In the golden light of early morning, the spectacular Gheralta Mountains of Northern Ethiopia dwarf Tigray homesteads built on the Hawzien Plain hundreds of feet below. Flat-roofed stone houses, which are common throughout Tigray Province, may have been introduced into Ethiopia from Arabia as early as 700 BC. In the fastness of the Gheralta Mountains, thirty rock-hewn churches were built in early Christian times. In all, Tigray _ Ethiopia's northern-most region _ has more than 120 rock-hewn churches.