Gishen Debre Kerbe

Ethiopia / Amhara / Weldiya /
 mountain, place with historical importance, monastery
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Gishen Debre Kerbe, also known as Gishen Maryam, is one of the ancient, most sacred monasteries in Ethiopia. It's set at elevation of 3,019m (9,905 ft) above sea level in Ambasel woreda some 80km (50mi) northwest of Dessie, Wollo. The cross-shaped Amba ("flat-topped mount") Gishen is home to four churches: Gishen Maryma, Kidus Gabriel, Kidus Mikael and Egziabher Ab.

According to some documents found at the church, Emperor Zara Yaqob (1434–1468) brought a piece of the "True Cross" on which Jesus Christ was crucified to Gishen Amba and buried it under the church of Egziabher Ab, where it remains to this day.

Meskel, meaning "Cross" is an annual holiday for Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church to commemorate the discovery of the True Cross by Queen Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine the Great. The celebration is held throughout the country on September 27th which also signifies the presence of the True Cross at Gishen Debre Kerbe. Thousands of pilgrims from all over the country and some from overseas flock Amba Gishen during the Meskel festival.
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Coordinates:   11°31'12"N   39°21'31"E

Comments

  • the most amazing spritual palce in ethiopia can be said. this is the place where the right hand side of the true jesus cross is found. also other real original spritual things are archived here. the mountain by itself has a cross shape showing God's work. wow nice place.
  • so nice
  • My wife and I climbed from the base to the very top in May of 2014 we left from Addis Ababa by bus to desse stood overnight at a motel then took a smaller bus which took us across rugged terrain for about 3 hours leaving us at the base of the mountain. Only my wife myself and another Ethiopian man who stated was a farmer but after reaching closer to the top of the mountain villagers were greeting him calling him Abba (father) we realized he was a priest. He was our guide and acompanied us all the way to the very top. We did not know the region we were totally in this gentleman,s hands. We truly believe he was God sent. Had he not been there the trek up would of definitely more challenging and according to locals in Ambesa country (lion). We visited during the off season basically the pilgrimages there begin sometime in Sept. So there were no transports driving up to the top. The priest took us off road and we basically had to climb the steep mountainside to save time before nightfall. Started off at 9:30am arrived at the top some time around 5:30pm. It was a unforgetting spiritual experience.
  • ኢየሩሳሌምን ይመኛል ሰው ሁሉ ግሽን አይደለም ወይ ግማደ መሰቀሉ። #የታደሉት በዛሬው ቀን ጉዞን ከተለያዩ ደብራት ተነስተዋል ባለቤቴን ጨምሮ እኛም የአመት ሰው ብሎን አገራችን ሰላም ፍቅር ደስታ ሰፍኖባት ግማደ መስቀሉ ካለበት ግሸን አምባ እናት ዓለም ቅድስት ድንግል ማርያም ሁላችንንም ለደጇ ታብቃን አሜን ይሁንልን ይደረግልን
  • Niko, can you please say more about how you traveled and organized your trip in general? How difficult and safe/dangerous was it?
  • አሜን
  • እናቴ ድንግል ማርያም ለደጅሽ አብቂኝ
  • Amy no any difficulty in Gishen except some waiting lines for some service even thus happened only in September and January but i want to tel u only one thing if u want to compare the challenges with spiritual satisfaction is like comparing 1 to 1000
  • Show all comments
This article was last modified 12 years ago