Epiphany)

Ethiopia adopted Christianity in the early fourth century. Today, the Timqat festival is the most important of Ethiopia’s nine major Christian feasts, taking place on 19 January to commemorate Christ’s baptism. In this celebration in the northern town of Lalibela, the tabots, or tablets of law, are seen being taken from various churches – wrapped in rich cloth and carried on the heads of priests – to a place of blessing. All photographs: Ethiopia – The Living Churches of an Ancient Kingdom (published by The American University in Cairo Press (£75)

Source: The Guardian.

21/12/2017

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/gallery/2017/dec/14/ethiopia-living-churches-africa-travel-photography-christianity

21/12/2017

The Living Churches of Ancient Kingdom - Ethiopia.

A priest is seen looking out of Abuna Yemata church’s only window. Priests cheerfully tell visitors that pregnant women, babies and old people attend Sunday services and no one has fallen off. (Photo by Ethiopia – The Living Churches of an Ancient...

15/12/2017

Celebrate "Gena", the Ethiopian Christmas, with us in the most celebrated venues of Ethiopia.
Call: +251 941 616561 / Email: [email protected]

Read more:
http://mychoiceethiopiatour.com/2017/genna/

« And the angle said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall to be all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, ...

04/12/2017

"My Choice Ethiopia Tours — Whether your needs are simple, booking a hotel in Ethiopia for example, or require more complex planning, My Choice Ethiopia Tours offers a variety of programs throughout the country." seniorleisuretravel.com

https://www.seniorleisuretravel.com/news/ethiopia-seeks-american-visitors.html

20/11/2017

Visit the churches in the Sky with us and you will never feel the same anymore.

All you need to know if you're planning on visiting the Tigray Churches of Ethiopia. How much will it cost, where to stay, how to get there and more - you will find it all in our comprehensive guide!