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Deir es-Sultan is an Ethiopian Orthodox monastery on the rooftop of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, where African monks have kept an unbroken presence for centuries.
It sits in one of the most remarkable places in all of Jerusalem, on the rooftop of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre itself, above the Chapel of Saint Helena. Here a community of Ethiopian Orthodox monks has lived for centuries, in a cluster of small cells around a quiet courtyard, directly over the holiest church in the Christian world.
The name means the Monastery of the Sultan. Ethiopian tradition traces the bond between Ethiopia and Jerusalem back to the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon, a bond the community has carried through every century since. Their presence at the Holy Sepulchre is recorded across the medieval and Ottoman periods, through times of favor and times of great hardship.
It is where their own community has prayed without pause for longer than most nations have existed, making a visit a homecoming rather than a sightseeing stop.
For Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Christians, and for many across the African diaspora, no place carries more meaning. To stand at Deir es-Sultan is to stand where your own community has prayed without pause for centuries. "Ethiopia will stretch out her hands to God." (Psalm 68:31) For pilgrims who have carried that verse their whole lives, the rooftop is where it becomes real.
During Holy Week the rooftop becomes the center of the Ethiopian observance. The Good Friday procession makes its way here, and on the eve of the Resurrection the courtyard fills with candlelight for the Easter vigil, the ancient words sung in Ge'ez under the open Jerusalem sky. For pilgrims on the Ethiopian Orthodox Easter journey, these ceremonies are the heart of the whole pilgrimage.
On the rooftop of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, above the Chapel of Saint Helena, in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.
Yes. It is reached through a passage from the Ethiopian community's quarters onto the rooftop courtyard. The space is contemplative, so a quiet and respectful presence matters, and modest dress is required.
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