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'Debre Damo' is the name of a mountain and a 6th century monastery in northern Ethiopia, lying west of Adigrat in the region of Tigray. The monastery is accessible only by rope up a sheer cliff. It is known for its collection of manuscripts, and having the earliest existing church in Ethiopia. Tradition claims the monastery was founded in the sixth century by Abuna Aregawi.
Thomas Pakenham, who visited the church in 1955, records a tradition that Dabra Damo had also once been a royal prison for heirs to the Emperor of Ethiopia, like the better known Wehni and Amba Geshen.^[1] The exterior walls of the church were built of alternating courses of limestone blocks and wood, "fitted with the projecting stumps that Ethiopians call 'monkey heads.'" Once inside, Pakenham was in awe of what he saw:

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References

1. Thomas Parkenham, ''The Mountains of Rasselas'' (New York: Reynal & Co., 1959), pp. 79-86