A priest stands on the edge of a cliff in front of the entrance to Ethiopian Orthodox rock-hewn church of Abuna Yemata Guh in the Gheralta Cluster in the Tigray mountains, on January 28, 2011, in Megab, Ethiopia. #

Orthodox Christians sit outside the famous monolithic rock-cut churches during a Good Friday celebration in Lalibela, in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia, on May 3, 2013. #

The Omo River flows through low lying hills near the Bele Bridge in Ethiopia, on May 18, 2010. The bridge is one of three places along the Omo River's 472 mile long length where a road reaches it. After rising in the Semien Hills of Northern Ethiopia the Omo ends its journey in Kenya's Lake Turkana, the world's largest desert lake. The Lower Omo Valley is home to many unique indigenous tribal peoples that practice flood retreat cultivation in addition to the raising of cattle and goats. #

Recently picked wild coffee is dried on a farm outside Bonga, Ethiopia, on December 4, 2012. The Kaffa region is known for its coffee production, wild coffee grown in high altitudes. This region is the original home of the coffee plant, coffee Arabica, which grows in the forest of the highlands. The red berries are the main source of income in the area. Local children and cattle also drink coffee. #

Bet Medhane Alem rock church is seen in Lalibela on April 23, 2011. According to legend, angels helped King Lalibela build this church and others like it in the 11th and 12th century after he received an order from God to create a new Jerusalem in Ethiopia. #

A camel caravan carrying salt mined by hand is led across a salt plain in the Danakil Depression on January 22, 2017 near Dallol, Ethiopia. The depression lies 100 meters below sea level and is one of the hottest and most inhospitable places on Earth. #

A salt miner works in the heat as he digs out salt blocks by hand in the Danakil Depression on January 22, 2017 in Dallol, Ethiopia. Despite the grueling conditions, Ethiopians continue a centuries old industry of mining salt from the ground by hand in temperatures that average 94 degrees F (34.5 C) but have risen to over 122 F (50 C). #

A smiling Ethiopian boy named Abushe with striking blue eyes, affected by Waardenburg syndrome (a genetic disorder that can affect pigmentation among other things), in Jinka, Ethiopia, on March 18, 2016. #

An Ethiopian Orthodox Christian pilgrim is pictured at a mass before the annual festival of Timkat in Lalibela, Ethiopia, on January 19, 2012. Timkat celebrates the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River. During Timkat, the Tabot, a model of the Ark of the Covenant is taken out of every Ethiopian church for 24 hours and paraded during a procession in towns across the country. #

A girl from the Suri tribe in Ethiopia's southern Omo Valley region near Kibbish on September 25, 2016. The Suri are a pastoralist Nilotic ethnic group in Ethiopia. The construction of the Gibe III dam, the third largest hydroelectric plant in Africa, and large areas of very "thirsty" cotton and sugar plantations and factories along the Omo river are impacting heavily on the lives of tribes living in the Omo Valley who depend on the river for their survival and way of life. Human rights groups fear for the future of the tribes if they are forced to scatter, give up traditional ways through loss of land or ability to keep cattle as globalization and development increases. #

Stewardesses stand in line during the inauguration of a new train line linking Addis Ababa to the Red Sea state of Djibouti, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on October 5, 2016. #

Men from the Suri tribe take part in a "Donga" or stick fight in Ethiopia's southern Omo Valley region near Kibbish on September 24, 2016. Traditionally the fight is a way to impress women and find a wife. The fights are brutal and sometimes result in deaths. The combatants fight with little or no clothing and sometimes no protection at all. #