The Zagwe period is one of the most obscure in Ethiopian history. Unlike their Aksumite predecessors, they did not mint coins, or produce inscriptions, and, living much further from the coast, made far less use of imported, datable, articles. Three members of the dynasty, Yemrahana Krestos, Lalibala, and Na'akweto La'ab, were, however, renowned as church-builders, and, paradoxically enough, canonised by the Ethiopian church.

King Lalibela’s life is enshrined in legend. It is traditionally claimed that he was surrounded, shortly after his birth, by a cloud of bees, whereupon his mother, seized by the spirit of prophecy, cried out, `The bees know that this child will become king!'. He was accordingly named Lalibala, which means, `The bees recognises his sovereignty'.

Lalibala, like some of his predecessors, had his capital at a place called Roha, where the land lent itself to the excavation of rock-hewn churches. The locality was renamed Al-Roha, the Arabic name for Edessa, the holy city of Syrian Christendom. There he reputedly built a group of rock-hewn churches, for which he was canonized. They were so remarkable that after his death the place was renamed Lalibala in his honor.

The rock churches of Lalibala are unique, not so much for their beauty and architectural distinction - remarkable as this is, but because they were located in close proximity to each other. Eleven churches are resituated in two clusters within little more than a stone's throw apart. The largest, noblest, and perhaps historically most interesting, of the Lalibala churches is the Beta Giyorgis church which was built in the form of a cross.