Hawzen (woreda)

Hawzen is one of the woredas in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Misraqawi Zone, Hawzen is bordered on the south by Kilte Awulaelo, on the west by the Mehakelegnaw (Central) Zone, on the north by Ganta Afeshum, and on the east by Saesi Tsaedaemba. Towns in Hawzen include Hawzen and Megab; villages include Koraro.

The western portion of the woreda covers a region known as Gar'alta (Gere-alta). Gere-alta has always been an integral part of the former Enderta province, when Enderta was an independent province as well as when it was an awraja. During the imperial times (until 1975), the Gere-alta woreda consisted of the western parts of the current Hawzen and Kilte Awulaelo districts. The capital of the Gere-alta district was located at the town of Tsigereda, nowadays located in the western part of the Kilte Awulaelo district (south of the Hawzen district).

As described by Philip Briggs, the Gar'alta is "a fantastic spaghetti-western landscape of flat dry plains and towering rock outcrops" best known for its "35-odd rock-hewn churches, the largest concentration anywhere in Ethiopia."

There are several monolithic churches in the woreda, including: Hawzen Tekle Haymanot (near Hawzen town); Abuna Yemata Guh and Debre Maryam Qorqor (near Megab); and Dugem Selassie, Abuna Abraham Debre Tsion and Yohannes Maikudi (near the village of Dugem). Abuna Yemata Guh is also notable for its wall and dome paintings that David Buxton has dated to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries "before the massive impact of external influences that occurred in the seventeenth century." One of the dome paintings represent nine of the Apostles, and the other eight of the Nine Saints, one of whom, Abuna Yem'ata, tradition credits founding the church.

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