Exterior wall of Debre Berhan Selassie church. Along with about 11 castles and outbuildings, the seventeenth-century church of Debre Birhan Selassie is the only one that has survived the repeated destruction of Gondar at the hands of the Dervishes (Egyptian-Sudanese), the Italians and the British. His main interest is not so much the building itself but the magnificent paintings that are in it, both on the walls and the ceiling. Especially the latter, decorated with paintings of 80 cherubim faces looking in all directions, is surely one of the most typical of Ethiopia and reproduced on postcards and souvenirs.