Three of the oldest and most important are Debre Bizen (near Nefasit), Hamm (near Senafe) and Debre Sina (near Keren). High upon a mountaintop, hundreds of meters above the road, just 25 kilometers from Asmera, its rough-hewn stonewalls mounded into the sheer drop of the cliff, stands a 600 year old monastery, Debre Bizen. Just beyond the outskirts of Asmera, the smooth plateau, on which the city is built, crumples into dramatic folds of steep valleys and towering mountains. It is on the very summit of one of these mountains that for 600 years Debre Bizen has stood, hundreds of meters abouve the road, molded into the very face of a sheer cliff. The ammosphere of the settlement, surrounded by a groove of rare indigenous trees, is pious and medieval, otherworldly and even magical.

Just beyond the outskirts of Asmera, the smooth plateau, on which the city is built, crumples into dramatic folds of steep valleys and towering mountains. It is on the very summit of one of these mountains that for 600 years Debre Bizen has stood, hundreds of meters above the road, molded into the very face of a sheer cliff. The ammosphere of the settlement, surrounded by a groove of rare indigenous trees, is pious and medievvl, otherworldly and even magical.

The spot commands magnificent views of the surrounding hills and all the way down to the line of the Red Sea coast, 2, 400 meters below. At night the lights of Massawa sparkle in the distance. In the day the air is cool, there are birds signing and green grass grows between the monastery buildings. At dawn a carpet of glistening white cloud often hides the earth below where the village of Nefasit with its yellow and green-domed mosque and a coptic church nestles at the base of the mountain. The monastery of DEBRE BIZEN, the most prominent beacon and symbol of Christianity in Eritrea, perches high above the village mysteriously wrapped in thick cloud. Legend and history enhaces its sense of mystery and magic. For centuries it has survived as a center of Chiristian prayer and a learning in spite of invading armies and religious conflicts.

[FOTO]Abune Filipos, a pupil of Abune Tatyos, founded the present monastery in the early 14th century although a center existed on the site even before Filipos´ birth. Many legends surround the founding monk, who was considered so holy that his shadow allegedly cured three cripples.

His teacher, Tatyos, is also the subject of legend. During his evangelical journey eastwards, he asked a captain to take him across the Red Sea. The captain asked for money, but Tatyos had none. The story continues how Tatyos therefore resorted to sitting on his cloak, which bore him up like a magic carpet and flew him across the seas and deserts to Armenia.

He supposedly launched hmself from a rocky ledge, north of the monastery, called Iney Kbetsni, "Goodbye My Mother". It is claimed that the gnarled tree which stands on the wind-blown rock today is the one which bowed down to the pious monk as he prepared to launch himself into the skies. Behind the outcrop, Iney Kbetsni is a tomb dedicated to Abune Yohannes, an abbot of the monastery who lived five hundred years ago. Iney Kbetsni was and maybe is still manliness evidence. Every now and then men tried to climb on the tree which hungs in a very dangeraous cliff and wanted to be fotographed as a proof and want to show off that they are courageous and brave. They used to say if one loses balance on the tree and falls down the gorilas down there will be happy for having a lunch/dinner.

The compound of the church is planted with an African species of olive, which looks similar to the European and Middle Eastern kind cultivated for oil, butis quite wild. There is also a church with a bell tower, a solid, square-looking mansion for the patriarch, a pilgrims´ guesthouse with arched doors, monk´s cells, kitchen houses and a brewery.

To the east of that is a modern church and next to this is the house of some 1,000 ancient manuscrips for which Debre Bizen is justifiably famous. Several dozen fine illuminated parchments bound in thick leather, cloth and even wood, are stacked in this archive. In the archive open to visitors there is the most extraordinary bible allegedly dating from 14th century, the period of Abune Filipos´ lifetime.

Another exquisite manuscript is the lost biblical Book of Enoch, and a third the story of Abune Libanos, a great chuchman who traveld from Lebanon and found the monastery of Debre Libanos in Eritrea´s southern highlands.

The manuscripts are examples of the finest medieval workmanship, meticulously written in the liturgical languageof Ge´ez in red or black inks with elaborate illuminations. A bell is rung whenever a manuscript is removed from the library, which is rare because the monks tend to read on the spot.

To reach the monastery you must make an energetic climb up a steep mountain slope. As you climb higher up the stark, eerie cliffs, you feel that the Holy Grail of an Arthurian romance, the Ark of the Convenant or some revelation must exist for the weary pilgrim at the end of this road.

In contrast it is sobering to see groups of little children sprint up the path and totter down under large loads of cactus fruit.

Along the steep path a large cross marks the point at which women stop and proceed no furhter. At Debre Bizen, the rule is taken to extraordinary lenghts. Not even female animals are allowed near, meaning only mules and male donkeys are used as pack animals. Abune Filipos supposedly declared he would rahter stare into the face one of the lions - which at that time inhabited the wild mountain - than look into the eyes of a woman.             A Legend says that an Amrican woman dressed as a man (for sure in jeans, striped shirt, snickers and a base ball cap) tried to cross the line and was blown up by the wind and no one knows her whereabouts.

The monks, who today number more than 100, live in an egalitarian society, wearing the same clothes and eating the same food whatever their rank. They also offer a charitable refuge for handicapped, old and destitue men. The monks survive on rainwater collected off the guttering of the roofs, and use solar power cells to generate electricity to run their bulbs. The blackened interior of their kitchen is an impressive place, containing vast cooper pots, which are large enough to cook three cattle at once. And indeed a huge amount of cooking is done during teh festivals at the monastery, when thousands of male pilgrims make their way up the mountain. A sorghum beer called Swa is also brewed for these occasion in a stone congress hall next to the kitchens. In another neighboring hall is a large timber beam used as stocksfro punishing wrongdoers in the monastery.

Pilgrims and visitors are housed in a guesthouse with arched doors. Outside is a trough carved out of huge stone, which the monks claim, was carried on the back of one of Filipos´s pupils. Today it is used for bread making.

Practical reality combined with piety, myth and mytery make Debre Bizen a unique religious retreat. And as one gazes across the crumpled folds of craggy mountains from the outskirts of Asmera to the remote mountain monastery, it is not difficult to believe that it will continue to survive unscathed for many more centuries.