While England was sealing Magna Carta, whole churches were being cut out of rock in Ethiopia.
The churches of Lalibela were carved downward from solid stone in the early 13th century, under King Lalibela.
The events
- Rock-hewn churches of Lalibelac. 1200 · Roha. Under the Ethiopian king Lalibela of the Zagwe dynasty, eleven monolithic churches were carved out of solid rock. Conceived as a 'New Jerusalem', the town remains a major pilgrimage site for Ethiopian Christians.
- Magna Carta1215 · Runnymede. Under pressure from rebel barons, King John of England sealed Magna Carta. The charter curbed arbitrary royal power and became a cornerstone of the ideas of the rule of law and constitutional government.
More amazing facts
- 1202 The Fibonacci numbers became famous through a puzzle about rabbits.
- 1204 · 1797 · 1815 The bronze horses of St Mark's in Venice are crusader loot.
- 1206 · 1227 The grave of Genghis Khan, founder of the largest contiguous empire in history, has never been found.
- 1206 · 1279 At its height the Mongol Empire was almost one and a half times the size of modern Russia.
- 1206 · 1209 Cambridge University is as old as Genghis Khan's empire.
- 1206 Al-Jazari's elephant clock put a whole world into one machine: Greek waterworks, an Indian elephant, Chinese dragons, an Egyptian phoenix and the driver's Islamic turban.