The rock hewn churches of Tigrai which were long known only to the locals were first exposed to the world by an Ethiopian catholic missionary by the name of Abba Tewledmedihin Yosef at the beginning of the 1960s.
He identified about 120 rock hewn churches only in the vicinity of Tigrai, the largest of which are concentrated in central and Eastern Tigrai. Accordingly the church are classified in to four 1, Atsbi Group 2, the Hawzen kaleb Era-Garalta 3, sinkata Adigrate group 4, Tanbien Emperor Dawit group 1388-1411 Tigrai rock hewn churches are clustered in some specific area because the type of the rock in to which the rock hewn churches are carved. We find the rock hewn churches where there is sandstone although the converse is not necessarily true.
The Tigrai region is characterized by rock assemblages that cover a wide geological time Spain.The southern part is represented by Cenozoic volcanic rocks, the central and part of eastern Tigrai is represented by Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary successions (the Edaga Arbi Glacials, the Enticho sandstone the Adigrat sandstone and younger successions of the Mekele outlier). The northern and northwestern parts which extend to Eritrea are dominantly characterized by steeply dipping and extensively folded, rather low grade metamorphic rocks. All groups of rock hewn churches are clusted and carved from Enticho or Adigrat sandstones exposed by faulting or erosion. All the evidences indicate that the locations of the rock-hewn churches are far from arbitrary. They are rather systematic and governed by one important factor the rock type i.e. they are all carued in to the sandstone.
