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39-706: The Bagh Caves are a group of nine rock-cut monuments, situated among the southern slopes of the Vindhya Range in Bagh town of Dhar district in Madhya Pradesh in central India . These monuments are located at a distance of 97 km from Dhar town. These are renowned for mural paintings by master painters of ancient India. The caves are examples of Indian rock-cut architecture , rather than naturally formed. The Bagh caves, like those at Ajanta , were excavated by master craftsmen on perpendicular sandstone rock face of

78-598: A hill on the far bank of a seasonal stream, the Baghani. Buddhist in inspiration, of the nine caves, only five have survived. All of them are ' viharas ' or resting places of monks monasteries having quadrangular plan. A small chamber, usually at the back, forms the ' chaitya ', the prayer hall. Most significant of these five extant caves is the Cave 4, commonly known as the Rang Mahal (Palace of Colors). The Bagh Caves were quarried in

117-549: A similar type, but smaller in scale. Excellent examples are to be found near Dalyan , a town in Muğla Province, along the sheer cliffs that faces a river. Since these served as tombs rather than as religious sites, the interiors were usually small and unassuming. The ancient Etruscans of central Italy also left an important legacy of rock-cut architecture, mostly tombs, as those near the cities of Tarquinia and Vulci . The creation of rock-cut tombs in ancient Israel began in

156-460: A span of hundreds of years prior to the 5th century CE. Emphasis here was more on the interiors than the exteriors. Another extensive site of rock-cut architecture is in Lalibela , a town in northern Ethiopia . The area contains numerous Orthodox churches in three dimensions, as at Ellora, that were carved out of the rock. These structures, which date from the 12th and 13th centuries CE and which are

195-524: Is clearly a pseudonym (Taddesse Tamrat translates it as "The Unknown, the hidden one"), employed soon after his reign by the victorious Solomonic rulers in an act of damnatio memoriae . Taddesse Tamrat believes that this last ruler was actually Yetbarak . The end of the Zagwe came when Yekuno Amlak , who never personally claimed to be descendant of Dil Na'od or King Solomon, and acting under the guidance of either Saint Tekle Haymanot or Saint Iyasus Mo'a , pursued

234-546: Is credited with having ordered the construction of the rock-hewn monolithic churches of Lalibela . The name "Zagwe" is thought to derive from the ancient Ge'ez phrase Ze- Agaw , meaning "of the Agaw", in reference to the Mara Tekle Haymanot, the founder of the dynasty. This term does not appear in contemporary sources, neither in indigenous documents nor in accounts of foreign observers. David Buxton has stated that

273-717: Is missing, his Badwani copperplate inscription is dated in the year (Gupta era) 167 (487); the repair of Cave 2 took place in the late 5th century. In the Mumbai area: In the Junnar area: Rock-cut architecture A related term, monolithic architecture , refers to free-standing structures made of a single piece of material. Monolithic architecture is often rock-cut, as in the Ellora Kailasanathar Temple , but monolithic structures may also be cast of artificial material, such as concrete . The largest monolithic statue in

312-413: Is the best preserved cave, also known as "Pandava Cave" These paintings are materialistic rather than spiritualistic. Characteristics of paintings are like those of Ajanta Caves . The ground prepared was a reddish-brown gritty and thick mud plaster, laid out on the walls and ceilings. Over the plaster, lime-priming was done, on which these paintings were executed. Some of the most beautiful paintings were on

351-506: The c.  3,000 B.C. Dwarfie Stane on the Orkney island of Hoy, were cut directly from the rock, rather than constructed from stone blocks. Alteration of naturally formed caverns, although distinct from completely carved structures in the strict sense, date back to the neolithic period on several Mediterranean islands e.g. Malta ( Hypogeum of Ħal-Saflieni ), Sardinia (Anghelu Ruju, built between 3,000 and 1,500 BCE) and others. During

