The rock hewn churches of Lalibela are among the nine tangible sites in Ethiopia registered inrnthe world heritage list. The study was carried out to asses and identifies the major contributionsrnof Lalibela Rock Hewn Churches (RHCL) to sustainable tourism development in Ethiopia. Thernstudy used concurrent mixed method of data collection such as questionnaire, interview,rnobservation and document review. A total of 288 respondents from local communities and visitorsrnwere used for collecting primary information via semi-structured questioner. In addition, 10rnrepresentatives of local communities were interviewed in the course of the study. The life of localrncommunity in Lalibela is related to the churches: physically the peoples live around them,rneconomically the churches are the main sources of income, and spiritually the peoples belong tornthe Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. The majority of respondents are participating inrntourism sector such as in accommodation, shopping, hotel, cooking and traditional performance,rnserving as priest and being experts in the city administration office of culture and tourism.rnDespite its importance, regarding the negative impact of tourism; the majority of respondents 70rn(63.6%) agreed and 27 (24.3%) disagree for the question â€œtourism has increased the level ofrncommercialized the culture in Lalibela town. Around 87.6% of the respondents were their firstrntrip to visit the RHCL. The majority of the respondents 57 (32%) came to Lalibela mainly to visitrnthe rock-hewn churches after they got information from their friends and colleagues. The majorityrnof visitors 103 (58%) estimated that the state of degradation of the RHCL within the next tenrnyears might be between 41-70%. Hence, among the RHCL Bete Amanuel, Bete Abba Libanos,rnBete Medhanealem, Bete Merkorios, Bete Giorgis are highly endangered in the parts such asrnroof, pillars, interior and exterior parts cracking due to the newly constructed shelter load andrngeological, climate and biological factors. The conservation and maintenance works used tornsustain tourism practices in Lalibela lacks adequacy. Therefore, the responsible parties of thernRHCL such as government organizations, local community, civil societies and developmentrninvestors must work to meet standards for conserving and sustaining tourism developmentrnpractices in Ethiopia, particularly in Lalibela.