Recent tests confirm what the monks have held all along - a brightly illustrated book written on goatskin are some of the oldest Christian writings in existence. The Garima Gospels, possibly dating as far back as 330 AD, are kept under lock and key in a blue, circular monastery in the center of an Ethiopian monastery for the best part of the last 1600 years. The monks believe the books also hold magical properties.
The isolated Abuna Garima monastery clings to a mountainside 2130m above sea level and is located in Ethiopia's Tigray Highlands. The monks there have guarded the sacred book from centuries of various threats. Now, a restoration funded by the Ethiopian Heritage Fund has now been completed. Bookbinder, Lester Capon, spent three laborious weeks redoing and restoring bindings that held the pages together. New carbon testing has provided a scientific confirmation to what the monks have always insisted as to the age of the Garima Gospels.
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