390-614: The 19th Dynasty (ca. 1280 BCE), and consists of a monumentally scaled facade carved out of the cliff and a set of interior chambers that form its sanctuary. In the 8th century, the Phrygians started some of the earliest rock-cut monuments, such as the Midas monument (700 BCE), dedicated to the famous Phrygian king Midas . In the 5th century BCE, the Lycians , who inhabited southern Anatolia (now Turkey ) built hundreds of rock-cut tombs of

429-870: The Ajanta Caves . The most laborious and imposing rock-cut architecture is the excavation of tall free-standing monolithic structures entirely below the surface level of the surrounding rock, in a large excavated hole around the structure. Ellora in India and the Zagwe -built Lalibela in Ethiopia provide some of the most famous examples of such structures. Many parts of the world feature rock reliefs , relief sculptures carved into rock faces, often outside caves. Ancient monuments of rock-cut architecture are widespread in several regions of world. A small number of Neolithic tombs in Europe, such as

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468-838: The Bronze Age , Nubian ancestors of the Kingdom of Kush built speos between 3700 and 3250 BCE. This greatly influenced the architecture of the New kingdom . Large-scale rock-cut structures were built in Ancient Egypt . Among these monuments was the Great Temple of Ramesses II , known as Abu Simbel , located along the Nile in Nubia , near the borders of Sudan about 300 kilometers from Aswan in Egypt . It dates from about

507-509: The Buddhist monks and consisted mostly of multi-storey buildings carved into the mountain face to contain living and sleeping quarters, kitchens, and monastic spaces. Some of these monastic caves had shrines in them to the Buddha, bodhisattvas and saints. As time progressed, the interiors became more elaborate and systematized; surfaces were often decorated with paintings, such as those at Ajanta . At

546-524: The Nabataean city of Petra , in modern Jordan , extended the Western Asian tradition, carving their temples and tombs into the yellowish-orange rock that defines the canyons and gullies of the region. These structures, dating from 1st century BCE to about 2nd century CE, are particularly important in the history of architecture given their experimental forms. Here too, because the structures served as tombs,

585-579: The companions of the Prophet briefly lived in Ethiopia in 622 after being exiled from Mecca in the First Hijra . However, there is no archaeological evidence for this. There is, however, evidence for a Muslim community in eastern Tigray during the Zagwe period, possibly being Shiites depending on Fatimid patronage. Arabic funerary steles discovered near Qwiha confirm the presence of a Musli settlement between

624-472: The 10th and 12th century, although its whereabouts are still unclear. Recent excavations at nearby Bilet found a Muslim cemetery in use from the late 10th to the mid-13th century, although most tombstones date to the 11th century. The nisbas of the deceased suggest links with Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula , and even Iran. Another Islamic cemetery was found at Arra 30 km southwards and was used between

663-684: The 5th-6th century AD, in the very late stages of Buddhism in India, and long after most of the Indian Buddhist caves had been built, many of them since the 2nd or 1st centuries BCE. They are believed to have been built during the 5th-7th century. The Archaeological Survey of India has restored the caves over 17 years. The paintings on the wall and ceilings of the Vihara s of Bagh, the fragments of which are still visible in Cave 3 and Cave 4 (remnants seen also in Caves 2, 5 and 7), were executed in tempera. Cave 2

702-567: The 8th-century BCE and continued through the Byzantine period. The Tomb of Absalom was constructed in the 1st century CE in the Kidron Valley of Jerusalem . Rock-cut architecture occupies a particularly important place in the history of Indian Architecture. The earliest instances of Indian rock-cut architecture , the Barabar caves , date from about the 3rd to the 2nd century BCE. They were built by

741-456: The Agaw laws of inheritance . According to one tradition, around 960, Queen Gudit destroyed the remnants of the Kingdom of Aksum , causing a shift in its temporal power centre that later regrouped more to the south. For 40 years she ruled over what remained of the kingdom, eventually passing on the throne to her descendants, with Mara marrying the daughter of the last king of Aksum, Dil Na'od . According to other Ethiopian traditional accounts,

