We
and Arabs are the master race, remember that. Always making ajanabis sweat for us even when we're dirt poor. As it should be.
But jokes aside, fellas, this smells of bullshit to me. More complicated and older or just a little newer hewn churches and structures have been found in Ethiopia. I've lost the sources but there was an example of one near central Ethiopia very similar to the largest of the Lalibela churches and it was quite big and well-done.
Also, these claims of "Syrian influences" in the architecture must be subtle and due to trade at best because anyone familiar with Aksumite architecture at even a rudimentary level can see from looking at the Lalibela churches that they're basically that. For example, look at the doors:
View attachment 319279
Do you know why squares jut out like that? They're imitating the fact that Aksumite architecture was often a mixture of stone and wood and those would be wooden support beams:
View attachment 319280
Also, hewn churches are nothing unique in Northern Ethiopia. They're everywhere. Hence those ruins I spoke of. Just look it up:
Rock-hewn churches of tigray
Some get pretty impressive. The Lalibela churches are just the ultimate form of the art and the best preserved. 'fraid this was definitely something overwhelmingly indigenous. Read up on Ehret's writings about Agaws, he notes how they seemed pretty obsessed with stone from very early on based on the archaeology of the region. This also points to Aksumite architecture. There's a pretty strong distinction between it and the early D'mt type architecture you see at
Yeha which to me just seems like it's been straight imported from ancient Yemen.
Aksumite architecture seems more indigenous and mishmash and due to the Agaws and probably predates the Southern Ethiosemitic influences based on what I remember various authors suggesting like Stuart Munro-Hay but of course in true cadaan fashion those chaps then claimed an even older strain of Semites must have been responsible

.