Debre Libanos

9°42′43″N 38°50′51″E / 9.71194°N 38.84750°E / 9.71194; 38.84750

Debre Libanos

The facade of church
Location within Ethiopia
Monastery information
Established	1284
Dedicated to	Life and death of Saint Tekle Haymanot
Diocese	North Shewa
People
Founder(s)	Tekle Haymanot
Important associated figures	Yekuno Amlak Yeshaq I Haile Selassie
Architecture
Style	Medieval Ethiopian architecture
Site
Location	North Shewa Zone, Oromia Region
Country	Ethiopia
Coordinates	9°42′43″N 38°50′50″E / 9.711890°N 38.847343°E / 9.711890; 38.847343
Public access	Yes

Debre Libanos (Amharic: ደብረ ሊባኖስ, Oromo: Dabra libanose) is an Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo monastery, lying northwest of Addis Ababa in the North Shewa Zone of the Oromia Region. It was founded in 1284 by Saint Tekle Haymanot as Debre Atsbo and was renamed as Debre Libanos in the 15th century. He meditated in a cave above the current monastery for 29 years. The monastery's chief abbot, called the Ichege, was the second most powerful official in the Ethiopian Church after the Abuna.

The monastery complex sits on a terrace between a cliff and the gorge of one of the tributaries of the Abbay River (the Blue Nile). None of the original buildings of Debre Libanos survive, although David Buxton suspected "there are interesting things still to be found among the neighbouring cliffs".^[1] Current buildings include the church over Tekle Haymanot's tomb, which Emperor Haile Selassie ordered constructed in 1961; a slightly older Church of the Cross, where Buxton was told a fragment of the True Cross is preserved; and five religious schools. The cave where the saint lived is in the nearby cliffs, which one travel guide describes as a five-minute walk away.^[2] This cave contains a spring, whose water is considered holy and is the object of pilgrimages.