780-548: The Patriarch is asked for a new abuna because the current office holder was too old, was from Mara Takla Haymanot, who wanted the abuna replaced because he would not endorse the new dynasty. The mystery of the Zagwe dynasty is perhaps darkest around its replacement by the Solomonic dynasty under Yekuno Amlak. The name of the last Zagwe king is lost—the surviving chronicles and oral traditions give his name as Za-Ilmaknun , which

819-530: The ancient and early medieval frescoes in such locations as Bamyan Caves in Afghanistan with the most ancient known oil paintings in the world from 8th century CE, Ajanta Caves in India with well preserved tempera paintings from 2nd century BCE, Christian frescoes on Churches of Göreme, Turkey and numerous other monuments in Asia, Europe and Africa. Zagwe dynasty The Zagwe dynasty ( Amharic : ዛጔ መንግሥት )

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858-470: The areas under the direct rule of the Zagwe kings apart from the centre of power in Lasta "probably embraced the highlands of modern Eritrea , Tigray , Wag and Bete Amhara and thence westwards towards Lake Tana ( Begemder )." Unlike the practice of later rulers of Ethiopia, Taddesse Tamrat argues that under the Zagwe dynasty the order of succession was that of brother succeeding brother as king, based on

897-467: The beginning of the 7th century Hindu rock-cut temples began to be constructed at Ellora. Unlike most previous examples of rock-cut architecture which consisted of a facade plus an interior, these temples were complete three-dimensional buildings created by carving away the hillside. They required several generations of planning and coordination to complete. Other major examples of rock-cut architecture in India are at Ajanta and Pataleshwar . Artisans in

936-577: The contemporary powers of the Mediterranean. The only regular relations seem to have been maintained with Egypt and Jerusalem. Although their presence is often claimed to have been of considerable antiquity, it is only in the 11th and 12th centuries when Ethiopians are firmly attested to have lived in Egypt. A rare testament for their presence during the reign of the Zagwe is a fragmentary manuscript written in Ge'ez that

975-533: The early 10th century when the power of the Solomonic line was in decline. Enno Littmann theorized that these kings were forerunners of the Zagwe dynasty and E.A. Wallis Budge believed they may have even founded the Zagwe line. The Zagwe period is still shrouded in mystery; even the number of kings in this dynasty is disputed. Some sources (such as the Paris Chronicle, and manuscripts Bruce 88, 91, and 93) give

1014-685: The interiors were rather perfunctory. In Petra one even finds a theater where the seats are cut out of the rock. The technological skills associated with making these complex structures moved into China along the trade routes. The Longmen Grottoes , the Mogao Caves , and the Yungang Grottoes consist of hundreds of caves many with statues of Buddha in them. Most were built between 460 and 525 CE. There are extensive rock-cut buildings, including houses and churches in Cappadocia , Turkey. They were built over

1053-520: The land grant by king Tantawedem is to be believed, its dispossession by the Zagwe. Surviving chronicles and manuscripts show variation in the number of kings and their individual length of reign. There are three main versions of the Zagwe line that are recorded, known as the 'short', 'long' and 'longer' lists. Example list recorded by Pedro Páez contains 5 names. Approximate dates: c. 1179–1270 (141 years). Example list below recorded by Carlo Conti Rossini contains 11 names. This version of

1092-431: The land grant of king Tantawedem in c. 1030. Lalibela's land grants are the last time hasani is associated with the king. By the reign of Amda Seyon in the first half of the 14th century it was used to denote a provincial governor. Like the kings of Aksum who preceded them, the Zagwe kings bore three names: a baptismal name, a regnal name and finally the surname. Unlike Aksum, the Zagwe were virtually unknown to

1131-522: The last king of the Zagwe and killed him at the Battle of Ansata . In his land grants of 1204 and 1225, Lalibela called himself negus ("king"), which was the traditional title for Ethiopian kings. Besides negus he also called himself hasani , which means as much as "tutor", "nurse" or "counselor". This title first appeared in a 10th-century account by Ibn Hawqal describing an anonymous Ethiopian king, but also features in two undated Ge'ez inscriptions and

1170-402: The last of her dynasty was overthrown by Mara Takla Haymanot in 1137. Still more, according to another tradition, Mara was born in the province of Lasta , which was his power base. Originally a general of Dil Na'od, whose daughter Masoba Warq became his wife, Mara overthrew his father-in-law to found the new dynasty. James Bruce , on the other hand, presents another tradition that Dil Na'od

1209-504: The last significant examples of this architectural form, ranks as among the most magnificent examples of rock-cut architecture in the world, with both interior and exterior brought to fruition. Ancient rock cut tombs, temples and monasteries often have been adorned with frescoes and reliefs. The high resistance of natural cliff, skilled use of plaster and constant microclimate often have helped to preserve this art in better condition than in conventional buildings. Such exceptional examples are

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1248-583: The mid-12th and mid-14th century, with most tombstones dating to the 13th century. A now broken frieze with a Kufic inscription stored in the Wukro Chirkos church probably dates to the second half of the 11th century and may have originally been from a mosque, perhaps sponsored by the Fatimid Caliphate . Tigray's Muslim community declined from the 12th century because of the collapse of the Fatimids and, if

1287-536: The names of eleven kings who ruled for 354 years; others (among them the book Pedro Páez and Manuel de Almeida saw at Axum ) list only five who ruled 143. Paul B. Henze reports the existence of at least one list containing 16 names. According to Carlo Conti Rossini , the shorter mooted length of this dynasty is the more likely one. He argues that a letter received by the Patriarch of Alexandria John V shortly before 1150 from an unnamed Ethiopian monarch, in which

1326-487: The people of Welkait rebelled and laid waste to Axum , and in response he carried off large numbers of cattle and other animals from them. Dan'el then went to the country of the Maya and took 10,000 sheep and 3,000 cattle. The third inscription tells of how Dan'el went to Axum after his campaigns to be acknowledged as king and imprisoned the old king. It is difficult to date the reigns of these kings, but it likely occurred in

1365-573: The walls of the portico of Cave 4. To prevent further loss of the values of Indian classical art, most paintings were carefully removed in 1982 and today can be seen in the Gujari Mahal Archeological Museum , in Gwalior . A copperplate inscription of Maharaja Subandhu recording his donation for the repair of the vihara was found at the site of Cave 2. Although the date of the Bagh inscription

1404-605: The world, the Gommateshwara statue of Bahubali at Shravanabelagola in the Indian state of Karnataka , was carved in 983 CE from a single block of granite. Some rock-cut architecture is excavated entirely in chambers under the surface of relatively level rock. This is especially common in rock-cut tombs . Excavations instead made into the side of a cliff or steep slope can feature an impressive facade, as in Lycian tombs, Petra , and

1443-529: Was a medieval Agaw monarchy that ruled the northern parts of Ethiopia and Eritrea . The Agaw are a Cushitic ethnic group native to the northern highlands of Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea . It ruled large parts of the territory from approximately 1137 to 1270 AD, when the last Zagwe King Za-Ilmaknun was killed in battle by the forces of the Amhara King Yekuno Amlak . The Zagwe are most famous for their king Gebre Meskel Lalibela , who

1482-603: Was overthrown by Gudit , and that Mara Takla Haymanot (whom Bruce calls "Takla Haymanot") was a cousin of Gudit who succeeded her after several of her own family. Three inscriptions discovered in Axum mention the names of two kings, Dabra Ferem and his son Hasani Dan'el, who were Christian but are not recorded on Ethiopian regnal lists . The first inscription tells how Hasani Dan'el attacked rebel tribes in Kassala and claims that he conquered thirty peoples. The second inscription tells how

1521-616: Was recently discovered in the Monastery of Saint Anthony , dating to the mid-12th to mid-13th centuries. The earliest sources confirming an Ethiopian community in Jerusalem date to the second half of the 13th century. Yet it is still probable that Ethiopians had lived there before. In the late 12th century, King Lalibela's knowledge of the town was sufficient to have inspired him during the expansion of his capital, adopting Jerusalem's form, attributions and toponyms. According to Muslim tradition,

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